This Gamecock is one of nation’s 10 best transfers, ESPN says
One of Shane Beamer’s prized transfer portal additions is considered among the best in the country by ESPN.
Redshirt senior offensive tackle Jacarrius Peak is ranked as the No. 6 transfer player, per ESPN’s updated Top 100 list released Monday. Peak is the second-highest ranked offensive lineman on the list
Peak comes to South Carolina after four years at N.C. State. He started in nearly all the 38 games he appeared in for the Wolfpack and totaled over 2,200 offensive snaps from 2022-25.
“You rarely see offensive tackles as experienced as Peak pop up in the transfer portal,” ESPN’s Max Olson wrote. “The former three-star recruit from Valdosta, Georgia, developed into a 33-game starter for the Wolfpack and earned honorable mention All-ACC recognition as a junior. Peak made the move from right to left tackle in 2025 and has surrendered only four sacks in more than 1,100 career snaps in pass protection, according to ESPN Research. He’ll have an opportunity to play his way into early-round pick status by returning in 2026.”
Olson described signing Peak as a “massive recruiting win” for Beamer as well as his starting quarterback, LaNorris Sellers.
“Sellers was sacked 42 times in 2025, most among all Power 4 QBs, and pressured on 42% of his dropbacks according to ESPN Research,” Olson wrote. “With tackles Josiah Thompson and Tree Babalade departing as transfers, South Carolina needed to find an upgrade at a high-value position and succeeded.”
ESPN scout Steve Muench described the 6-foot-4, 298-pound lineman as a player who has the tools to develop into an “elite pass blocker.”
Peak should make an immediate impact on South Carolina’s rebuilt offensive line in 2026, but that’s assuming he’s healthy and ready to do so.
In February, Peak suffered a knee injury during a 3-on-3 basketball tournament Beamer and the Gamecocks hold regularly during the offseason to build team chemistry. Peak missed all of spring practice as a result, but USC has maintained that it expects him to play in 2026.
“He’s going to be OK,” Beamer told reporters in February. “It’s not a catastrophic, season-ending injury where it’s all doom and gloom, and here we go again. It was an unfortunate injury.”
Beamer told the Post and Courier last month that Peak, as well star Dylan Stewart who is rehabbing a back injury, are both lifting this offseason and “on schedule ... if not ahead of schedule.”
