How losing Deebo Samuel led to ‘huge strides’ that could benefit 2018 Gamecocks

South Carolina’s wide receiver opened 2017 as a bundle of potential.

Deebo Samuel was a rising centerpiece. Bryan Edwards was an ideal complementary player off a strong first season. Two four-star freshmen entered the mix.

Coming out of the season, there was progress, but it was the kind forced upon a team by circumstance. Samuel was one of the best players in the country for three weeks, and then was gone with injury. Edwards had to learn to be a top target. Shi Smith and OrTre Smith learned on the job as starters.

All four will be back, as will the other three underclassman receivers who caught passes in 2017. It wasn’t an easy campaign, but there were lessons from the adversity going into 2018.

“I think we made huge strides,” wide receivers coach and offensive coordinator Bryan McClendon said. Samuel’s injury “forced some guys to grow up quicker. In my group, you could see it. I thought sometimes offensively, a little bit, we kind of just waited around and thought, ‘Oh, Deebo will get us out of it.’ When that happened, we couldn’t do that.”

Samuel had 280 yards and four touchdowns on 25 offensive touches in less than three games. He twice sparked things with kick return scores.

In his stead, Edwards posted 793 yards and five touchdowns on 64 catches, honing his skills as a down-the-field possession receiver and jump-ball artist.

Shi Smith opened the year as a starter inside, and splitting time with second group tight ends, he managed 409 yards and three touchdowns on 29 catches. His success came in spurts, but even without being consistently productive, half his catches kept USC ahead of the chains.

OrTre Smith started slow, and had a few issues with drops, but he almost always gave USC something, with at least three catches in the final eight games of the regular season and 30-plus yards seven times.

The question next season might well be: Will there be enough balls to go around? USC has, in essence, four starters back for what will likely be three spots. The team upping the tempo should mean more passes overall, but the ecosystem will be different.

That’s what happens when a star leaves a hole in the lineup, and everyone else steps in to to fill the void.

“It made a Bryan Edwards step up,” McClendon said. “It made Jake (Bentley) have to trust other people. It made Hayden (Hurst) step up. It made OrTre and Shi Smith have to step up and not be freshmen anymore, so to speak. I think it helped us overall with the development of all the other pieces that are around him. Obviously, getting him back is huge. Getting the playmaking ability back is huge. I think it grew a lot of people up.”

This story was originally published January 16, 2018 at 9:27 AM with the headline "How losing Deebo Samuel led to ‘huge strides’ that could benefit 2018 Gamecocks."