First a QB and basketball player, new Gamecock Brady Hunt grows into versatile tight end

Throw on the highlights of Brady Hunt’s early days at Delta High School in Muncie, Indiana, and you see a towering quarterback, almost hunched under center before dropping back and slinging bombs downfield.

Click over to his senior year, and you’ll find an athlete unleashed a bit more. He’s still doing some of that downfield work, but also lining up the shotgun and running into space, going past or through Indiana high school defenders.

And then flip over to his basketball highlights. Yes, he was a big man, but there’s some wiggle and shake. The handle stands out, as do the shot, good hands and ability to move for someone whose size dwarfs the other players.

This film showed the potential athlete he could be, but it was a different bit of film that showed South Carolina coach Shane Beamer that Hunt could be a potential Gamecock.

“We first saw him last season getting ready to play Tennessee in 2022,” Beamer said at the December signing day. “They had played Ball State earlier in the year. And we saw Ball State on video and we were watching Tennessee’s defense and were like, ‘Who in the heck is this Ball State tight end?’ We didn’t know it at the time, but almost two years later he decided to go in the portal.”

Hunt’s road to South Carolina as a now-incoming transfer is not exactly a direct one. He went to his local college as a bit of a projectable talent, grew into a big body and productive player, and now will chip in for an SEC team and get to enjoy the warmer climates.

Cutting his teeth as a quarterback

Delta High School sits at the northern edge of Muncie, Indiana on a wide, flat stretch of land between farms and a Marathon gas distribution center. Hunt’s high school coach, Chris Overholt, first remembers Hunt as a middle-schooler, leading some dominant teams on both the gridiron and hardwood.

“Just this big, tall, competitive kid,” Overholt said. “Everyone said, ‘Oh, he’s a tremendous basketball player and he plays football on the side.’ But just from Day One, you could tell he was a competitor.

“You just saw just an athlete that went out there, extremely supportive of his teammates. You just knew he was going to help you out somewhere, you just didn’t know where.”

As a freshman, he played receiver in a run-heavy offense. Overholt said they just wanted him out there because they knew he’d be a three-year starter somewhere.

That turned out to be quarterback, where his strong arm was key in pushing the ball downfield as the Eagles switched to a run-and-shoot attack. But in that scheme, he was mostly a drop-back passer, and it wasn’t until his senior year that he was fully unleashed.

“We kind of built things to protect him, keep his legs good,” Overholt said. “We just had some different athletes that could run the ball for us. And then his senior year, Brady really wanted to cut loose. So definitely the second part of his senior season, we opened it up a little bit more.”

Part of that jump to 850 rushing yards his last year came because he lived in the weight room that offseason. He went from around 185 pounds to around 215 and was ready for contact.

And college was set to bring a different kind of building up.

Adding experience to USC’s tight end room

Despite being a pretty good and versatile basketball player (more than 21 points per game as a senior), he went to Ball State, just down the road from Delta. There was a sense he’d move to a position like tight end, but they were going to give him one year at quarterback.

“Brady’s not used to just sitting down and not like competing in practice,” Overholt said. ”And I believe Brady went to the coaches to say, ‘Hey, I can play scout team tight end?’ Which I believe started down that path because he looks so good on the scout team.”

The fanatical work in the weight room was key there as well.

Hunt was listed at 215 pounds when he signed at Ball State, but Overholt admitted it was probably less than that because of basketball. By the end of Hunt’s first year of college, he was up to 240 and is now at 250, filling out that 6-foot-5 frame.

He didn’t have to wait long for on-field success, either. In Year 2 with the Cardinals, he put up 498 yards and five scores on 46 catches. He also blocked for the most productive running back in the conference.

Hunt now joins a South Carolina tight end room in an interesting spot.

“Losing Trey Knox, we like that (tight end) room, but we’re young,” Beamer said. “Josh Simon returned, and then we’re young with Connor Cox, Nick Elksnis and Reid Mikeska. So being able to get some experience in there (with Hunt’s addition).”

Knox was the team’s second-leading receiver, but didn’t have quite the all-around impact expected. Simon arrived from Western Kentucky with a reputation as a receiver, but as he came on through the year, he showed a nice game as both a receiver and blocker.

The group also includes incoming four-star freshman Michael Smith.

Beyond the experience, Hunt adds some much-needed heft, but he also brings some skills a little more nuance to his new squad.

“I can’t say it enough that he’s going to be a great locker room guy,” Overholt said. “There’s a reason his freshman year he’s voted to the leadership council there at Ball State. He cares about people, he invests in people. And it’s to the point where it almost doesn’t seem real because you don’t always get that day-to-day with people. But he’s gonna be a tremendous asset to their locker room.”