5 colleges in 7 years for new Gamecock RB Rahsul Faison. And that hardly tells the story
Rahsul Faison’s football journey is so darn winding that, well, give Utah State a pass for messing it up.
Inside Faison’s bio on his previous school’s roster, his college timeline is a bit off. It takes a few minutes speaking with the man himself — and some further clarification — to confirm what the accurate order of schools was. And even that doesn’t make it easier to believe.
Because how does a kid who graduated from a prep school in 2019, didn’t play football the following two years, then moved across the country to play junior college football, finally get a DI offer, start training for the NFL Draft, become the beneficiary of a miraculous eleventh-hour court decision and end up as a transfer running back at South Carolina — at the level he always thought he was capable of but figured he’d never have the chance to prove?
“A lot of guys would’ve checked out, but he was hungry for it,” said Faison’s mentor, Rick Prete, who began coaching him on a 7-on-7 team in the eighth grade.
“When it made it official with (South Carolina), it was a super proud moment. One of those things that we knew like, this is what you’ve worked for. And not only what you’ve worked for, but where you belong.”
Following the timeline
OK, let’s go chronologically to really understand all the change, all the different places Faison has been over the past eight years.
▪ 2017: As a senior at Pottsgrove High in a Pennsylvania town an hour west of Philadelphia, Faison was unstoppable. He rushed for nearly 3,000 yards and 42 touchdowns in his final season, helping his team reach the conference championship. He initially committed to FCS Stony Brook.
▪ 2018: Because of academic issues, Faison did not go to Stony Brook, but instead enrolled at The Salisbury School in Connecticut — an all-boys college prep school that’s been around since 1901. On the football field, he rushed for over 1,800 yards (9.5 yards per carry) and 30 touchdowns. Off the field, “they only let him replace one class,” Prete said. “He should’ve been able to replace three classes.” So he accepted an offer to Marshall, but on grayshirt status — meaning he didn’t play with the team for a year.
▪ 2019: Faison enrolled at Marshall in the fall but, because he was a grayshirt, he wasn’t doing anything with the football team. His weeks mostly revolved around schoolwork and lifting with the other grayshirts. The other problem: He had to pay for college his first semester.
“We didn’t have the finances, so I had to come home because it was too much stress on my family,” Faison said. “It crushed me.”
▪ 2020: Faison took a year off from playing football and took online classes at Lackawanna College — which has a physical campus in somewhat-nearby Scranton, Pennsylvania.
▪ 2021: Getting back to football after not taking a snap in over two years, Faison took the junior college route and decided to go to Snow College in Utah. Yes, Snow was the defending JUCO runner-up. And, yes, it was also 2,200 miles from home.
“I wanted change, for sure,” he said. “I had a lot going on at home and I thought going to Utah is a big change and less distractions where I could just focus on football.”
He did not play his first season at Snow.
▪ 2022: In his second year, Faison was added to a crowded running back room — getting the third-most carries on a Snow team that went 8-2. Still, he carried the ball 88 times for 355 yards and a half-dozen scores.
▪ 2023: Faison committed to Utah State in April as a junior and immediately became a part of the Aggies’ rotation. He played in every game, starting three times, and racked up 736 rushing yards and five touchdowns.
“All he needed was the platform,” Prete said, noting that the Aggies had other solid running backs on the team and adding: “He got a decent amount of carries but it wasn’t what we felt he should be getting.”
▪ 2024: In a bizarre Utah State season — its head coach was fired in July — the Aggies’ offense became the Faison show. He took 198 handoffs and ran for over 1,100 yards and eight touchdowns, including eclipsing 100 rushing yards in games against Utah and eventual playoff team Boise State.
The Pavia news
Faison had moved on from college football. He played his last game nearly a month earlier. He was out of eligibility. His NFL Draft graphic had been on social media for weeks. He was about to head to Orlando to begin training for his Pro Day.
Then came a late-December NCAA waiver. Because of Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia’s victorious lawsuit — which argued junior college season should not go against a student-athlete’s eligibility — Faison’s college career was revived.
Not that he seemed to think much of it.
“My mind was really set on going to the NFL,” he said. “I started talking to some NFL scouts, talking to some agents, just getting some opinions. And some schools started reaching out to me and I was like, maybe I should explore my options and see what’s best.”
Faison called Prete as he thought about his next steps.
“It was pretty evident that if he was to return to college, he would have a lot of suitors,” Prete said. “It was like a no-brainer.”
Just after the new year, Faison began an extensive search for his next home, visiting schools including Florida State, Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina in a matter of days. Throughout the process, he told Prete every school was treating him fairly and that he wasn’t basing his decision just off NIL opportunities.
Heck, he wasn’t even making the decision on who wanted him as the focal point of an offense.
A big part of the reason he committed to South Carolina over other big-name schools was the fact that the Gamecocks have a stud quarterback, LaNorris Sellers, returning; a solid offensive line and a team that proved it could compete with the best in the nation.
“He wants to win,” Prete said.
“They told me they have some talented guys in the room — they obviously lost their guy (starter Rocket Sanders), though,” Faison said. “But they basically told me I have an opportunity to come be the guy. Obviously they have a lot of young guys, but come in the room, learn from each other and may the best man win.”
Helping Faison’s chances: While he’s an older tailback six years removed from high school, he has only carried the ball just over 400 times in college. For reference: Heisman finalist Ashton Jeanty carried the ball 374 times for Boise State this season.
NFL scouts constantly told him he had no miles on him. And yet few college football players have more.
This story was originally published January 17, 2025 at 8:00 AM.
