How South Carolina used Sellers, Stewart to land offensive linemen from portal
As South Carolina worked this offseason to flip its offensive line room, one had to wonder what exactly the selling point was.
Think about it: The Gamecocks’ offensive line has struggled for years — giving up more than 40 sacks in each of the previous three seasons, with 2025 being the worst. This past season, South Carolina gave up an SEC-high 43 regular-season sacks.
Knowing that, though, USC had some selling points other schools probably couldn’t offer. It had a new O-line coach, with Randy Clements coming from TCU to take over for the fired Lonnie Teasley.
Even better: The Gamecocks offered a heck of an opportunity to get playing time.
Eight scholarship offensive linemen transferred from South Carolina this offseason and another — left tackle Josiah Thompson — was in the portal for two weeks before deciding to return to the Gamecocks.
Thompson, Shed Sarratt and Nolan Hay are the only three O-linemen who started for the Gamecocks in 2025 who will return in 2026.
Beyond a new coach and a wide-open path to the field, the Gamecocks leveraged two of their biggest stars to attract offensive line talent.
“The biggest selling point was LaNorris Sellers,” South Carolina director of player personnel Darren Uscher said in a Tuesday appearance on the “Inside The Gamecocks” online show.
Uscher said the Gamecock quarterback was a “huge factor in communicating” with the offensive linemen South Carolina wanted from the portal.
“When they hear from QB1, that means something,” Uscher said. “And he’s not just doing it to just do it. He’s he knows that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, right?”
The other asset South Carolina leaned on in conversations with prospective O-linemen, Uscher said, was edge Dylan Stewart. The Gamecocks coaching staff made it a point that any offensive linemen at Carolina would be pushed daily going against Stewart, who could be a Top-5 pick in the NFL Draft next year.
“That’s something that a lot of people don’t realize: These guys want to be pushed,” Uscher said on “Inside The Gamecocks.” “Iron sharpens iron.”
Granted, offensive linemen at South Carolina have been battling against Stewart at practice for two years and, well, the sack numbers are what they are.
Still, between Sellers showing an interest in the recruiting process and the thought of facing Stewart every day, choosing South Carolina was enticing for a number of O-linemen.
In total, South Carolina brought in eight transfer offensive linemen: Dayne Arnett (Ferris State), Carter Miller (UCF), Jacarrius Peak (N.C. State), Emmanuel Poku (ECU), Hank Purvis (Purdue), Seth Smith (Northern Arizona), Armando Nieves (New Mexico State) and Ebubedike Nnabugwu (Missouri State).
The gem of that group is Peak, one of the top transfer O-linemen who chose the Gamecocks over Alabama. At N.C. State last year, the 6-foot-4, 310-pounder started all 13 games at left tackle.
“It’s an easy plug and play for us at whatever spot that (he) ends up. You’d love for it to be (at) left tackle,” Uscher said on “GamecockCentral Live.” “That’s a guy you go out and get; and we had the resources in order to do so. We had our eye on him for a long time.”
Uscher went even further on his praise of Peak, saying the redshirt senior could be the “foundational piece of a program.”
If that’s the case, the Gamecocks still need to find what building blocks to put around Peak as they try and reconstruct their offensive line.
This story was originally published February 4, 2026 at 8:00 AM.
