USC’s Jacob August the ‘brains of our operation’ at tight end

When South Carolina tight end K.C. Crosby needs guidance getting to the spot he’s supposed to be on a given play, he turns to Jacob August.

The Gamecocks’ other tight ends trust how organized August is and how he’s on top of the offense, and it’s earned him a nickname.

“We call him the brains of our operation in the tight end room because he knows everything,” Crosby said. “He knows every call, and he makes sure he lines all of us up if we’re lacking. If we’re both in the game at the same time and he knows and we don’t know, he’s that guy to tell you, ‘Hey, get over here, you line up here, you line up there.’ ”

The redshirt sophomore has seen his role grow and blossom in the first two games of this season. A No. 2 or 3 tight end in an offense that played them sparingly in 2015, he’s been splitting the second-string role with Crosby. The offense has turned to playing a second tight end nearly all the time.

He said he was confident he’d be playing, splitting time at least. He took advantage of a minor preseason injury to Crosby, and with the Gamecocks’ struggle at No. 3 receiver, his role looks secure for the short term.

And he’s come a long way from little Cardinal Newman and SCISA, the private high school league where Division I prospects are not the norm.

“It’s a great honor to be from SCISA because I am one of the few guys to make it out,” August said. “I’m just proud.”

He went to Fork Union (Va.) Military College out of high school, turning down offers to walk-on as a punter at USC and Georgia. He committed to Penn State as a preferred walk-on with a promise to go on scholarship after one year, but that situation grew muddier when Bill O’Brien bolted for the NFL and James Franklin took over.

So he stayed home and tried to ply his trade as a tight end. But his size was a question. He’d been 200 pounds in high school, added 50 at prep school and kept going. At points his first season, coaches floated the idea of a move to the offensive line.

“That was more the talk my redshirt freshman year when I just got too big,” August said. “Ate too much. Because I broke my foot and I gained 30 pounds and was 275.”

He buckled down and cut around 15 pounds by 2015. He wanted no part of that position change.

“It scared me a little bit,” August said. “That definitely got to me.”

The new staff asked him to lose even more weight, and he’s gone from 260 to the 245-250 range.

The Will Muschamp coaching staff asks a lot from its tight ends, and while Hayden Hurst and Crosby present quicker targets, August has his role.

“He does a good job blocking at the point of attack,” Muschamp said. “He’s very knowledgeable in our system in what we do and how we do it and what we’re asking him to do. He takes a lot of pride in that.”

What they’re asking him to do has also included working in space more than last year. With two tight ends on the field, one or both are often lined up in the slot, around 70 percent of the time in the last game.

August said playing out there has been a change, having to seek out defenders to block rather than just having them line up six inches away. He’s had to gain a feel for that, and for splitting out at all, something he’d not done for a long time until this new role.

“In high school I did, but not since I’ve been in college,” August said. “I’ve always been an in-line tight end.”

This story was originally published September 15, 2016 at 4:02 PM.