How South Carolina is revamping its kicker competition after Mitch Jeter’s departure

Shane Beamer and South Carolina’s football team this offseason lost one of their most consistent players, one who played a vital position, to the transfer portal.

And they had a quick answer for who would be first in line for the kicker job when Mitch Jeter left.

“We immediately put Alex Herrera on scholarship,” Beamer said on the December signing day.

Jeter had a quick rise to being one of the more accurate kickers in program history. He also made a bit of a surprising departure, heading to the transfer portal after the 2023 season and landing with Notre Dame.

So now, Herrera, a product of Spring Valley High School in Columbia, gets to win a job he almost took in 2022 after Parker White ran out of eligibility.

“That was a competition that literally went to the week of the first game when we opened up with Georgia State,” Beamer siad. “That was a competition that went through the spring, went through the summer, went through preseason camp. (Special teams coach) Pete (Lembo) and I literally decided the week of the Georgia State game that we were going to go with Mitch.”

Jeter had come to the program as a rare scholarship kicker in the last class of the Will Muschamp era and spent his first two seasons as a kickoff specialist. When he finally got the placekicker job, he delivered a perfect 11-for-11 season with a pair of 50 yard-plus makes. He went 12-for-14 in 2023.

Herrera had to wait a long time for this chance. A well-regarded high school soccer player, he spent five years in the program, getting minimal work behind Jeter on kickoffs and extra points.

But Beamer spoke about Herrera with a sense of confidence. The coach said no job was promised, but he sounded like the sixth-year senior has the ability and will get the chances.

A key competitor there inked the papers to secure his spot on signing day. Mason Love is the next scholarship kicker the Gamecocks are bringing in.

The Riverside, Missouri product hit 16-of-20 field goals as a senior, including a 57-yarder. He could also end up a punter, and Beamer noted Lembo, who is only in charge of special teams, could dig in and focus on finding a quality kicker from the high school ranks.

Whoever wins that battle will be alongside veteran hands in star punter Kai Kroeger and multi-year starting snapper Hunter Rogers, a high school teammate of Herrera.

Had Jeter stayed, Herrera may well have tested his luck in the portal, finally looking for that starting role.

Considering how things came together, he likely won’t be looking far.

“That was a pretty easy decision,” Beamer said. “I think Alex was going to possibly go somewhere to be the starting kicker, and I didn’t want to let a good kicker walk out the door.”