South Carolina wraps spring with Garnet & Black game. These 5 Gamecocks stood out

South Carolina spring practice is officially over.

The Black team won the annual Garnet and Black spring game on Saturday night at Williams-Brice Stadium 19-17 in double-overtime via a D.J. Twitty two-point conversion to wrap up the first significant portion of the Gamecocks’ offseason ahead of the 2023 campaign.

Here’s a look at who stood out in the scrimmage:

TE Trey Knox

South Carolina seems to have sorted out its tight end problem.

Arkansas transfer Trey Knox was wildly productive during his four years in Fayetteville, where he was initially recruited by South Carolina receivers coach and ex-Razorbacks assistant Justin Stepp. He finished his time at Arkansas with 81 receptions for 892 yards and nine touchdowns in 45 games.

Saturday was the first real glimpse we’ve gotten of Knox since he arrived at South Carolina — and he looked the part.

The Tennessee native caught two passes on the first drive of the game from quarterback Spencer Rattler, including a three-yard touchdown reception on a crossing route from the right to left side. Holding on through a bit hit, Knox corralled the throw for the game’s first score. He added a third catch, a nifty one-handed snag, just before the end of the first quarter.

South Carolina made ample use of tight ends Jaheim Bell, Austin Stogner and Nate Adkins a year ago. Expect Knox to get plenty of run this year, too, particularly if his form matches what he showed on Saturday.

DL Elijah Davis

Elijah Davis doesn’t exactly look like a defensive end at 6-foot-3, 285, but the listed defensive tackle was everywhere in Saturday’s scrimmage.

The East Mississippi Community College import recorded three tackles, two sacks and a quarterback hurry. Busting through the right side of the line on a third down throw from Rattler, Davis dashed after the Gamecocks’ starting quarterback and forced and errant throw to end the drive. He followed that with a strip sack of Tanner Bailey two quarters later.

Davis played defensive end on Saturday as much out of necessity as anything else on Saturday. The Gamecocks had just two healthy defensive ends — Terrell Dawkins and Bryan Thomas Jr. — participating in practice on Friday during the portion open to reporters. That left Davis shifting to the outside.

Defensive coordinator Clayton White has already used Tonka Hemingway inside and outside along the defensive line. Davis showed some nice versatility in the closest thing to game action we’ve seen from him at South Carolina.

WR Antwane “Juice” Wells

Well, this isn’t exactly a surprise.

Antwane Wells finished second in the Southeastern Conference a year ago. The man who surpassed him — Tennessee’s Jalin Hyatt — is off to the NFL. That leaves a mantle for the taking.

Wells recorded a pair of catches for 89 yards and a touchdown in Saturday’s scrimmage and looked like the dynamic game-breaking talent he was a year ago.

The one-time James Madison transfer recorded the first big play of the day when he snatched a 25-yard pass from Rattler over the middle, spun off a defender and raced into opposing territory for a 53-yard gain.

Wells added his lone score on the night when he danced into open space along the left sideline. There, third-string quarterback Tanner Bailey hit him over the top of a coverage bust in the secondary and Wells scampered into the end zone.

South Carolina will need to replace four of its top five pass catchers from 2022. Wells sure looked like the player that led the team in receiving a year ago on Saturday. The Gamecocks will need every bit of that this fall.

Edge Bryan Thomas Jr.

One of the few defensive ends that actually saw meaningful snaps a year ago, Thomas backed up those flashes with a nice spring game.

Thomas recorded the second strip of the night when he beat the line off the right edge and swatted the ball out of Bailey’s hands in the third quarter. He finished the night with six tackles and two sacks.

The Florida native played in 10 games a year ago and was forced into more significant action down the stretch following Jordan Strachan’s injury and Jordan Burch (Oregon) and Gilber Edmond’s (Florida State) transfers. Thomas, the son of former first round draft pick, should be a more mainstream fixture in the rotation this fall.

QB LaNorris Sellers

South Carolina has a quarterback problem — and that’s a good thing.

Rattler and Luke Doty are penciled in as the No. 1 and 2 guys on the depth chart, but LaNorris Sellers backed up the hype he’s received over the last few months with his spring game effort.

Sellers completed just one pass in the third quarter, but the 50-yard rope he delivered to a streaking DJ Black up the seam sent the estimated 51,000 fans in attendance into a frenzy. The former South Florence standout also dazzled with his legs, extending plays and racing around defenders on a handful of broken plays.

Signing with South Carolina in December after backing off commitments from Virginia and Syracuse at varying times, Sellers has been lauded for his ability and maturity since he arrived on campus in January. There’s a thought internally he’ll compete for the starting gig a year from now when Rattler is presumably off to the NFL.

A spring game is hardly enough to anoint a QB1 for the 2024 season now, but Sellers sure looks like he’s got some chops.