COLUMBIA — It closed on Tuesday, but announcements and entries will still be accepted until Friday. The NCAA transfer portal always specifies who and when can enter after the “official” deadline.

South Carolina coach Shane Beamer has conducted interviews with all 110 of his football players and has a good idea of how this squad will progress from this season to the next.

“The majority of our team has an additional year of eligibility in 2025 if they so desire. “We have some guys who have been here for a long time,” he explained. “The way that we do it, when we’re trying to sign a recruiting class, is you project based on the number of guys that are seniors that you don’t expect to return — which isn’t many, right now.”

After spring practice, the Gamecocks had 83 scholarships as they continued to market the web, primarily for tall, stretch-the-field wide outs to supplement their existing height-challenged squad.

They received two commitments late Tuesday from Florida State redshirt freshman Vandrevius Jacobs and sixth-year senior Dalevon Campbell, bringing the scholarship cap to 85.

Jacobs, who stands at 6-feet, appeared in five games last season, catching three passes for 60 yards and one touchdown. Campbell, 6-4, grabbed 31 passes for 594 yards and two touchdowns, including nine receptions of at least 30 yards and five of at least 40.

USC lost seven players this spring, including offensive linemen Jaxon Hughes and Sidney Fugar, receivers Joseph Morris and Kelton Henderson, defensive back Keenan Nelson, tight end Kameron Sandlin, and edge rusher Terrell Dawkins, and we know that DB Zahbari Sandy will almost certainly not play this fall after tearing his ACL in spring practice.

However, USC will not turn away anyone who can assist, and the maxim “The numbers always work out” lingers. The Gamecocks don’t have to finalize their roster until August, so if they add a few more guys to push them above 85, they’ll be free to deal with that.

The portal closed for underclassmen on Tuesday; graduate transfers had until the end of the day on Wednesday to enter. That means sending the papers to the university’s compliance officer; the school then has 48 hours to complete it.

That is only to get into the gateway. Players can reveal where they’re going at any time, making for an exciting May when the Gamecocks leave campus for a month — their longest break of the year — before returning for offseason conditioning in June.

Beamer also indicated that he would like to have more offensive linemen. He likes the Gamecocks’ roster, but after last year, when 11 of 20 linemen were hurt in some fashion, he believes he can never have enough.

“Every position, we have a target number of guys that we want to have on scholarship,” Beamer went on to say. “Offensive line, based on the target number of guys we’d like to have on scholarship, we’re a couple under.”

USC lost Hughes, a transfer who only played two games last year due to a knee injury, and Fugar. Fugar started the first three games and added a fourth later, but was ineffective.

Since the 2023 season ended, the Gamecocks have lost ten seniors, one early entry into the NFL (Spencer Rattler), and three players who have left the game. Those were eclipsed by 26 outbound transfers.

Most did not plan to play and have transferred to non-Power 5 colleges.

USC reloaded with 46 incoming transfers and freshmen, with a portion of those being preferred walk-ons who will not report until August. All but five scholarship players (and PWOs) — Jacobs, Campbell, freshmen Matthew Fuller and Jalewis Solomon, and junior-college transfer Jerome Simmons — were present for the spring.