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After Stan Drayton and Kendal Briles met with Gamecock Club members in Anderson on Tuesday night, the first-year running backs coach spoke with 247Sports about a handful of topics. Redshirt sophomore running back Matt Fuller was among them. Fuller, who was named Offensive Player of the Spring by South Carolina's coaches, has 80 carries for 285 yards and two touchdowns over his college career. Drayton, of course, worked at Penn State last season, so this spring served as his on-field introduction to Fuller. "He got more and more confident about his skillset. He became a student of the game this offseason, so now his knowledge of defense and how safeties and linebackers are fitting run games, what we're asking offensive linemen to do in the run game," Drayton said. "It's all enhancing. It's allowing the game to slow down for him, so now when you have a player that has the skillset that he has and the game is slowing down." Fuller appeared in 10 games and finished as the Gamecocks' third-leading rusher, with 72 carries for 260 yards and two touchdowns. His top play of the season was the 72-yard touchdown run at LSU. But he also played a big part in icing the game late against Kentucky. The final stat line that night: 19 carries for 48 yards with a touchdown. In 2026, Fuller is on track to be the starter, with Isaiah Augustave, Jawarn Howell and Christian Clark also in the mix for carries. There's an entire summer and August camp to navigate if Fuller's going to retain that job through the Week 1 game against Kent State. Drayton looks forward to what's in store from Fuller, who's listed at 5-11, 218 pounds on the team's official website. "Now, I think for the first time we're going to see Matthew Fuller, who is actually cutting it loose and playing free football," Drayton said. "I don't know if he's played free since he's been in college yet. I think this is a year where he can get himself into the mindset of playing free football. And I'm excited to see what that looks like."