As South Carolina’s offense climbs, transfers are leading the way for Gamecocks

Nate Adkins hasn’t had many moments like Saturday.

He spent the first four years of his career at East Tennessee State. There were just over 8,400 fans in the stands during his last home game in Johnson City.

This week? Try making a one-handed, Odell Beckham Jr.-esque grab in a road environment with 10 times that many people breathing down your neck.

“I didn’t even know I could do that, to be honest with you,” Adkins quipped following South Carolina’s 31-30 upset of No. 8 Clemson. “I just did it. I used to do that stuff in the backyard when we were younger, but I’ve never done it with pads in a game like this.”

Adkins, quarterback Spencer Rattler and receiver Antwane “Juice” Wells are just three of the nine players head coach Shane Beamer’s staff brought to Columbia and the Gamecocks roster via the transfer portal last offseason.

And while Saturday was just one game, it was a look at why, after almost two years at the helm, Beamer has a strong case as being one of the most efficient users of the transfer portal in college football.

“I think that’s a challenge that every coach in the country is dealing with right now with the transfer portal, is bringing new guys into the program, acclimating them to your program as quick as possible,” he said during Southerastern Conference Media Days in July.

Rattler was, and remains, the headliner for most any conversation surrounding South Carolina football at present. He was a five-star recruit, a ballyhooed potential Heisman front-runner who was eventually run out of town at Oklahoma.

This year has ebbed and flowed for the Arizona native. He’s had moments of greatness, marred with inconsistencies and struggles. But the last two weeks have offered looks at the Rattler most expected to see when he committed to South Carolina in December.

In wins over No. 5 Tennessee and No. 8 Clemson, Rattler has completed 54 of 75 passes (72%) for 792 yards, eight touchdowns and just two interceptions. Those efforts also mark two of his three most prolific passing days as a Gamecock.

“All these Clemson fans were talking mess behind our bench,” Rattler said postgame on Saturday. “They didn’t say anything after.”

Then, there’s Wells.

A James Madison transfer, the Virginia product had considerably less hype outside the building than Rattler and his OU running mate Austin Stogner. Those inside the building, though, talked all spring about how good he might end up being come fall.

That’s come to fruition.

Wells turned in his second consecutive 100-yard game in as many weeks on Saturday. It also marked the third time in the last four games he’s gone over the century mark.

The one-time JMU star gave Clemson’s secondary all kinds of fits en route to a nine-catch. 131-yard, two touchdown performance in South Carolina’s first win over its archrival in eight years.

“I always knew I was capable of doing things like this, man,” Wells said after the Clemson win. “I was always confident. I always knew I was different. I’m just happy God is blessing me to do the things that I’m doing now. I’m so blessed.”

Under new NCAA guidance, the transfer portal will be broken up into windows in which players can enter the portal and leave their current schools in hopes of bringing some organization that has come with the chaos of allowing players one transfer without penalty.

The first of those windows opens on Dec. 5 — what will be nine days after the Gamecocks beat the Tigers.

In Beamer’s two years as coach, South Carolina has brought in 20 scholarship transfers, or an average of 10 per class. The Gamecocks currently have 20 high school or junior college players committed in their 2023 recruiting class — a group ranked No. 15 nationally and No. 6 in the Southeastern Conference by 247Sports — though that stands to grow.

Not every transfer the Gamecocks have brought in over the last two years has been a major contributor, but notching back-to-back wins over Top 10 teams for the first time in school history has come with big contributions from players who started at other schools.

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin has been dubbed the “Portal King” in recent months for his work bringing transfers to Oxford. After the last two weeks — and with what’s to come in the next 10 days — Beamer may well be ready to challenge for the crown.