Trajan Jeffcoat beyond ‘fired up’ to have big game against home-state Gamecocks
Trajan Jeffcoat had an extra degree of satisfaction when he held the Mayor’s Cup trophy Saturday night following Missouri’s 31-28 win over South Carolina.
The trophy is given to the winner of the Gamecocks-Tigers game every year. Jeffcoat, a South Carolina native and Missouri defensive end, had one of his best games of the season Saturday. The redshirt junior had two tackles, one tackle for loss and recovered a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown.
“It felt great celebrating with my teammates and it’s always good to step on South Carolina,” Jeffcoat told reporters after the game. “... South Carolina, it is my home state and I was just fired up. Knowing that I’m from South Carolina and knowing how much aggression I have against that team.”
That aggression is probably due, in part, to not receiving a scholarship offer from the previous South Carolina coaching staff — something he said in 2017 “would mean a lot” to him.
Jeffcoat was a standout at Irmo High School, which is about 20 minutes from USC’s campus. The Gamecocks showed interest and assistant Mike Peterson — who is still on USC’s staff — recruited him but never offered.
“I feel I would fit perfectly in the program,” Jeffcoat said in 2017 about USC. “I really like what Will Muschamp is doing with the Gamecocks. I like the way he recruits.”
Jeffcoat, who had 13 sacks and was a Shrine Bowl selection his senior year of high school, ended up signing with Missouri and has had an up-and-down career for the Tigers. He played in 13 games as a freshman, but the school announced in October 2019 that he was no longer a member of the team.
Jeffcoat entered the transfer portal and had interest from other schools, according to the Columbia (Missouri) Tribune. But he stayed in touch with his teammates and eventually made his way back to Missouri.
The Tigers made a coaching change and brought in Eli Drinkwitz in December 2019 to replace Barry Odom.
“It was definitely beneficial,” Jeffcoat told the Columbia Tribune of his time away. “But also I always talk to my teammates as well because I wanted to be a motivating factor to them. I still wanted to motivate them. I still wanted to keep them good because a lot of people look up to me and I look up to a lot of players on the team. So I’ll just continue to motivate them.”
Jeffcoat enrolled again at the school before the 2020 season and had a breakout year. He had six sacks and seven quarterback hurries and was a first-team All-Southeastern Conference selection by the coaches.
This year, Jeffcoat has 23 tackles and 2½ sacks.
“We are just grinding as a unit, grinding as a team,” Jeffcoat said. “And it is paying off right now.”
This story was originally published November 13, 2021 at 10:12 PM with the headline "Trajan Jeffcoat beyond ‘fired up’ to have big game against home-state Gamecocks."
