The Feed Pail: Gamecocks find their man at OC

Welcome back to the Feed Pail, which I’m using as a repository this weekend because the news has been coming fast and furious and some of us have day jobs, dammit. But since 2021 has already shown itself to be a Year of No Chill, I guess it’s no surprise our Gamecocks have been getting in on the intrigue.

Beamer hires Panthers assistant as offensive coordinator

We have an offensive coordinator again! After the, uh, abrupt departure of Mike Bobo, Marcus Satterfield comes to save the day for the Gamecocks. Hired away from the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, where he was an assistant offensive line coach, Satterfield once worked with Shane Beamer at Tennessee, where they were both graduate assistants, so there’s an existing relationship. Satterfield is also a longtime associate of Matt Rhule, the former Baylor head man who now leads the Panthers and is known for being both a strong offensive mind and a builder of programs. This could be a pretty good match for South Carolina, all things considered, so consider us cautiously optimistic about the move.

South Carolina will FINALLY play in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff

While the Gamecocks have appeared multiple times against various North Carolina schools in the Belk Bowl Kickoff hosted in Charlotte, they have somehow never come within spitting distance of the longer-tenured Chick-fil-A Kickoff in Atlanta, which was the original season-opening contest pitting the ACC vs. the SEC. South Carolina will now finally make its overdue appearance in the event in 2025 against Virginia Tech, which of course is the alma mater of new coach Shane Beamer, whose father, Frank, is the Hokies’ legendary coach. Get your storylines ready — you’ve got a few years to polish ‘em. (By the way, the Gamecocks own the series against VT, which currently stands at 11-7-2.)

Gamecocks pick up a few commitments

Yes, you read that correctly — South Carolina is allowed to add players to its roster rather than simply lose them through the transfer portal. It’s true! Behold, the three players who have chosen to make Columbia their new home:

• Kolbe Fields, three-star linebacker, previously committed to Oklahoma State and Memphis
• David Spaulding, three-star prospect, defensive back, transfer from Georgia Southern
• Darryl Williams, three-star prospect, linebacker, transfer from Delaware (FCS)

All three commitments pulled the trigger on Thursday. Not bad for a day’s work!

And in case you missed it, a hoops update

If you liked watching the men’s basketball team finally play (and win!) games, guess what? That’s not happening again, because this weekend’s road contest against Ole Miss was postponed due to COVID issues on the Gamecocks’ side. This problem has also, unfortunately, affected the South Carolina women, who were forced to postpone their own game against Georgia this past Thursday. As of this writing, we still don’t know when either squad will be back in action — let’s just hope it doesn’t take a month like it previously did for the USC men.