Incoming freshman Rashad Amos has plans to be an ‘everything back’ for South Carolina
What the South Carolina football team’s backfield looks this next season remains a question with high-grade turnover.
What does Rashad Amos hope to bring to it? A little bit of everything.
“I can do really all things that anybody could expect from a running back,” Amos said. “I can play all three parts of the game.”
That’s run with power, run with speed and run with some agility.
The 6-foot, 213 pounder was set to arrive on campus earlier this month ahead of the resumption of offseason activities. He’ll join a backfield that’s losing its top three runners, plus a three-year contributor who saw his role reduced last season.
This means opportunity. Blue chip runner MarShawn Lloyd, a top-50 national recruit, made a good case for a prominent role in the abbreviated spring. Beyond him, Amos will have to battle it out with a pair of returning players and a junior college back for snaps in the coming season.
“I think it’s whoever is going to take the spot, take the position, is who it’s going to be. I think it’s just a clean (slate) for everybody,” Amos said.
On film, he shows a range of skills, running through or past defenders, throwing a little shake after catching balls out of that backfield.
He was certainly productive, posting 1,324 rushing yards, 478 receiving yards and at least 36 combined TDs on a team that went 12-2 and made the state semifinals.
His spring was a little eventful, first with a coaching change as his position and then with the coronavirus pandemic.
Thomas Brown had signed Amos, bringing him in alongside Lloyd and White. But Brown departed for the NFL in February, and Des Kitchings came in. Amos said he understood Browns move, that it was just part of the way things go. And the Georgia back already had a relationship with Kitchings, who tried to lure him to N.C. State and showed a personal touch.
“He was a great recruiter,” said Amos, who at one point was committed to Western. “He stayed in touch with me, and not just me but my whole family.”
Amos said the spring was slow without in-person school. He did get to work out on his own, working on his speed and footwork.
He also has the advantage of coming in with high school teammate Joey Hunter, a hard-hitting defensive back who should get an early shot at safety coming off a torn ACL.
His family managed to sneak in a vacation to Florida before they made the trip to Columbia to move him in, and it marked a moment for his family.
He has five older siblings, but he’s the last one. His mom admitted there was some shock when the move-in day started to draw news.
“He’s the last of Mohicans,” Dee Amos said. “He’s the fist to go away on a full scholarship with this kind of hoopla. It’s been a ride, I’ve got to say. It’s been a heck of a ride.”
This story was originally published June 8, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
