Shane Beamer knows better than to risk his best players on the roster, given how fragile things are on the team. Still, he was met with the tough news of losing star OL Jacarrius Peak to an injury. The head coach shared the latest update on his status.

According to him, Peak is “in great spirits” as he recovers from his lower-body injury. He went down with it in a 3-vs-3 basketball game, something that is routine for the team. This happened only a month after he arrived in Columbia from NC State, and is now out for the spring camp, the program declared in its official statement.

“He will not be fully cleared in the summertime,” Beamer added. “But we fully anticipate him being ready to roll when September rolls around.”

Peak was the No. 1 OT in the transfer portal and provided a very important fix to South Carolina’s troubled offensive line. He brings with him a veteran experience of playing at both right and left tackles, playing the 2025 season at the latter position. Peak racked up 54 pancake blocks in 2025. He is crucial for the comeback of an O-line that gave up 43 sacks, leaving elite QB LaNorris Sellers to fend for himself.

While at NC State in 2025, Peak allowed only 13 quarterback pressures, allowing quarterback CJ Bailey to thrive. Plus, he only gave up three sacks and recorded zero in 10 of his 13 starts. Peak, as a seasoned player, was a crucial piece of the Gamecocks’ O-line. Beamer lost eight linemen from the 2025 roster and replaced all of them with new players this year. Things were so bad in the trenches that South Carolina had to fire O-line coach Lonnie Teasley.

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Losing a player like Peak that too in a basketball game has brought criticism from Gamecocks fans. Sellers’ gifts took a lot of hits because of bad O-line play, and South Carolina cannot afford a repeat of that in 2026. Beamer claims that conducting other competitive team-building activities was something players themselves had asked him to do, which is why the basketball game was held. These things are definitely important to build team morale, but they also place the health of players at risk.

Despite the backlash, the head coach is insistent on downplaying the situation.

Shane Beamer won’t ‘bubble wrap’ players to protect their health

Beamer implied that holding games like these was never a problem for South Carolina. He also claimed that the team isn’t the only one doing so in the offseason. Despite Peak going down with an injury, Beamer doesn’t plan on creating a sense of alarm in the locker room. Instead, he will continue to make sure these players are developed before the season.

“We want to be smart and make sure we have a healthy team when we get to the season, but I also can’t just put these guys in bubble wrap and hide them in a closet down the hallway and bring them out on September 5th and be ready to play for Kent State,” Beamer said.

“It’s not a catastrophic, season-ending injury, where it’s all doom and gloom, here we go again. …That’s just life.”

Jacarrius Peak’s injury isn’t major, at least according to what South Carolina claims, but it could have turned problematic as well. Sure, injuries are guaranteed in college football. But when they affect the seasons of players as important as Peak, it jeopardizes things for a team like South Carolina. He isn’t a player meant to be on the depth – the Gamecocks need him to deliver from the get-go, in their plans to do better than 4-8 this year.