247Sports Embed Resource
South Carolina lost one of its commitments in the 2026 class on Thursday morning as four-star offensive tackle Kamari Blair flipped his commitment to Tennessee.
The 6-foot-5.5, 281-pound Blair had been commitment to South Carolina since July 16 when he chose the Gamecocks over the Volunteers.
According to the 247Sports Composite, Blair is ranked as the No. 294 overall player in the country and the No. 27 offensive tackle. Coming out of Kirkwood High School in Clarksville, Tenn., he's tabbed as the No. 9 recruit.
With Blair's decommitment, the Gamecocks now have two offensive line pledges in the class in Zyon Guiles and Anthony Baxter. Five-star offensive lineman Darius Gray is set to announce his commitment on Friday.
Stay tuned to TheBigSpur for more coverage of South Carolina Gamecocks football recruiting
Beamer evaluates Doty's performance, second half offense
South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer shared his thoughts on Doty's performance and evaluated the team's second half offensive performance.
South Carolina suffered its first loss of the season on Saturday as it fell to Vanderbilt by a score of 31-7. The Gamecocks were forced move to its backup quarterback late in the second quarter due to injury against the Commodores.
With 1:47 left in the second quarter, LaNorris Sellers went down with an injury and did not return to the game. Luke Doty, who's in his sixth-year in the program, took over and was the Gamecocks' signal-caller for the rest of the game.
Against the Commodores, Doty completed 18-of-27 passes for 148 yards and an interception. On Sunday evening, Beamer detailed what he saw from Doty during his time on the field.
"I thought Luke was doing some good things operating the offense," Beamer said on his Sunday evening teleconference. "Certainly, he needs to be better. He will be the first to tell you that. But he did some really good stuff managing the offense, making calls, directing traffic, making throws."
RELATED: Beamer 'optimistic' about Sellers' outlook for Missouri | Going backwards 'is not a pattern I'm happy with,' says Beamer
When Doty entered the game with just under two minutes remaining in the half, the Gamecocks were on their own 41 after targeting was called on the hit to Sellers. Doty led the offense to the Commodores' 30-yard line, but a false start and two incompletions forced a 53-yard field goal by Mason Love which did not connect.
"I thought he did a good job," Beamer said on Doty's first drive. "That was the two-minute. Right before LaNorris got hurt, I was standing on the sidelines talking with Luke and LaNorris. Luke made a comment to me and LaNorris that, 'Man, this situation is easy compared to some of the situations that you put us in practice when we do the two-minute drill.' We always do two-minute on Sundays and Thursdays. I try and create really tough situations for the offense. …
"Little did I know, two plays later or one play later, Luke would be in there. Kind of the same thing. That was his belief that he's played a lot of football. He has great confidence in himself. I thought he did a nice job during that. The third down play, they played a coverage where we had the seam kind of coming open down the middle. We threw three verticals. He threw it up to give our guy a chance. … He took us down the field and gave us an opportunity to kick a field goal. Probably could have better there on second down and third down to make it a little bit easier on the kicker when he came out. Got us down there with an opportunity to score points and that's all you can ask."
With Sellers down, the Gamecocks had three scholarship quarterbacks to turn to in Doty, Air Noland and Cutter Woods. However, Beamer and the coaching staff felt it was best to stick with Doty late in the second half.
"Mike and I had some discussion about both backup quarterbacks, Cutter and Air both, in regards to potentially putting them in at some point as the game went," Beamer said. "Not necessarily because Luke was playing bad but just to get some other guys some experience. But, we didn't. I was confident that we were going to do down field, score a touchdown, get the two-point conversion and make it a two-score game. Almost returned a kickoff for a touchdown. We were a block away from returning that one all the way.
"Really felt confident about us being able to win the game in the fourth quarter. Felt like Luke gave us the best opportunity to do that as we got into the fourth quarter. Yes, we discussed it briefly. In order to win the game, felt like Luke gave us the best chance at that point."
In the second half with Doty under center, the Gamecocks totaled 159 yards with 133 coming through the air and 26 on the ground. The Gamecocks were held scoreless and finished the half with three turnovers.
"We had drives where we moved the ball but just didn't finish," Beamer said on the second half offense. "It's a fourth down that we got stopped on. It's another fourth down that we got stopped on. It's a pressure where they are bringing seven rushers, and we have six blockers and we've got to get rid of the ball. It's a pass that might just be a little off or a route that might just be a little off. We were moving it, but we have to finish. You have to be able to score points and you have to be able to finish in the red zone, especially against a team like Vanderbilt. I don't know if there is one thing necessarily that I just look at. Just too inconsistent."
247Sports Embed Resource