Early reviews: What Gamecocks defenders have seen from Tavien Feaster in practice

South Carolina football players couldn’t talk about Tavien Feaster just before camp opened last week.

They knew he was coming to Columbia. But NCAA rules prevented them from mentioning him until he was officially with the Gamecocks. The Clemson grad transfer got cleared to practice Saturday, and Monday he went through his third day on the field with the team.

So what did players see out of their newest teammate?

Buck defensive end D.J. Wonnum: “Oh, he looks pretty good. He’s a good player. He’s gonna help us out a lot this year. I’m excited for him”

“He’s a cool dude. I haven’t really gotten to meet him, well not really meet him, but know much about him yet but so far he’s a cool dude.”

Cornerback Jaycee Horn: “Tavien looked good. He’s just getting adjusted to the practice tempo. We practice real hard here. So he’s getting adjusted but he looks good, runs behind this real well. I’m excited to have him here.”

“We’ve had a couple locker room conversations. He’s on our row. Just a real cool guy, fits right in.”

(After getting asked about Feaster’s national title rings): “I don’t think he’s going to bring them out. We might not like that too much.”

Linebacker T.J. Brunson: “He’s a really good player. Like, he has really good vision. And, you know, he’s a pretty fast guy. Looking forward to him adding some depth to the team and just being a player for us.”

Feaster ran for 1,330 yards in three seasons in the Upstate. He started most of the 2017 season, but eventually Travis Etienne passed him on the depth chart, and others behind him were encroaching.

Feaster was a top-30 recruit out of high school. He joins a team with three seniors in Rico Dowdle, A.J. Turner and Mon Denson, as well as potential impact freshman Kevin Harris . Dowdle, Turner and Denson rushed for between 654 yards and 294 yards last year.

This story was originally published August 5, 2019 at 1:34 PM.