South Carolina football lands transfer portal defensive end from AAC

Chapel Fowler
·2 min read

The South Carolina football team has addressed one of its most pressing needs – defensive end depth – with a big pickup on the eve of the 2023 season.

Former UAB defensive end Drew Tuazama has committed to the Gamecocks as a graduate transfer with two years of eligibility, he announced Friday via Facebook.

Tuazama – an All-Conference USA Honorable Mention for the Blazers in 2022 – will be immediately eligible for USC and could contribute immediately for a program that lost its top two edge rushers to the transfer portal last offseason.

Tuazama, listed at 6-foot-5 and 275 pounds, had a team-high five sacks plus 33 tackles, three pass breakups and three quarterback hurries in 13 games last season. UAB led Conference USA in scoring defense, passing defense and defensive efficiency while going 7-6.

He was also a preseason all-conference selection in the American Athletic Conference – where UAB will play starting this season – before entering the transfer portal this month.

Tuazama had been trying to leave UAB since April, he said on Twitter, but had to wait until he graduated in August so he’d be immediately eligible at his new school.

The fifth-year senior played two seasons at Syracuse (2019-20) and one at East Mississippi Community College (2021) before joining the Blazers last season.

Tuazama was an accomplished basketball player at Knightdale (N.C.) High School outside of Raleigh and actually had a basketball scholarship offer from St. John’s before deciding to focus on football.

He redshirted at Syracuse in 2019, playing in two games, and had seven tackles, two tackles for loss and a blocked punt in six games in 2020 before moving to East Mississippi, a JUCO, due to academic issues.

Now a college graduate, Tuazama will move back closer to home with hopes of helping South Carolina replace the production of transfers Jordan Burch (Oregon) and Gilber Edmond (Florida State). He brings USC up to seven scholarship defensive ends.

South Carolina opens the season on Saturday Sept. 2 against North Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Classic at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte (7:30 p.m., ABC).

South Carolina 2023 transfer class

  • RB Mario Anderson, Newberry

  • TE Nick Elksnis, Florida

  • TE Trey Knox, Arkansas

  • TE Joshua Simon, Western Kentucky

  • OL Nick Gargiulo, Yale

  • OL Sidney Fugar, Western Illinois

  • OL Jaxon Hughes, Charlotte (PWO)

  • OL Ni Mansell, Mercer (PWO)

  • LB Jaron Willis, Ole Miss

  • WR Eddie Lewis, Memphis

  • DE Jatius Geer, Syracuse

  • DE Drew Tuazama, UAB