Transfer quarterback for Gamecocks? USC offers QB, WR teammates in portal

Saint Francis University, an FCS program in Pennsylvania that’s in the Northeast Conference, last week notified its players that plans to play a spring season had been scratched. With that news, some players headed into the NCAA transfer portal.

Two of those were the best offensive players on the team, junior quarterback Jason Brown (6-4, 230) and junior wide receiver E.J. Jenkins (6-8, 235), who announced a decision Friday to transfer.

The natives of Fredericksburg, Virginia have played together since the seventh grade, and they want to continue to play together. On Tuesday, they were contacted by South Carolina. On Wednesday, the Gamecocks followed through with an offer.

“I was just sitting on my coach and E.J. called me and was like, ‘A South Carolina coach is following me,’” Brown said Tuesday. “Thirty seconds after that, the same coach followed me and we ended up getting on a Zoom five minutes later. It works fast.”

Tuesday’s one-hour Zoom session included Gamecock coaches Shane Beamer, Marcus Satterfield, Des Kitchings and Justin Stepp.

“That’s SEC football. It doesn’t get any better than that,” Brown said. “The new facilities are amazing. They are beautiful. I would definitely hop on that for sure. There’s a very, very, very good chance.

“They said they would offer me and E.J. We want to keep playing together. We get to do that playing SEC football. That’s crazy.”

Brown became the starter at Saint Francis in 2019 and earned FCS Honorable Mention All-American honors. He led the NEC in passing and set single-season schools passing records with 3,084 yards and 28 touchdowns. He completed 62% of his attempts with just six interceptions.

Jenkins was second team All-NEC in 2019 and set the school with with 13 touchdown catches. He had 39 catches for 779 yards.

USC followed up Wednesday with another Zoom meeting and delivered the good news to the long-time friends.

“We were told we both have offers,” Brown said. “They just have to get us in. Admissions take about five days to get the percentage and hours of classes and things like that. We’ll be ready to commit once everything finalizes. We’ll have to be March 1st enrollees.”

Brown said he and Jenkins plan to formally commit once everything is finalized with USC admissions. The school’s Spring II session classes start March 15. The Gamecocks have not announced spring practice dates.

“It’s going to have to be a quick process, which is completely fine with me honestly,” Brown said.

This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 10:27 PM with the headline "Transfer quarterback for Gamecocks? USC offers QB, WR teammates in portal."