SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL
With the Gamecock season over, it's time for players to begin evaluating their futures and seniors to begin preparing for the NFL Draft, and a lot of those guys will have a chance to show out for scouts over the next month or so.
As of Dec. 10, the Gamecocks seven seniors already slated to play in postseason senior bowls and get another chance to impress scouts before the draft.
Right now they have four players committed to play in the most prestigious of those games, the Reese's Senior Bowl, most recently Joseph Charlton, who accepted his invitation Monday afternoon.
He'll join Javon Kinlaw, D.J. Wonnum and Bryan Edwards in the annual game as well.
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All four were some of the most productive players over the course of Will Muschamp's tenure with Charlton and Edwards setting multiple school records while Kinlaw is expected to be a first-round pick in the NFL Draft. Wonnum finished his senior season 37 tackles and finished second on the team with 9.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks.
The four South Carolina representatives are tied for the most from any school so far at the Senior Bowl. Utah leads that with six players committed to playing with four schools tied at four: South Carolina, Michigan, Notre Dame and Florida.
The Gamecocks will have plenty of running backs represented in the East-West Shrine Bowl in St. Petersburg, Fla. with both Rico Dowdle and Tavien Feaster.
Dowdle was hampered with injuries for the bulk of his career, including his senior season, putting up 498 yards and four touchdowns his final year while averaging 4.7 yards per carry.
Feaster, who transferred in from Clemson before the start of the season, had his most productive season of his career in Columbia. He finished with career-highs in carries (124) and yards (672), averaging 5.4 yards per carry and five touchdowns.
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TJ Brunson will also play in the NFL Players Association Collegiate Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. currently as South Carolina's only representative in that bowl.
The three-year starter capped his senior year with 77 tackles, six or loss, and an interception in his move back to outside linebacker and ends his South Carolina career with 283 tackles, 21 for loss, six sacks and four fumble recoveries.
Both the East-West Shrine and NFLPA Collegiate bowls are Jan. 18—the East-West game is at 3 p.m. ET—while the Reese's Senior Bowl is the following weekend, Jan. 25 at 2:30 p.m. ET in Mobile, Ala.
The Gamecocks should also have a few guys who will participate in the NFL Combine, which is from Feb. 23-March 2, before the NFL Draft starting April 23.
The biggest thing about these games are the practices with players spending the week getting to showcase what they can do against other NFL-type of competition.
The Gamecocks have a few seniors who haven't publicly accepted invites yet with most notably Chavis Dawkins, Donell Stanley, Kobe Smith, AJ Turner, J.T. Ibe, Mon Denson and Danny Fennell not currently on rosters, although that could change.
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Both Keir Thomas and Kyle Markway could opt to go pro as well. Markway has one more year of eligibility along with Thomas, who redshirted this year after an infection in his ankle sidelined him the majority of the season.
They already have two big pieces on the offense coming back with Sadarius Hutcherson and Shi Smith announcing they'll be returning for their final seasons in Columbia.
