Jacarrius Peak injury: Shane Beamer defends decision to have South Carolina OL participate in 3-on-3 basketball tournament

On Saturday, reports revealed that South Carolina offensive lineman Jacarrius Peak suffered a lower-body injury. Multiple insiders reported that the injury occurred while South Carolina’s football team was participating in a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. On Tuesday, South Carolina head football coach Shane Beamer confirmed this rumor.

“Yes, he did sustain his injury playing basketball, the same 3-on-3 basketball tournament that we’ve had three years in a row now, that fortunately we haven’t had an injury in in three years,” Beamer said. ”We do team bonding activities in the offseason, 3-on-3 basketball is one of them that we do as a team, along with some other physical, competitive activities.

“I, as the head coach, believe in fostering that team camaraderie. I believe that we get a lot out of it. It’s fun, what we do as a team, but it’s also really beneficial for us as coaches to be able to watch these guys compete, whether it be in wiffle ball or dodge ball or volleyball or all the different activities we’re doing.”

Peak transferred to South Carolina this offseason after spending three seasons at NC State. He amassed 32 total starts for the Wolf Pack.

Peak was the No. 2 offensive tackle in On3’s 2026 Transfer Portal Player Rankings. Moreover, he was the No. 8 overall player.

He chose South Carolina over Alabama, Texas A&M, Ole Miss and numerous other Power Four programs. Along with detailing how Peak’s injury occurred, Beamer revealed his timeline expectations for the transfer tackle’s recovery.

“He will miss spring practice. He will not be fully cleared in the summertime. But we fully anticipate him being ready to roll when September rolls around,” Beamer said. “He’s in great spirits. I just communicated with him before I walked in here and he knows that this is an opportunity for him to be even better as a player, mentally, physically, as we go into the 2026 season.

“… Hate that it happened. Stinks for Jacarrius. He’s going to be okay. It’s not a catastrophic, season-ending injury, where it’s all doom and gloom, here we go again. It was an unfortunate injury. I hate to say it, it probably won’t be the last injury that this team faces in 2026. That’s just life. It happens in the NFL, it happens in college, it happens in high school. Like in every situation, we’ll support Jacarrius, help him through this. He’ll be better for it and it will give other opportunities to other offensive linemen in that room to continue to get more and more reps.”