South Carolina football will continue to look at all options fill its placekicking need
One of the questions during South Carolina football’s spring practice is who will handle placekicking duties heading into this season this fall.
That battle won’t be decided any time soon, Gamecocks special teams coach Joe DeCamillis said Monday as he met with reporters for the first time this spring. South Carolina is looking to replace Alex Herrera, the former walk-on who handled the duties last season.
Herrera was 15-of-21 on field goals and didn’t miss any of his 45 extra points in his lone season as the Gamecocks’ starting kicker.
“Other than probably LaNorris (Sellers), you are going to see battles going up until Virginia Tech (season opener),” DeCamillis said. “That is what our place is built on and that is what (head coach Shane Beamer) is going to do. There is always the transfer portal. You don’t know what is going to happen within the next week or so with specialists. There is a lot of ways to build your roster. I’m sure all those will be looked at.”
DeCamillis mentioning the transfer portal as an option could mean the Gamecocks might bring a veteran to push William Joyce, Peyton Argent and Max Kelley for the starting spot. Mason Love could be an option but he is going to be the team’s starting punter and is the team’s holder on field goals and extra points.
The spring transfer portal window opens April 16 and runs for 10 days. Players don’t have to commit to a new school in those 10 days but they at least have their name entered in the portal.
Joyce, a redshirt senior who played at Spartanburg High School, and Argent, a redshirt sophomore, haven’t kicked in a college game. Argent played at powerhouse Hoover High in Alabama, and said during a press conference last month he feels comfortable as far out as 55 yards.
Kelley, part of USC’s 2025 signing class, is playing high school baseball and won’t arrive until the summer.
Kelley was 7-of-11 on field goals this season with a career long 51-yarder at Gallatin High in Tennessee.
“He is a bigger type of guy and has got power,” DeCamillis said of Kelley. “We thought his technique is at an advanced level. … He is a competitor. He is in baseball right now and he is batting around .500. He is a good athlete that we think will compete as a punter down the road but right now we are going to make him a placekicker and kickoff guy and see how that goes.”
DeCamillis said the kicking competition is very even right now and that coaches put the kickers in pressure situations Saturday during the first scrimmage of the spring. USC will have another scrimmage before the spring game on April 18 at Williams-Brice Stadium.
Beamer said at the beginning of spring practice that the Gamecocks will be to continue to put his kickers in tough situations to try and create some separation in the kicking battle.
“It will be key for those guys to, one, get in the stadium and be a part of some scrimmages,” Beamer said. “We need to kick the crap out of the ball in the spring game to put those guys in some pressure situations where they have to make some kicks and punts in the stadium in front of a crowd, also.”
This story was originally published April 8, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
