Where South Carolina’s young, 4-star linemen are after first taste of top competition

In some ways, it’s not an assignment that’s 100 percent fair.

South Carolina’s football coaches have regularly said, life gets harder for young players the closer they are to the ball. Gamecocks freshmen defensive tackles Kingsley Enagbare, Josh Belk and Rick Sandidge play right over the ball, so they’ve got the steepest curve, right in the middle of a mosh pit of contact and leverage.

Oh, and in their second college game, they matched up with one of the best offensive lines in the sport, which included a 340-pound guard.

So what did Will Muschamp see from the group after Georgia?

“All of them played in the first half, I think Josh played obviously during the second,” Muschamp said on his weekly call-in show. “We’ve got to continue to have those guys come on for us, that’s where we are. They’re extremely talented football players, but there is a learning curve in our league on the line of scrimmage.”

That trio is battling with junior college transfer Jabari Ellis for snaps behind the team’s more veteran group of Javon Kinlaw, Kobe Smith and Keir Thomas. With D.J. Wonnum missing the next few weeks, Thomas could find himself contributing more at end.

Each of the three young defensive linemen is working his way through a transition of sorts while learning on the job. Enagbare was an end in high school and bulked up the past year or so. Sandidge didn’t have the advantage of enrolling early, and at times during practice seemed to be working his way through the natural learning curve. Belk is still trying to get his weight down after transferring from Clemson and wasn’t even cleared to play until a few days before USC’s opener.

With that in mind, Muschamp is keeping the long view.

“We’re going to be fine,” Muschamp said. “We’ve just got to continue to bring these guys along.”

This story was originally published September 17, 2018 at 2:17 PM.