South Carolina football will not have an initial 6th DB in 2021.
Earlier this afternoon, Gamecocks learned that starting safety Jammie Robinson intends to enter the transfer portal and break ties with the program. Robinson was the fifth secondary member of South Carolina to choose to leave or attack the portal, leaving the back room of the defense extremely narrow.
Well, a few hours later, the team found that that number is growing to six. Wednesday night, cornerback John Dixon announced that he also plans to leave the university. Dixon, who started the season as a reserve, was pushed into the squad after the retirement of holders Israel Mukuamu and Jaycee Horn.
He appeared in 10 games over the year, making 34 tackles and breaking five passes. He also recovered from a disaster and made a handful of starts.
With the departure, it looks like South Carolina’s secondary will look completely different in 2021 than it did the year before. The top six players are leaving the program, leaving only Jaylin Dickerson, Cam Smith and Jaylan Foster as defenders with any significant game action.
An already small group was forced to move the running back ZaQuandre White to safety in the middle of the season, and now it looks like he needs to stay there. At the moment, Gamecocks barely have enough members to fill high school.
Freshmen Joey Hunter, O’Donnell Fortune and Dominick Hill will all have great confidence in 2021, and new coach Shane Beamer will have a hard time finding substitutes on the recruiting trail.
In this case, the poor become poorer and it is becoming evident that this reconstruction may take longer than anticipated.