Former Gamecocks tailback is transferring to join Jeff Scott’s new program
Lavonte Valentine spent only one season in Columbia with South Carolina football before transferring out in the summer. Now he’s tweeted he’s going to join a team coached by a former Gamecocks rival.
Valentine, who listed his college for the last year as Edwards Waters College, a small school in Florida, is going to South Florida. He told The State he’s going to do football and track, playing for former Clemson co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott, the newly-hired head coach.
The speed back never played a game in garnet and black, but he ran track.
After a decorated prep career, the Florida speedster had enrolled at USC at the start of spring in 2018. A torn ACL his senior season of high school kept him out of practice that spring, and he spent last season as a redshirt, not seeing time in a game.
He came into August practice with a trio of underclassmen in a running back room with three seniors. That was before Clemson tailback Tavien Feaster enrolled as a grad transfer to compete with A.J. Turner, Rico Dowdle and Mon Denson.
Teammates and coaches spoke highly of his work behind the scenes and his potential as a speed back. A former Florida state 100-meter champion, he posted a top time of 10.57 seconds this spring at USC.
Although Valentine wasn’t on the field, Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp said he’d worked to stay involved.
“Lavonte made every effort he could,” Muschamp said, “between practices, between days that we’re off and time when he was away from track and academics to be able to come over and meet.”
As a high school junior, he ran for 884 yards at 9.6 yards per carry with 14 total touchdowns.
The departure means South Carolina is all but guaranteed to add at least one more running back to its 2020 recruiting class alongside four-star MarShawn Lloyd. When the four seniors depart, Fenwick, Harris and Lloyd will be the only tailbacks on USC’s 2020 roster.
This story was originally published December 11, 2019 at 2:20 PM.
