The saga of Juice Wells: Was his transfer to Ole Miss about NIL money? Or something else?

To scroll through the social media comments for a few seconds is to picture some twisted mixture of Benedict Arnold and Bernie Madoff. A traitor and crook. Not just defecting, but stealing in the process.

And, boy, that’s a compelling script.

Antwane Wells Jr. — better known as “Juice” — fits a narrative. Whatever you want that narrative to be. The former South Carolina wide receiver transferred to Ole Miss — where he has already caught 14 passes for 274 yards and 4 scores — sticking a knife in the fan base that watched him become a superstar.

In 12 months, he went from the poster child for all the good that came out of college football’s player-empowerment era — then proved just how messy it can become.

He transferred from James Madison to South Carolina ahead of the 2022 season, jumping to the SEC after two stellar seasons playing FCS football. In his first year in Columbia, he was fantastic, becoming a second-team All-SEC player with 928 yards and six touchdowns.

He was really good, yet still not some revolutionary South Carolina receiver. He didn’t touch Alshon Jeffery’s school records set just a decade earlier. But, hey, Jeffery didn’t catch passes in the NIL era and also never caught two touchdowns in an upset win over Clemson.

For a blink, Wells was closing in on deity status at South Carolina. Winning football was having a renaissance in Columbia and, arguably, the man most responsible was this 6-foot-1, 210-pound receiver from Richmond, Virginia.

In the Gamecocks’ upsets of No. 5 Tennessee and No. 7 Clemson, Wells caught 20 passes for over 300 yards. He was the hottest player on the hottest team with the coolest name. The branding possibilities had marketing folks drooling.

By the end of the 2022 season, he was bringing in more brand deals than the Kelce brothers. In May 2023, it was reported that Wells had earned more NIL deals than any other player in the SEC. His 14 brand partnerships made him “SEC Football’s NIL King.”

He had deals with everything from local Village Idiot Pizza to the national dog-food company “The Farmer’s Dog,” to, perhaps most interesting, the South Carolina Watermelon Association.

And then things got weird.

Ten months after he’s biting into a pizza called “The Juice,” his former teammate hopped on Instagram and gave him a different nickname: “Judas Wells,” South Carolina safety Nick Emmanowri wrote over a picture of Wells in the offseason.

So what happened?

A timeline of Wells’ situation

Sometime in the summer of 2023, Wells fractured his foot during offseason workouts and had a surgery where doctors inserted a screw to stabilize the fracture. He played in the season-opener against North Carolina, but left the game early after aggravating the foot.

The next week, he caught a pass in the Gamecocks’ blowout of Furman, which led to a Week 3 showdown at No. 1 Georgia. In the first quarter, he hauled in a screen pass from QB Spencer Rattler and ran 17 yards into the end zone. Not long after, he was being carted off the field with what coach Shane Beamer called a broken foot.

A charade ensued for the rest of the season where Beamer would be asked about Wells’ status almost weekly.

On Oct. 10 ahead of the Florida game: “The injury is healing really well,” Beamer said.

On Oct. 18 ahead of the Missouri game: “Juice will not play.” Beamer said.

On Oct. 24 ahead of the Texas A&M game: “I think if you asked Juice,” Beamer said, “I think he would tell you he would like to come back and play at some point this season.”

On Oct. 31 ahead of the Jacksonville State game: “(Juice is) “getting closer and closer,” Beamer said.

On Nov. 7 ahead of the Vanderbilt game: “(Juice is) day-to-day,” Beamer said.

On Nov. 14 ahead of the Kentucky game: Juice had been jogging for a few weeks, Beamer said.

On Nov. 20, days before South Carolina was set to play Clemson, Wells posted to social media that he’s “not playing and not holding out for the NFL draft. I’ll be back next year…”

On Nov. 21, Beamer responded to that, saying: “If Juice decides he’s in the right frame of mind and it feels good physically and he wants to do that (play), great. But we’re not counting on that.”

The most-interesting, read-between-the-lines quote came a day later from offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains, who seemed to insinuate that Wells could have been on the field if he wanted to, but was intentionally holding himself out.

“You’ve got to make a decision about what’s best for you and hopefully it aligns with the team,” Loggains said. “And sometimes it doesn’t — and that’s unfortunate. But we also understand that and we support everything he wants to do.”

Just eight days after Loggains said that, word was out that Wells was going to enter the transfer portal. Less than a month later, the speedy wide receiver had committed to SEC foe Ole Miss.

One can understand the feeling of betrayal that followed, and South Carolina fans — many of whom donated to an NIL collective that paid Wells directly — now see Wells as merely a guy who sat on the sidelines, cashed their checks then bolted with no feeling of remorse.

What actually happened?

To former South Carolina running back Dakereon Joyner, who played with Wells for two years, the hatred does make sense. On the outside, it looks like Wells gamed the NIL system to the detriment of South Carolina — what could be better than making money without doing anything?

But, Joyner said, “it’s a misunderstanding on our fans’ part, to a sense.”

“His foot was already broken leading up to (the 2023) season,” Joyner said. “Then he rushed himself back just to be able to play that year, and wasn’t really healthy the first two games. And on the play he caught the ball and scored (against Georgia), he broke his foot during that play.”

In other words: Wells wasn’t faking an injury. His foot was really broken.

Heck, during one of his first days at Ole Miss, according to a source, he broke his foot again. Now, were there coaches or teammates at South Carolina who felt that he wasn’t going all-in on his rehab in an attempt to possibly come back? Yes. But that also doesn’t mean he wasn’t injured.

And then there is the thought that Wells simply left because he wanted more money, which apparently is not true. Jeremy Smith, the operations director for Garnet Trust, told The State in January that Wells did not leave South Carolina because of NIL money.

Another source with knowledge of the situation said they believe Ole Miss’ NIL opportunities are paying Wells more than South Carolina’s were, but it’s likely very close. The source said that South Carolina’s collective and NIL deals were paying Wells good money and, after the 2023 season, they didn’t feel as if more compensation was needed for Wells considering he didn’t play the entire season.

The reason Wells left, the source said, was because he didn’t trust that South Carolina had a quarterback. Which makes sense — the Gamecocks lost veteran Spencer Rattler to the NFL Draft and all signs pointed to redshirt freshman LaNorris Sellers starting this season.

Months after he made the choice to go to Oxford, Wells gave his reasoning for the departure.

“I chose Ole Miss because I felt Ole Miss was the best team in the SEC, honestly,” he said.

He’ll have to prove that on Saturday, in front of 80,000 folks who believe he’s public enemy No. 1.