South Carolina Gamecocks Clear Offseason Goal – Reload the Trenches

South Carolina’s football program is coming off a successful season. They finished the regular season with a 9-3 record and were a fringe playoff contender. A lot of their success was rooted in quarterback LaNorris Sellers and the turnaround they made on the defensive side of the ball.

Now, as they head into the 2025 college football season, it is very clear that the Gamecocks had a main goal in mind this offseason. Reload the trenches.

The Gamecocks lost multiple defensive linemen to the NFL draft this year. TJ Sanders, Tonka Hemingway, Kyle Kennard and DeAndre Jules all made the leap to the professional football league. It left a void on the Gamecocks’ defense and they have addressed that in the portal this year.

So far, South Carolina has gained commitments from six defensive linemen out of the transfer portal. Most recently, Troy Pikes out of Georgia Southern. South Carolina still has two more years of Dylan Stewart, their star EDGE rusher, and it looks like they want to make the most of that.

Other names that South Carolina has taken out of the portal are EDGE George Wilson from Campbell, EDGE Demon Clowney from Louisville, lineman Davonte Miles from Bowling Green, lineman Jaylen Brown from Missouri and lineman Gabriel Brownlow-Dindy from Texas A&M.

South Carolina also signed JUCO star Zavion Hardy this past cycle from East Mississippi Community College.

The Gamecocks have made it very evident that they wanted to stock back up on solid bodies at the defensive line, and they have taken multiple stabs in the transfer portal to make sure there is no drop off this next season.

Jonathan Williams is a multimedia sports journalist who graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in Journalism. He has multiple years of experience in covering college football for a