News came through yesterday that Gamecocks Wide Receiver Matt Clements is no longer with the football team. This is on top of the news that came through earlier this week that USC backup QB Reid McCollum is also leaving the football team. From a USC’s fan perspective, we barely knew these guys.
Matt Clements, a four-star prospect out of high school and the nation’s 43rd-best wide receiver by Scout.com, was part of the nationally ranked 2007 recruiting class. Some experts rated this class as having the nation’s best wide receiving class. This WR class had names like Joe Hills, OJ Murdock, Jason Barnes, Chris Culliver, Larry Freeman, Dion LeCorn and Michael Bowman. Out of those 7 WR’s the only players left at receiver at Carolina is Barnes and LeCorn. Chris Culliver was moved to the secondary and has excelled. The others did not pan out and left the program for different reasons or could not get in after signing day (Bowman).
The Clements’ news is not all that surprising. You’ll recall that Clements was briefly moved to cornerback during the preseason. After returning to offense, he spent most of the year on the scout team.
Then there was the brief tenure of Reid McCollum, who had more off the field drama that on the field drama. Before he stepped foot on campus he was hit with two heart-breaking situations that no one ever wants to go through especially at the age of 18. The first was the death of one of his high school coaches from Summerville in the tragic fire in Charleston that killed several firemen. The other was the untimely and tragic death of his girlfriend in the Ocean Isle fire that took the lives of several young people from Carolina and Clemson. Both issues took a toll on Reid and I could not imagine going through something like that. I honestly hate to see Reid leave the program but the recent addition of qb Connor Shaw and the play of starter Stephen Garcia most likely was “writing on the wall.”
McCollum completed 4 of 6 passes for 39 yards and a touchdown in two games last season. For Clements, he had 2 catches in 9 games. So as you can see, we barely knew these kids yet we here at LOHD wish them the best in whatever they choose to do in life.
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