South Carolina football team losing veteran wide receiver to transfer portal
Payton Mangrum, a former walk-on receiver who earned a scholarship at South Carolina, announced Thursday he is entering the transfer portal.
Mangrum will have one year of eligibility left and is a grad transfer, so he had more flexibility to enter the portal outside of the NCAA’s regular transfer window.
The portal window for undergraduate players closed Dec. 28.
Mangrum, a former standout at Eastside High School outside Greenville, walked on at South Carolina in 2020. But he earned a scholarship in 2022 and was voted as Most Inspirational Walk-On at the team’s post-season banquet that year.
Mangrum appeared in 44 games during his USC career, primarily on special teams, playing under former coach Will Muschamp and current coach Shane Beamer.
He caught three passes for 27 yards this season and finished with six catches for 102 yards and a touchdown in his career. His TD catch was a 44-yard score on a fake punt pass from Kai Kroeger in a 2021 game at Tennessee.
Mangrum was also one of just 12 players on South Carolina’s 2024 roster who’d been on the team since Beamer replaced Muschamp as coach in December 2020. He played special teams in Tuesday’s Cheez-It Citrus Bowl loss to Illinois in Orlando.
As a Class of 2020 recruit, Mangrum has a sixth and final “COVID year” of eligibility remaining. He redshirted in 2020 before playing four seasons from 2021-24.
In high school, Mangrum had 209 catches for 3,247 yards and 43 touchdowns and had two 1,000-yard seasons.
Mangrum is the 16th player to announce they will transfer from USC this year, including five at receiver. The Gamecocks signed five receivers for the 2025 recruiting class so far and might add another if Donovan Murph chooses the Gamecocks on Thursday.
Gamecocks in the transfer portal
QB — Robby Ashford
RB — Djay Braswell (Georgia State)
WR — CJ Adams
WR — Elijah Caldwell
WR — Debron Gatling (Georgia Tech)
WR — Tyshawn Russell
WR — Payton Mangrum
TE — Connor Cox (North Carolina)
TE — Reid Mikeska (Florida Atlantic)
TE — Nick Elksnis (UNLV)
OL — Ni Mansell
DL — Jamaal Whyce
DL — Elijah Davis
LB — Bangally Kamara (Kansas)
LB — Mo Kaba
PK — Daniel Lester
This story was originally published January 2, 2025 at 11:44 AM.
