Brandon Shell put off NFL, faced new challenge in final USC season

Brandon Shell faced a stark choice.

It was early October, and the South Carolina football team had just come off a listless offensive performance against Missouri. Shell played his part in it, not pushing people around or asserting his will as someone with a 6-foot-6, 328-pound, body built to play NFL offensive tackle should.

He knew he wasn’t playing at the level he wanted. His coaches did as well. Interim head coach Shawn Elliott, then USC’s offensive line coach, pulled Shell aside to deliver an ultimatum.

“I told him, ‘Listen you have to make one of two decisions,’ ” Elliott said. “ ‘You can run this thing out, and who knows what might happen, or you can make a commitment and get (yourself) better. Prove to these players how dominating you can be as an offensive tackle.’ ”

Getting challenged, Shell took it to heart.

“I was kind of hard on myself,” Shell said. “I think I could have done better. I just thought, I’ve got to be more physical from here on out, and that’s what I was trying to do.”

It’s a peculiar spot for a fifth-year senior. He came to Columbia as a highly-decorated prospect and will likely leave as an NFL draft pick. He’s started 44 games in a row, earned a degree in 3 1/2 years and was a key cog in two of the best teams in program history. But as he nears the end, there was still a moment to recalibrate.

In some ways, mauling folks in the run game stands at odds with the personality he has off the field.

“In 40 years of coaching, I don’t know that I’ve ever had a nicer kid, a young man,” said Chuck Reedy, Shell’s high school coach at Goose Creek. “He’s just a nice person and has always been that way from the first time I met him.”

The coach, a member of Clemson’s national title-winning staff in 1980, recalled Shell’s low-key approach left him less than enamored with the recruiting process. He didn’t care for visits and didn’t soak in the attention. He went to a South Carolina game as a high school freshman and was hooked.

Alabama was after Shell until the end, with coach Nick Saban flying out late, often a deal-sealer for top-rated prospects. Reedy simply warned the Tide staff, “I think you’re wasting your time.”

Shell started his career slower than some top-100 prospects by redshirting. He had a nagging shoulder injury and was a bit behind in strength training after focusing on basketball and keeping academics in order at the end of his last year in high school.

At USC, he spent three years at right tackle before transitioning to the left side this season. Shell said it took a while to get used to, and Reedy praised Shell’s improvement in footwork and pass blocking. (In two years at Goose Creek after transferring from West Ashley, Shell was in as straight-ahead, power-running of an offense as one could find.)

Still, his next-level future rests as a powerful right tackle, and he’s got the lineage with his great uncle, Art Shell, being one of the best road graders in professional football history. During his recruitment, Brandon Shell played down talk of his familial link to the Hall of Fame Oakland Raiders tackle at spots, but Reedy said Art Shell played a role.

Reedy remembers Art Shell, who lives in Atlanta, coming to some Goose Creek practices and scrimmages, watching from afar. He said Brandon Shell uses his great uncle for guidance.

Last winter, Shell was considered a possible mid-round NFL Draft choice, possibly in the third- or fourth-round range. He’d already earned a degree, twice being named to the SEC academic honor roll, so turning pro was always a possibility.

Elliott says he doesn’t fear losing players early, but he didn’t have to waste much attention on a contingency plan.

“I remember him looking me in the eye and going, ‘Yeah, I’m not going anywhere coach,’ ” Elliott said. “So I really didn’t have to sit and think and wonder about it all that much.”

Shell’s reasoning echoes Elliott’s message after the Missouri game. The tackle hasn’t even poked around, hasn’t asked former teammates such as guard A.J. Cann, now getting time with Jacksonville, about the NFL life. He had one last college opportunity stretched out before him and was not going to let it pass.

“I already knew I was going to come back,” Shell said. “Just being around the team, being around the fellas, you’ve got to take every opportunity you get. I didn’t want to leave anything out on the table.”

This story was originally published November 5, 2015 at 11:50 AM with the headline "Brandon Shell put off NFL, faced new challenge in final USC season."