This Gamecock had a rough stretch. His teammates lifted him up
Teammates helped South Carolina wide receiver Chad Terrell.
He’d never been through something like it before. He’d been a star football player, in-demand recruit, got some snaps on a nine-win SEC team as a true freshman. And then one day, early last March, he was on the shelf.
“It’s been kind of crazy,” Terrell said. “I never really experienced an injury like the ACL tear and it threw me off for a little bit. But all my coaches just stayed on me and my teammates helped lift me up, telling me control what you can control, and that’s the attitude I took toward it day by day. It just sped up the process for me.”
He ended up coming back to a degree, getting action in South Carolina’s final three games last fall. It allowed him to redshirt, per the new NCAA rule, and culminated his journey back.
Having to man the sideline meant seeing things from a different perspective. It was stepping back, perhaps seeing a bigger picture.
“I’ve learned a lot about the game from coach (Bryan McClendon) and the older receivers and just everybody showing me a lot,” said Terrell, now a redshirt sophomore. “I’ve learned a lot about how our team works and stuff of that nature.”
He came to South Carolina as a high three-star recruit. At 6-foot-3, 208 pounds, his coaches praised his potential as a jump-ball option and a big bodied target. He’s now up to a listed 220 pounds, and looks it.
As a high school senior, he had 64 catches for 1,236 yards and 17 scores.
As he relied on his teammates, they watched him come through everything that came with the injury.
“It’s been frustrating for him a little bit,” Gamecocks quarterback Jake Bentley said, “especially with the injuries and stuff. But I think he’s stayed consistent in his mindset and his approach to, ‘I’ve got to get back and get better.’ Each and every day, you can just see him by looking at him, he works hard in the weight room and he works hard in everything that he does.
So I think that’s the big thing. I keep telling him that it’s going to pay off.”
Terrell’s biggest challenge might be finding a place in a receiver group that’s grown crowded on account of South Carolina’s recruiting efforts.
Of the receivers he came in with, Shi Smith is an established starter, while OrTre Smith started in 2017 before an injury sidelined him last fall. OrTre Smith seems like the first player in line to replace Deebo Samuel, and that’s to say nothing of three-year starter Bryan Edwards on the other side.
So Terrell will likely be battling with Josh Vann, who played a good bit last year, redshirt freshman Darius Rush, plus a few veterans and a trio of incoming freshman that includes one four-star recruit and another who the staff considered an underrated pickup.
With a year lost, Terrell might have fallen a bit further behind in the pecking order, but with a healthy knee and an opportunity before him, he’s not dwelling on that. After all, the team helped pick him up, and it likely won’t let him down.
“Sometimes you think about it a little bit, but everybody is going to get their turn,” Terrell said. “All of us come in and work hard, so I’m not worried about it.”
