‘Never give up on your dreams.’ Inside Dakereon Joyner’s bowl game to remember
As South Carolina’s Dakereon Joyner stepped on the Duke’s Mayo Bowl postgame stage and accepted his silver MVP trophy, tears welled in his eyes. This was the moment Joyner had always dreamed of — the bowl game win, the roaring fans and him at the center of it all.
For the past few seasons, that dream had become fuzzy and faint. Joyner could feel it fading as he yo-yoed from quarterback to wide receiver, then back to quarterback, then back to receiver — all under two different coaching staffs. Initially recruited as a dynamic dual-threat quarterback out of Fort Dorchester High in North Charleston, Joyner hasn’t had the tiniest hint of stability since he stepped on campus.
Heading into this season — Joyner’s first under Shane Beamer and first as a full-time wide receiver — the redshirt junior said he contemplated not playing at all. He wasn’t sure he was cut out to play a receiving role.
On a national stage Thursday, Joyner led the Gamecocks to a 38-21 victory over North Carolina not by catching the ball, but by throwing it.
“It means everything to me, man,” Joyner said after the game, tears still brimming. “It still feels like a dream.”
No one expected Joyner to play as much quarterback as he did Thursday. Beamer and his coaching staff made sure of that. As far as the public knew, Joyner spent the past month practicing as a wide receiver, just as he had all season. But away from the cameras, Joyner had been taking first-team reps with the quarterbacks since early December, right after the team’s loss to Clemson to end the regular season.
Part of that was by necessity, with starter Jason Brown entering the transfer portal prior to the bowl game, USC needed bodies at quarterback. But the Gamecocks also knew they had four weeks to prepare for Mack Brown’s Tar Heels, and they wanted to use the time to craft a surprise Joyner-centric game plan.
“Credit (offensive coordinator) Marcus Satterfield; that wasn’t me,” Beamer said after the win. “Early on, even before Jason made his decision, we felt like we needed to get D.K. going in there. We had a month getting ready and just the element of being able to make them defend the quarterback run game.
“They really hadn’t faced a quarterback this year on their schedule that ran the ball like we were going to do with with D.K. — and he’s a talented thrower. There’s a reason he was recruited as a high school quarterback.”
Gamecocks fans should be familiar with Joyner as a runner. Though he primarily played slot receiver this season, Joyner also lined up under center in the Wildcat formation on occasion, usually running read-option plays with running backs like Juju McDowell and Kevin Harris by his side. So, it wasn’t necessarily a surprise to see Joyner line up at quarterback on USC’s first offensive snap of the game, nor was it a surprise to see Joyner hand the ball off to tight end Jaheim Bell on a jet sweep.
But it was the throw two plays later that dropped jaws.
The ball snapped, Joyner scrambled to his right, just outside of a firm block set by tight end Nick Muse, and he heaved a rocket down to the other end of the field, where Bell hauled in the pass and pulled into the end zone for a 69-yard score.
That was only the beginning. Splitting snaps at quarterback almost 50-50 with Zeb Noland, the presumed starter, Joyner took full advantage of every throw he made. He completed all nine of his passes, throwing for 160 yards and a touchdown as he outdueled a preseason Heisman Trophy candidate in UNC’s Sam Howell.
Before Thursday, Joyner hadn’t attempted a pass since 2019. It was also that season in which Joyner relieved injured QB starter Ryan Hilinski and helped lead the Gamecocks to a road upset over No. 3 Georgia.
“Through these past two weeks, with D.K. at quarterback, I ain’t gonna lie, the first couple days, he was a little rusty because he wasn’t a quarterback in a long time,” Bell said after the game, cracking a smile. “I just kept putting my trust in him and let him know that his throwing mechanics was gonna get better. And through these two weeks, they got better.”
When Bell lined up with Joyner in the huddle just before that 69-yard pass, the tight end’s confidence in Joyner was so high, he told him, “This is gonna be a touchdown right here.”
But Joyner didn’t need to hear that. He already believed it. After years of feeling like he didn’t belong, like he didn’t have a place on the Gamecocks, like he didn’t even have a position, Joyner found himself dreaming again. As the bowl game neared and he absorbed the game plan, he kept visualizing the ball landing in Bell’s arms on that play.
“I knew from the jump, I even dreamed about it, I knew Jaheim was gonna catch that ball,” Joyner said. “I’m so thankful. I thank God for everything, for Him just preparing me the last four years for this moment. I never question God.
“What I say to other people: Never give up on your dreams. If you’ve ever got something out there that you want to get, keep going. Never give up. Adversity is going to come, but it’s how you overcome it.”
This story was originally published December 30, 2021 at 7:20 PM.
