South Carolina football fans were stunned earlier this summer when 4-star wide receiver Malik Clark announced his commitment to the Florida State Seminoles. After the Rock Hill High School product seemed to be deciding between South Carolina and North Carolina, the ‘Noles swooped in and landed his pledge.

Shane Beamer and his staff never stopped recruiting Clark, though, and those efforts could be paying off.

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With FSU off to a surprise 1-4 start, Clark decommitted from the Seminoles. On3’s Hayes Fawcett reported the news first.

Clark has visited Columbia multiple times since his initial pledge to Florida State, most recently for the Gamecocks’ matchup with Akron ten days ago. He is expected to be back on campus again soon.

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Listed at 6’2.5″ and 180 pounds, Clark has solid size for a receiver, but he also possesses elite speed. The pass-catcher has run in the 10.5 range in the 100-meter and the upper 4.3s in the 40-yard dash. His speed translates to the gridiron, too, as he routinely runs past high school defenders.

Three receivers are currently committed to the South Carolina football program in the 2025 class. The Gamecock staff are high on Jayden Sellers, Brian Rowe, and Lex Cyrus, but adding another receiver or two in the class would help out a wide receiver room that will be losing a fair amount of players after this season.

On3 ranks Clark as the no. 7 player in the Palmetto State in the ’25 cycle.

You can watch some of his film below.

Lake Marion’s water levels have plunged by more than four feet over the past few days as Santee Cooper, South Carolina’s water and power utility, rushes to make room for floodwaters from North Carolina.

Helene made landfall last Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of around 140 miles per hour near Perry, Florida, in the state’s Big Bend region.

The storm brought fatalities across several southern and southeastern states, with storm surges, devastating winds, and torrential rain that threatened several dams and flooded Asheville, North Carolina.

More than 100 people were killed by the storm, the Associated Press reported. Days later, damage and devastation remain, and North Carolina floodwaters are coming to South Carolina.

On Monday evening, Santee Cooper warned Lake Marion boaters that the lake’s waters may exhibit sudden changes over the next few days.

“Boaters beware: We’re drawing down the lakes to make room for a wall of water coming from NC,” the utility posted on X, formerly Twitter. “Lake water will fall and rise in the next few days. If you must be in a boat, use extreme caution, avoid the Spillway, and watch for rapid water currents.”

A press release from the utility said that “near-historic water flows” were expected to make their way downstream from the North Carolina flooding, amounting to inflows of 2 million gallons per second into Lake Marion. To make room for the water, the utility began lowering the lake’s volume by spilling water from the dam last week.

On September 27, Lake Marion’s water levels were nearly 75 feet. By Tuesday morning, they had dropped to just over 70 feet, a steep plunge compared to average water levels over the past few years. Water levels have mostly ranged from 73 to 76 feet during that time.

The press release assured South Carolina residents that the utility’s dams are secure and not at risk of failure. Last week, Hurricane Helene’s torrential rainfall stressed several dams in North Carolina and Tennessee to the point of imminent failure.

Officials plan to spill water from Lake Marion at a rate of nearly 1 million gallons per second beginning on Tuesday to continue allowing room for the excess water.

Newsweek reached out to Santee Cooper via email for comment.

Although the dam is secure, Santee Cooper warned that flooding may occur in the Santee River floodplain by Thursday or Friday.

“This is a significant spill, and flooding should be expected in the same areas in Georgetown County as experienced in 2015 and 2020, when the utility also conducted major spills,” the press release said. “Flooding will be more significant in areas closer to U.S. Highway 17. The Santee Cooper team is working with local and state authorities to manage any related issues.”

Spilling will continue until further notice.

After dropping the SEC opener to Kentucky, the Ole Miss Rebels have their work cut out for them in Columbia, S.C., against a young South Carolina Gamecock team.

While the Rebels offense looked quite pedestrian last week, head coach Lane Kiffin is one of the best at assessing and fixing the offense from week-to-week. The Rebels will be going up against another talented front that presents a very different skillset and speed off the edge. The Wildcats’ strengths lay up the middle while the Gamecocks’ speed off the edge has turned them into a pretty stout defensive front.

The Rebels and Gamecocks have met only 16 times, the first coming in 1947 in an out-of-conference matchup played in Memphis.

With this being said, let’s take a look at the last three matchups between Ole Miss and South Carolina.

2009 — South Carolina 16, Ole Miss 10

The game that saw the creation of Sandstrom, the Rebels came in as the No. 4-ranked team in the country with hopes to cause havoc in the BCS.

That dream ended quickly after the Gamecocks dominated the middle of the game thanks to QB Stephen Garcia, who was known to pull off an upset or two during his time in Columbia. The real story of the game was the Carolina defense that manhandled the Rebels’ offense for all four quarters. Jevan Snead tried to mount a comeback in the fourth after a Markieth Summers 45-yard touchdown catch brought the Rebels into striking distance at 16-10.

Ole Miss had another chance to go the length of the field late in the fourth but couldn’t muster enough magic to pull it off and turned it over on downs to give the Gamecocks an upset win at home.

2018 — South Carolina 48, Ole Miss 44

This game started with a bang, a 90-yard kick return from Deebo Samuel, putting the Gamecocks up seven on the first play of the game.

Scottie Phillips had himself a day running the football for the Rebs, going for 141 yards on 21 carries and three scores. Jordan Ta’amu also had a strong performance at 31-of-46 through the air for 379 yards.

The Rebels were down two scores at the end of the first, but Phillips found the end zone followed by a Luke Logan field goal that cut the lead to four at 17-13 early in the second. The Rebels and Gamecocks traded scores throughout the second quarter with Phillips capping off a nine-play 75-yard drive with a one-yard touchdown run from Phillips to tie it at 27 apiece just before halftime.

The Rebels took the lead in the fourth quarter with a Logan field goal and another Phillips touchdown run to put Ole Miss up 37-34 heading into the fourth. Two touchdowns by the Gamecocks in the final frame gave them the 48-44 lead after Ole Miss scored in the fourth as well but punted on three consecutive drives and failed to convert on their final drive.

2020– Ole Miss 59, South Carolina 42

Another back-and-fourth matchup in Kiffin’s first season in Oxford. Matt Corral delivered one of the best performances by any Ole Miss QB in history with over 500 yards passing alongside four touchdowns and no interceptions.

Elijah Moore also had one of his best days in a Rebel uniform, going for 225 yards on 13 catches and two touchdowns. One that went for 91 yards made Kiffin throw his play sheet up in the air and gave the Rebels the lead in the fourth quarter.

The Rebels secured a much-needed win, and South Carolina was left scratching its head and moved on from Will Muschamp later in the year.