Where are two former four-stars in the mix of South Carolina’s wide receiver room?
When Will Muschamp rattled off his group of top five wide receivers a few weeks before South Carolina’s preseason football camp, a pair of names were notably absent.
At that point, he was just short of a year removed from announcing Josh Vann had earned a starting spot at a Rotary Club meeting near Williams-Brice Stadium. The receiver with the second-most career production of any pass catcher on the roster, OrTre Smith, his name was absent as well.
As camp started, Muchamp was asked about both. The Gamecocks are short proven receivers, and those two are high on the list in terms of production. The next few weeks could loom large for Vann.
“It’s going to be huge for him,” Muschamp said. “We got some guys at that position, they need to start producing.
“These next six weeks are huge for Josh. He’s going into his junior year. We need to get more production out of some of these guys.”
Vann has been a bit of a cipher since arriving on campus. He was a top-150 national recruit who ended up fourth on the team in catches as a true freshman.
But he only averaged 6.6 yards per catch. He started three games as a sophomore, occasionally flashing his speed on slants, but only catching 19 balls before breaking a bone in his hand.
Smith came to Columbia as part of Muschamp’s second recruiting class in 2017; he was the No. 1 player from South Carolina and No. 127 player in the country. He started in place of an injured Deebo Samuel as a freshman, posting 30 catches and 326 yards. But a genetic knee issue cost him 11 games the next year and slowed him in 2019.
Smith has 12 catches in 11 games since that first year.
“He’s been doing well,” Muschamp said, noting they’d only gone through walkthroughs to that point. “He looked good in those situations and we look forward to him being productive this fall.”
Both receivers are listed among the top 45 recruits the Gamecocks have brought in during the 2000s.
Beyond Shi Smith, a four-year starter projected to be South Carolina’s top target, current Gamecocks receivers have 116 catches. Vann and OrTre Smith account for 79 of those.
By Week 1, the team hopes to have a sense of those pieces in place. It will take a lot for Smith or Vann to match their recruiting hype, but if either can become a reliable target, it would give the Gamecocks passing game a shot in the arm.
This story was originally published August 24, 2020 at 5:15 AM.
