South Carolina football lands transfer portal defensive end from AAC
The South Carolina football team has addressed one of its most pressing needs — defensive end depth — with a big pickup on the eve of the 2023 season.
Former UAB defensive end Drew Tuazama has committed to the Gamecocks as a graduate transfer with two years of eligibility, he announced this weekend via social media. South Carolina made it official on Sunday with the announcement Tuazama joined the team. He will wear No. 19.
Tuazama — an All-Conference USA Honorable Mention for the Blazers in 2022 — will be immediately eligible for USC and could contribute immediately for a program that lost its top two edge rushers to the transfer portal last offseason.
He is in Columbia and with the team already, he told Phil Kornblut of SportsTalkSC.
“I wanted to be closer to home and play SEC football,” Tuazama told Kornblut. “Even though I’m from North Carolina I always pulled for SC (South Carolina) in the SEC”
Tuazama, listed at 6-foot-5 and 275 pounds, had a team-high five sacks plus 33 tackles, three pass breakups and three quarterback hurries in 13 games last season. UAB led Conference USA in scoring defense, passing defense and defensive efficiency while going 7-6.
He was also a preseason all-conference selection in the American Athletic Conference — where UAB will play starting this season — before entering the transfer portal this month.
Tuazama had been trying to leave UAB since April, he said on Twitter, but had to wait until he graduated in August so he’d be immediately eligible at his new school.
“My passion for the game is contagious,” Tuazama told Kornblut. “I like to fly around and make plays and motivate players around me.”
The fifth-year senior played two seasons at Syracuse (2019-20) and one at East Mississippi Community College (2021) before joining the Blazers last season.
Tuazama was an accomplished basketball player at Knightdale (N.C.) High School outside of Raleigh and actually had a basketball scholarship offer from St. John’s before deciding to focus on football.
He redshirted at Syracuse in 2019, playing in two games, and had seven tackles, two tackles for loss and a blocked punt in six games in 2020 before moving to East Mississippi, a JUCO, due to academic issues.
Now a college graduate, Tuazama will move back closer to home with hopes of helping South Carolina replace the production of transfers Jordan Burch (Oregon) and Gilber Edmond (Florida State). He brings USC up to seven scholarship defensive ends.
South Carolina opens the season on Saturday Sept. 2 against North Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Classic at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte (7:30 p.m., ABC).
South Carolina 2023 transfer class
RB Mario Anderson, Newberry
TE Nick Elksnis, Florida
TE Trey Knox, Arkansas
TE Joshua Simon, Western Kentucky
OL Nick Gargiulo, Yale
OL Sidney Fugar, Western Illinois
OL Jaxon Hughes, Charlotte (PWO)
OL Ni Mansell, Mercer (PWO)
LB Jaron Willis, Ole Miss
WR Eddie Lewis, Memphis
DE Jatius Geer, Syracuse
DE Drew Tuazama, UAB
This story was originally published August 19, 2023 at 7:26 PM.
