Former South Carolina security guard and 8-year NFL veteran DJ Swearinger is in Colombia and trained with former teammates and current members of the Gamecock football team Shaq Wilson and Byron Jerideau.
On Thursday, the football program’s Twitter account posted a short clip of the three former defenders in the weight room of the Ken and Cyndi Long Family Football Operations Center.
Once Gamecock, ALWAYS Gamecock! #ForeverToThee https://t.co/0UNbuAcd5f pic.twitter.com/ZmBS8mPluH
– Gamecock Football (@GamecockFB) March 4, 2021
A choice for the second round of the 2013 NFL draft, Swearinger has played 110 games in the past eight years. He has 425 tackles, 13 loss tackles, 14 interceptions, nine forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries and 43 defended passes. Having played for the Texans, Cardinals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Washington Redskins, Saints and Raiders, he has won over $ 17 million on the football field. He played in eight games with the Saints in 2020. A class of 2009 in perspective of three stars from Greenwood, SC (Greenwood), played in South Carolina from 2009-12. He played in 52 of 53 games over four seasons, making 33 games. He recorded 244 tackles with six interceptions.
Wilson is serving as a defense analyst on coach Shane Beamer’s team. Wilson came to South Carolina in 2008 as a linebacker at First Coast High School in Jacksonville, Florida. Winner of the cards for four years (2008-09, 2011-12), Wilson led the Gamecocks in tackles in 2009 and again in 2012. He served as a team captain in his senior season. Wilson graduated from African American studies in 2012.
Wilson will start his 11th season with the Gamecocks football program, the first since the 2017 season. Before leaving for the Tennessee football program, where he spent the last three years on the power team, Wilson held positions off the field for five seasons with the Gamecocks. Following his playing career, he worked as a graduate assistant in 2013 before taking up a full-time role as a quality control coordinator for the defense in 2014. He subsequently held the titles of assistant director of recruitment (2016) , later as assistant personnel director for football players (2017).
Jerideau began his university career at Fort Scott (Kan.) Community College, where he helped lead the Greyhounds to an 11-1 record and a national championship. He then moved to South Carolina, where he was a card winner for three years in 2010-12, playing on the defensive while graduating in criminal justice. He appeared in the 2013 NFLPA Collegiate Bowl and played for the NFL’s San Diego Chargers in 2013. Jerideau is still considered pound for pound the strongest player in Gamecock history with a 500 pound bank, 670 pound squad and a 365 pound powerhouse to his credit.
Jerideau returns to his alma mater after a three-year stint in Tennessee, where he served as assistant director of sports performance for the volunteer football program. Prior to his arrival in Knoxville, Jerideau spent two seasons working in the weight room in South Carolina. He also helped recruit and worked with the Gamecocks defensive line.