Shameik Blackshear impresses with strength, quickness

For two years, Shameik Blackshear’s potential has loomed as a potential asset for the South Carolina football team if it could just be unlocked.

He’s 6-foot-5, 253 pounds, and showed enough explosiveness to earn a four-star rating out of high school. Yet a rocky first season gave way to an offseason he missed after being injured in a shooting, and a redshirt freshman year where he had minimal impact in nine games.

Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp bunched Blackshear’s name with a few others still looking to deliver on potential in his address to open the spring, but at least one Gamecock said the Bluffton product has pushed him early in spring.

That would be Zack Bailey, last year’s top offensive lineman and the No. 1 right tackle in the first week of practices.

“It’s good for him, it’s good for me,” Bailey said. “We’re pushing each other, trying to get each other better. Trying to get him to be the person he’s supposed to be and wants to be.”

In the early going of open spring practices, Blackshear was working behind Dante Sawyer, a presumptive starter after second-team duties last fall, and sharing snaps with Keir Thomas, an emergency tackle in 2016 who is better suited at end. They’re all at the team’s bigger, stouter defensive end spot.

The Gamecocks are looking to shore up the beef up front, and to get more speed on the field in pass rush situations. They averaged 1.62 sacks a game, a number that barely put them in the top 100 nationally.

In theory, Blackshear’s skill set could help there.

“Shameik’s really fast off the line when he wants to be,” Bailey said. “He has that explosive quickness. It really helps me out as far as kick set, how fast I need to do it.”

Bailey is also learning the finer points of playing outside, which includes getting out into pass sets against edge rushers.

Members of the coaching staff mentioned part of getting Blackshear up to speed would be getting him a full offseason of weights, since his lifting last year was curtailed. At least anecdotally, it seems to be going to plan.

“He seems strong,” Bailey said. “I’ve seen him in the weight room when no one else is in there, working out. He’s in there on the weekends working out.

“He’s doing everything he can.”

This story was originally published March 23, 2017 at 5:12 PM with the headline "Shameik Blackshear impresses with strength, quickness."