After portal saga, tight end Brady Hunt is at South Carolina ready to contribute

Brady Hunt was at Ball State. Then South Carolina. Then maybe Texas A&M. No, wait, he never left South Carolina. That all happened within about three weeks this winter.

There are the good and bad stories about the transfer portal. This one is just weird.

Hunt, a redshirt junior tight end, hit the transfer portal just after Ball State’s 4-8 season and committed to South Carolina in mid-December. He was a Gamecock, signing all the necessary paperwork to be included in South Carolina’s early signing day festivities and be talked about by USC coach Shane Beamer.

Less than a week after the new year, numerous outlets reported that Hunt was headed to Texas A&M under new head coach Mike Elko. The only connection was Patrick Dougherty, a former Ball State tight ends coach and special teams coordinator who was hired at Texas A&M.

For two days, it seemed like only a matter of time Hunt was in College Station. Then he put out a tweet that read “Columbia, SC #Home.” Beamer quoted it with a gif that read, “Guess Who’s Back.”

On Thursday morning, in his first media appearance as a Gamecock, Hunt tried to explain his transfer portal saga.

“The transfer portal is something that a lot of people still don’t really know how it works,” Hunt said. “I think I got caught up in a situation that I shouldn’t have been in in the first place. But I think God puts me where I need to be and I’m exactly where my feet are and I’m excited to work here at South Carolina.”

When asked about the parts of the transfer portal that tripped him up, Hunt added:

“I think it’s really just a process where there are so many rules and regulations. There’s not necessarily the right enforcement of those regulations. So it’s kind of hard to navigate, especially as a student-athlete.”

In any case, South Carolina has to be thrilled to have Hunt joining its tight end room — granted the position is currently without a coach after the news that assistant Justin Stepp is heading to Illinois.

Still, the 6-foot-6, 249-pound Hunt is a much-needed addition to a tight end group that includes Joshua Simon but loses Trey Knox.

“They’ve told me they feel like I could be a three-down type of guy,” Hunt said. “And I feel like I’m not a one-dimensional kind of guy.”

A former high school quarterback, Hunt caught 46 passes for nearly 500 yards and five scores in 2022 but missed all of last season with an ankle injury that is no longer a pain.

“I feel as close to 100% as I ever have since my surgery,” he said.