Jody Wright "Really Excited" About New Tight End Room

There are few major college football coaching staffs who can say that despite losing their entire tight end room, they might be deeper and possess a wider range of skillsets at the position. Yet, that's exactly how South Carolina tight end coach Jody Wright feels heading into the 2023 season.

The second-year tight end coach made no bones about the losses of players like Nate Adkins and Austin Stogner when I briefly spoke to him at South Carolina's Media Day event last Thursday, explicitly calling Adkins "one of the toughest and best football players [he'd] ever been around." However, coach Wright likes what he has from a talent, skillset, and intangible standpoint with his revamped tight end room.

"I do believe talent-wise, and being able to do what they're able to do, whether it's size [or] speed, that they may be more talented," Wright stated. "I do think [with] Trey [Knox], and Josh [Simon], and Nick Elksnis from Florida, you've got three guys [that've] got size, they've got some speed, they all can catch short [and] intermediate [passes], and I think they've got the ability to stretch you through some vertical stuff," Jody explained.

While Knox, Simon, and Elksnis are likely to garner the most attention from the fans and pundits because they've all proven themselves to a certain extent, the young group of freshmen have also impressed Wright this offseason.

"With Connor Cox, being able to come in January had a really great Spring; Reid Mikeska had a couple of minor injuries [and] had to miss some [of] Spring practice, but Reid is very talented, [and] I think he's gonna be a really good player. We've got two really good walk-ons in Maurice Brown and Lukas Vozeh, who have helped us as well."

With the offseason now essentially over and the Gamecocks nearly a week into Fall camp, Jody hopes to see his guys take everything they've done on the field and translate that to situations where the results truly count.

"As [with] anything, we've gotta go put it out there on the field - but everything from Spring, what they've shown in the Summer, [I'm] very excited about their attitude and work ethic, how they've attacked everything, [and] all of them have gotten bigger, faster, and stronger, which is a real positive as well."

You Might Also Like:

Join the community:

Follow Andrew Lyon on Twitter: @ALyon_SC
Follow Fisher Brewer on Twitter: @USCTalk
Follow Joseph Griffin on Twitter: @JosephGriffinJG
Follow Locked On Gamecocks on Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts

You can follow us for future coverage by clicking "Follow" on the top right-hand corner of the page. Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter at @GamecocksDigest.

Add us as a preferred source on Google