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Jerell Adams already owns a slew of All-SEC awards for his performance in the classroom. Now the South Carolina Gamecocks player is looking to add to his accolades between the white lines as one of the conference’s best tight ends.
The two-time SEC Fall Academic Honor Roll member adds stability — along with WR Pharoh Cooper — to a South Carolina passing game that could experience its share of hiccups this season with an unproven stable of young wide receivers and a first-year quarterback at the helm.
But that’s worst-case scenario. The likely starter should assimilate nicely into Steve Spurrier’s offense, whether it’s Connor Mitch, Perry Orth, Michael Scarnecchia or Lorenzo Nunez. Mitch is rumored to be the frontrunner to start when the season begins Sept. 3 against North Carolina.
That’s great news for the senior Adams, who has the talent to be among the top tight ends in the SEC. The senior enters the year as one of six SEC players on the John Mackey Award Watchlist for the nation’s most-outstanding tight end.
SEC tight ends on the John Mackey Award Preseason Watchlist
- Jerell Adams, South Carolina
- Evan Engram, Ole Miss
- Hunter Henry, Arkansas
- O.J. Howard, Alabama
- Jake McGee, Florida
- Steven Scheu, Vanderbilt
Adams finished 2014 with 279 yards (13.3 yards per catch) and a touchdown. That was while splitting time nearly exactly down the middle at tight end with Rory “Busta” Anderson. Anderson started one more game (6 games to 5) and hauled in one more pass (22 passes to 21) than Adams.
In Adams, the new quarterback gets a burly 6-foot-6, 231-pound target with 4.62 40-yard dash speed — tops among the SEC’s nominated Mackey Award tight ends.
Adams will benefit greatly as opposing defenses are forced to get creative with their coverage on Cooper, an All-SEC wide receiver who could be among the conference’s elite at the position.
If Adams can pick up Anderson’s 260 receiving yards this season, he could potentially tally somewhere between 550 to 600 yards, depending on how well the new quarterback picks up the offense. In that neighborhood, he’d challenge for tops among SEC tight ends. Last year’s leading tight end was Ole Miss’ Evan Engram with 662 yards. Engram averaged 17.4 yards per catch, a number that Adams (14.6 career ypc) will need drastic improvement to match.
Kevin Crosby and Jacob August have been pushing Adams in fall camp. But the senior will be the man come Week 1. If the Gamecocks can get consistency from the quarterback position, it’s not unreasonable to think that Adams can challenge Jared Cook (1,107 yards) for most career yards by a Gamecocks tight end dating back to the beginning of the now-defunct BCS era.
Chris Wuensch is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers South Carolina and Tennessee.
