South Carolina football won a double QB / WR on Tuesday.
There were rumors in early January that the Gamecocks had offered and were in the process of getting teammates EJ Jenkins and Jason Brown admitted to the university. On Tuesday, news broke that the quarterback-wide receiver pair is officially becoming part of the 2021 football team.
Brown and Jenkins, who have known each other since high school, were teammates at Chancellor High, Virginia, before going to play at Saint Francis College (PA). Saint Francis is a program of the FCS of the Northeast Conference.
Neither was highly rated out of the ranks of high school, although each had a division by interest at one point or another. Jenkins, a wide receiver / tight end hybrid, was offered by Old Dominion, while quarterback Brown visited Charlotte and Virginia Tech.
Both ended up at Saint Francis, however, wanting another chance to play together. And they have been able to do this at a high level.
Last season, Brown led the NEC in passes, throwing 3,084 yards and 28 touchdowns. The talented signal caller launched only six interceptions on completing 62% of his attempts.
Jenkins, 1.80 m tall, reached a record 13 touchdowns in 2019, registering 39 receptions in 779 yards. Both players received honors from all conferences, with Brown being elected an honorable mention as All-American.
Saint Francis postponed the 2020 football season to spring 2021, like many other FCS programs, but at the beginning of the new year, the school decided to cancel the season altogether. When this news was announced, Brown and Jenkins looked for other opportunities.
South Carolina was one of the first programs to get in touch, and now they will reap the benefits of having a passerby together with almost a decade of chemistry.
Brown joins a quarterback room that has only two games of initial experience. He immediately becomes the most experienced passerby in the room, which also includes Luke Doty and freshman Colten Gauthier. Former starters Collin Hill and Ryan Hilinski headed for new destinations in the 2021 season.
Brown must push Doty to the starting point, while being able to teach the young man along the way.
Jenkins arrives in another position of need for Gamecocks and brings some versatility to the wide receiver room. Leading pass catcher Shi Smith is out of the NFL, and no other player outside the team recorded more than 115 receiving yards in 2020.
Jenkins becomes the tallest and most productive player on the receiving team and, with his size and speed, could end up being used in the same way that the first round designed Kyle Pitts was used in the Florida attack a season ago.
With the additions, Gamecocks have now added seven transfers during the off-season. Brown and Jenkins join Ahmarean Brown (Georgia Tech), linebackers Debo Williams (Delaware) and Jordan Strachan (Georgia), striker Keem Green (Nebraska) and cornerback David Spaulding (Georgia Southern).