Former Gamecock Bangally Kamara announces commitment to Big 12 school

Former South Carolina linebacker Bangally Kamara has a new home.

Kamara, who stepped away from the Gamecocks midseason to preserve a redshirt year with intent to transfer, has committed to Kansas, he told ESPN’s Pete Thamel on Monday. He recently took a visit to the school.

Kamara cannot officially enter the transfer portal until later this year when the NCAA window for football opens and won’t play for the Jayhawks until 2025.

Thamel wrote that Kamara’s commitment to Kansas makes him “the first known transfer commit of the 2024-25 portal cycle.”

Kamara was a fifth-year senior linebacker who transferred from Pitt to USC in January and appeared in four games this fall before stepping away from the program last month ahead of the Oct. 12 game at Alabama.

Kansas, coached by Lance Leipold, is currently 2-6 and 1-4 in the Big 12. Last year, the Jayhawks were 9-4 and ranked as high as No. 19 in the AP Top 25.

Kamara was also considering Mississippi State, Cal, SMU, Illinois and Purdue and had reportedly scheduled fall official visits to some of those schools. But he’s canceled those visits after committing to Kansas, per Thamel.

Beamer explains departure

News broke Oct. 8 that Kamara, who’d played in four of USC’s first five games, was redshirting to preserve his final year of eligibility and would enter the portal.

College football players can play in up to four regular-season games while maintaining a redshirt year, and in 2024 a trend has popped: Players who aren’t playing as much as they want opting out of the remainder of the season.

Kamara’s decision came as a surprise to South Carolina fans. He wasn’t a starter for the Gamecocks but was firmly in their defensive rotation, having played the fourth most snaps among USC linebackers (70) to that point.

Kamara had recorded nine tackles on the season and finished as the highest graded defensive player in South Carolina’s home loss to Ole Miss three days before news broke that he intended to redshirt and enter the portal.

Coach Shane Beamer said later that afternoon that he made the decision for Kamara to “move on” from the roster after the linebacker informed Beamer of his plans.

“He was a guy that played a season high in snaps Saturday at linebacker that was going to continue to play more for us moving forward,” Beamer said Oct. 8. “My job is to do what’s best for the team. What was best for the team in my mind is ’Gally continuing to play. ... He didn’t quite feel the same way. In the end I made the decision for him that it was probably best to move on.”

South Carolina football 2024 transfers out

• LB Bangally Kamara, Oct. 8 (Kansas)