The clock is ticking for South Carolina to hear back from the NCAA regarding the eligibility for transfer running back Rahsul Faison. Gamecocks coach Shane Beamer said after practice on Tuesday that the team is still awaiting word.
Faison has been granted permission to practice with South Carolina, which has been preparing as if he is going to be eligible. With kickoff for the season opener less than two weeks away, though, things are coming down to the wire.
“I think we’re just in line,” Beamer said. “We’ve given them everything that they’ve asked and they’ve come back a couple of times in the last few months with just wanting a little bit more. That process, that communication has been very clear and concise. Obviously, the one I’m worried about is this one, but there’s also other cases and I think kind of just we’re in line, if you will. I don’t know the logistics of how everything works there at the NCAA, but it’s not a matter of, at this point, they don’t have what they need.”
Rahsul Faison graduated from high school in 2019 and enrolled at Marshall, but never played a snap for the Thundering Herd and later left the program. He enrolled in online classes at Lackawanna College in 2020, but did not play football.
And when he enrolled at Snow College in 2021, he didn’t get on the field until 2022 and transferred to Utah State for the 2023 season. His push for an extra year of eligibility came after Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia’s legal win over the NCAA.
Pavia initially filed a lawsuit last November against the NCAA, arguing that because the governing body counts junior college seasons towards NCAA eligibility and athletes cannot redshirt after they have played four years, NCAA rules violate antitrust law.
South Carolina is set to kick off the season on Aug. 31 against Virginia Tech. As the team prepares for that game, Beamer said it has mostly been acting as if Rahsul Faison will play. The running back is expected to lead the backfield after rushing for more than 1,000 yards this past season at Utah State.
But if he isn’t, the coach also has confidence in the rest of the running backs on the roster. He said either way he expects multiple players to get on the field.
“From Sul’s standpoint it’s, ‘Let’s get him ready to play,’ but we also gotta have these other guys ready to play,’” Beamer said. “Thankfully, all those other guys are guys that have been here in our program that have been repping. It’s not like they just got here. Sul had a little bit of a shoulder bruise last week where he was a little bit limited, so that gave those guys an opportunity to get in there and get some reps. So for us, it’s really to get all those guys ready to play, prepare like Sul’s playing, prepare him that he’s playing from a reps standpoint.
“We haven’t had a conversation where I told coach Blackwell, ‘Let’s not use him here because we don’t know.’ It’s more of let’s plan on him playing and let’s do what we would if there wasn’t an eligibility issue. Also, though, understanding that we’ve got other running backs that are going to play whether Sul is eligible or not. You’re gonna see more than one or two running backs out there.”
