His letter in 6th grade said he wanted to play for USC. He made it a reality Saturday
Sitting at home watching South Carolina’s football game against Appalachian State this weekend, former Hillcrest and now Greenville football coach Greg Porter didn’t know what was about to happen. It caught him by surprise when the announcer read out a name he knew very well: Trey Adkins.
“I really couldn’t remember if he had the same number as in the spring game,” Porter said. “But when he caught the ball and they said it was Trey Adkins, you have a moment of, ‘Oh, he did it. He did it.’”
And then Porter thought about the letter he still has.
“Trey wrote me a letter when he was in the sixth grade,” Porter said. “And he was saying how he wanted to play for South Carolina someday. You, as a football coach, you think, ‘Wow, that’s interesting.’”
Adkins got to live that dream Saturday night.
Adkins is a walk-on from Hillcrest High School, a place he also mentioned wanting to play in that letter. He wasn’t a player the South Carolina coaches had talked about this season. The 5-foot-11, 170 pounder from Simpsonville wasn’t even a walk-on who got some level of attention during the recruiting process.
But with the Gamecocks‘ run of injuries at wide receiver, he was out there catching a short pass on an out route and slipping a tackle for a 29-yard gain.
He ended the day, the second college game he played in, with a pair of receptions for 33 yards across 21 snaps, fifth among the wide receivers. He played in garbage time against Charleston Southern, but now he was in the competitive thick of playing in meaningful parts of the game.
“To actually see his dream come true, from a letter he wrote in the sixth grade, was really inspiring to me,” Porter said.
His current coach, Will Muschamp saw some productivity from Adkins in practice.
“Trey has done a nice job,” Muschamp siad. “We’ve got a lot of confidence in Trey. Trey is s guy that has worked extremely hard. Just because he’s a walk-on doesn’t mean he can’t be a good player.
“He’s a guy that does a nice job for us.”
There was never a question of whether Adkins would go to South Carolina, Porter said. He might have been able to go to a smaller college out of high school, but it just wasn’t in doubt.
Porter found out Adkins had walked on when USC assistant Bobby Bentley stopped by Hillcrest on a recruiting visit. Bentley mentioned that a Hillcrest player had tried out with the Gamecocks but couldn’t recall which one.
Although Adkins made it a goal to play, he never spoke to his former coach about that possibility, just about working hard and being part of the team. Porter said he probably doesn’t even see himself as a walk-on.
“It’s just something that was in his blood, like I said, when he was in the sixth grade,” Porter said. “Very few kids at that age are passionate about what they want to do and what they want to accomplish.
“It was awesome to see.”
Adkins is majoring in entertainment management. The coach and player haven’t talked since the game, but they talk on occasion, checking in.
In high school, Adkins played a smaller role even through his junior year. Porter remembers Adkins caught around 20 balls and admitted he might have been discouraged he wasn’t contributing more in a good program.
A year later, he caught 63 passes for 947 yards and four touchdowns. The Rams went 10-3, swept their region and went to the third round of the playoffs.
“He had an incredible year,” Porter said. “He ran track. He worked hard in the classroom. He worked hard during the offseason. He did everything you asked him to do.”
Life as a walk-on means a lot of work, often without the payoff of actually seeing time in a game. As unheralded as he was, Adkins didn’t appear much of a candidate to get that chance.
But he surprised his coach and made real the promise made by a sixth-grader in a letter all those years ago.
“That is not an easy assignment to make a college football team where you really are not one of their selected choices,” Porter said, “that you have to come out there and earn your scholarship if it’s given. So every day when he goes to football practice, he’s earning every rep, every practice session.
“But one thing about Trey: He’s a hard worker, he’s intelligent. If you just talk to him, he’s going to comprehend what needs to be done. And he’s gonna do everything in his power to run his routes hard and go all out because he’s passionate about playing for South Carolina.”
