Talented transfer addition leaving South Carolina football team
One of South Carolina’s most intriguing transfer additions this offseason is leaving the team.
Defensive back Karon Prunty is in the transfer portal, a USC athletic department spokesperson confirmed to The State on Thursday. Matt Zenitz of On3 Sports first reported the news.
Prunty committed to the Gamecocks in late June and arrived on campus a few weeks later. His time on campus lasted about a month. TheBigSpur reported that Prunty had not practiced with the team for several days.
Prunty has not commented publicly on his departure but did post this Wednesday night to his Instagram: “Been tryna heal up this whole time but it’s been too long I’m starting to realize it’s permanent scars.”
Prunty didn’t allow a touchdown in his lone season at Kansas, was all-Big 12 Honorable Mention and selected to 247Sports Freshman All-American Team. He left Kansas and entered the transfer portal in June, then made his decision between South Carolina and Tennessee.
The 6-foot-1, 190-pound corner started all nine of Kansas’ games as a freshman. Prunty notched 26 tackles, tied for the lead nationally among freshmen with 10 pass break-ups and held opponents to a 38.5% completion percentage.
The Virginia native was a three-star prospect by 247Sports Composite for the 2020 class. He originally committed to Liberty, flipped to Kansas in December 2019 and enrolled early in 2020.
Even with his departure, the South Carolina has plenty of new faces in the secondary for the 2021 season. Five of the team’s 15 scholarship defensive backs are new to the roster.
The Gamecocks under head coach Shane Beamer and new defensive backs coach Torrian Gray are reshaping a position that lost several players to transfer portal and saw stars Jaycee Horn and Israel Mukuamu depart for the NFL.
Prunty was the last of USC’s transfer portal defensive backs to arrive on campus. Others who arrived over the summer were Tyrese Ross (safety, Washington State) and Carlins Platel (cornerback, Assumption). David Spaulding (Georgia Southern) enrolled in January at USC.
This story was originally published August 12, 2021 at 12:28 PM with the headline "Talented transfer addition leaving South Carolina football team."
