He might be South Carolina’s best player, and he’s only taking one class this fall

When it comes to off-the-field distractions for South Carolina football’s star player this fall, they’ll be pretty minimal.

That’s the advantage Deebo Samuel has as a redshirt senior.

Because Samuel is in his fifth year at USC, he doesn’t have much work left to do to fulfill the requirements for his retail management major — he’s taking just one class this semester, he told reporters Tuesday.

As a result, he said, he hasn’t spent too much time on the main campus, so he’s missed out on some of the preseason hype building around the Gamecocks, and him specifically, from the student body, and he’s also taken steps to shield himself from it online as well, going off his Twitter and Facebook pages.

“Coach (Bryan) McClendon keeps me off social media as much he can ... that’s why I deactivated my Twitter and Facebook,” Samuel said. “He didn’t want me to get caught up in the rankings and what people have got me projected to do.”

So while the rest of the country is talking about his potential for an All-American season and top NFL draft pick, Samuel’s life is pretty simple at the moment.

“It feels good, I’m about to go home and go to sleep after this,” Samuel laughed.

Samuel also confirmed that he is on track to graduate in December.

When asked about Samuel’s classwork, coach Will Muschamp said he once had one class as well as an undergraduate at Georgia, then took the opportunity to poke fun at Carolina’s SEC rival.

“We were on the quarter system, I only had to take one class. All those classes there are easy anyway, so we were good,” Muschamp joked. “I’m just kidding.”

This story was originally published August 28, 2018 at 3:27 PM with the headline "He might be South Carolina’s best player, and he’s only taking one class this fall."