Bradley Dunn already had invaluable role for Gamecocks. His nickname is the proof

It’s almost become an annual rite of either spring football practice or preseason camp. The head coach stands in front of the entire team, makes a passionate speech and then, all of a sudden, he calls out a walk-on player and says he’s now on scholarship.

It happened again Sunday when the Gamecocks football X account posted a video of South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer telling two former local standouts Bradley Dunn from Hammond and Ronnie Porter from Heathwood Hall that they were going on scholarship.

“Love the energy here by Bradley Dunn,” Beamer said in the video. “That’s what he does every single day in the five years he’s been in this program. And that’s why he’s going on scholarship.”

For Dunn, that was music to his ears. The running back was asked as recently as South Carolina’s on-campus media day Aug. 1 if he knew of any plans to add him as a scholarship player.

“Not that I know of,” Dunn said at the time, “not yet anyway.”

The fact that Dunn was awarded for his hard work comes as very little surprise for first-year running backs coach Marquel Blackwell. It only took a few meetings before Blackwell began calling Dunn “Coach.”

“We all call him Coach Dunn,” he said. “He keeps everybody right. When I’m not around and they’re doing the team run stuff, I just say ‘Coach, you know what to do. Make sure everything runs smoothly.’ It’s the way he approaches things, he’s in line with everything he does and the guys in the room respect him for how he handles his business.”

The word coach seems to fit Dunn well.

“It’s my understanding of the playbook and being able to explain it to the younger guys,” Dunn said. “I want to help in any way possible. When Coach (Blackwell) was just getting here, as he was still learning the playbook, I was helping him with things and understanding what the plan was.”

Dunn graduated this summer with a degree in sport and entertainment management. Even though he had his degree and had been around for four seasons already, he felt there was some unfinished football business to be handled.

He’s played sparingly in his first four years, redshirting in 2020 and not seeing any action in 2022. But last season, he was a key contributor on special teams and seemed like he had finally found his role on the team.

He was injured in the second game of the season and was out until playing in the final four contests. Walk-on players are rarely mentioned in injury reports, but Beamer always made a point of mentioning Dunn last season when giving out health updates.

Dunn wants to pick up where he left off last season. He was received the most improved award for special teams this past spring.

“The main reason is, I ended up missing eight crucial weeks of the season, especially at a point and time where I was hitting my groove,” Dunn said. “I wanted to come back and do things the right way and finish the way I’m supposed to finish.”

First-year special teams coach Joe DeCamillis is happy to have Dunn.

“Bradley is exactly what you’re looking for in a football player,” DeCamillis said. “He’s very serious and he cares about ball, and he cares about pleasing his teammates and that is a good quality to have.”