Gamecocks walk-on linebacker from SC earns scholarship from Shane Beamer
It would be easy — especially considering the transfer-portal drama and payday speculation across the country — to be cynical about college football right now.
But, every once in a while, something comes along that takes the sport back to a more innocent time.
Like on Wednesday night, when South Carolina announced that walk-on linebacker Jamian Risher Jr. was getting put on scholarship.
In a video posted by USC, Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer is in the weight room, talking to the team about Risher — a product of Varnville, South Carolina.
“Year four is what he’s starting,” Beamer bellowed. “But unlike year one, year two and year three, he won’t be paying to come to Carolina.”
Naturally, Risher’s teammates mobbed him in the weight room, giving him hugs and congratulations.
And while Beamer is technically correct that Risher is starting his fourth season with the Gamecocks’ football team, he’s actually heading into year five at the University of South Carolina.
After four years starting at Wade Hampton High, the high school quarterback and safety enrolled at USC as just a student in 2022.
A year later, he went to a South Carolina tryout camp and was given a walk-on spot with the Gamecocks’ football team.
The 6-foot-1, 232-pound Risher will be a redshirt senior in 2026.
Over the past four years, Risher has seen action in five games. Last season, in games against S.C. State and Coastal Carolina, Risher took 33 combined snaps at linebacker and racked up four tackles.
This story was originally published January 15, 2026 at 7:30 AM.
