COLOMBIA – He did not apologize because he thought there was no reason to apologize. RJ Roderick did what he felt he needed to do at the time.
The South Carolina defender admitted he could have handled the situation better, but he also said there was a lot more going on than the simple prospect of leaving the team last season. He also made it clear that he was extremely grateful and happy to be back.
“One thing I learned about myself is that I can’t go without football, no matter what,” said Roderick, a Summerville native who is preparing for his fourth season as a member of the USC secondary. it really should have ended, I could have finished and just put aside the things I was dealing with. This is something that I will have to live with from now on.
“I learned to be more committed, to go harder. I go harder in everything I do because I know that anything can be taken away. I walked away from the game opting out, but it can literally be withdrawn at any time. “
Slings and arrows were numerous. After Will Muschamp was fired on November 15, with three games left for the 2020 season, cornerback Jaycee Horn chose not to start his preparation for the NFL Draft a day later. On November 17, full-back Israel Mukuamu, striker Makius Scott and Roderick also chose to leave.
Many felt that “giving up” was another term for “giving up”. As accepted as it was in the year of COVID-19, and Gamecocks had two players dropping out before the start of the season, it seemed to be totally different in the middle of the season.
It didn’t matter that Mukuamu was dealing with a groin injury and couldn’t have played it anyway, something he didn’t clarify. It didn’t matter that they were part of a team that heard every day about loyalty and altruism, and then watched their coach get fired before the end of the season.
RJ Roderick was a star quarterback at Cane Bay High School when he signed with South Carolina on November 29, 2017. Archive / Team
Furthermore, no matter how much money they bring to school and entertainment to hundreds of thousands of fans, they are still college students and are subject to occasional errors of judgment. In other words, decisions that sometimes seem bad only with the benefit of a retrospective.
Roderick said he was playing with a hip pointer that has bothered him all season and that continues to bother him during the early days of spring practice. It was also a struggle to play football and keep your grades where they should be.
Then the two men who were closest to him throughout his college career, Muschamp and defensive coordinator Travaris Robinson, left (Robinson was not officially fired until December 6, when Shane Beamer was announced).
With all this in mind, and seeing his friends and secondary schoolmates do what was best for them, Roderick decided he would do the same.
“I have simply dealt with a lot, as far as opt out, academically, when it comes to health, dealing with injuries, playing with injuries,” said Roderick. “When T-Rob and Muschamp came out, it was kind of difficult. So, I just felt that this was the best decision to make at the time ”.
He could rest his hips, study, heal. However, while doing this, he found out how much he missed the game. Even as others followed Horn, Mukuamu and Scott out the door to the NFL or transfer portal, Roderick wanted to be back on the field, and specifically back to the Williams-Brice Stadium.
Beamer got the job and already knew Roderick from the recruitment cycle. It didn’t take long for the new coach to get in touch.
“I didn’t get to the point where I didn’t feel like I wasn’t going to play football anymore, but I just had a gray area with regards to where my future was,” said Roderick. “With the arrival of Coach Beamer, I already had a relationship with him, a relationship with him at school. He kind of sat me down, sat my mom down and expressed that he wanted me to be here and I wanted to be here, so let’s continue from now on. “
A clean slate. No harm, no fault. Roderick is not calling his future season a redemption tour, but it is clear that he wants to make amends.
Not for those who tore it up. For the one who matters.
“I don’t necessarily feel that I have to prove anything to anyone but myself, just because I put that target on my back as I give up, I made that decision for myself and I have to work to recover from that too,” Roderick said. “It was depressing not to be able to play football. I am grateful to be here, that spring has started and I am simply loving everything. “
Follow David Cloninger on Twitter @DCPandC.