How South Carolina defender Dylan Stewart improved his on-field demeanor
Dylan Stewart was fuming. That sort of look a bull gets when a matador whisks his cape and taunts them. Big eyes. Deep breaths. Horns dorn. A second of stillness before charging.
And then all that pent-up anger went right into the stomach of Bradley Dunn. Poor, poor Bradley Dunn, who did nothing to anger the bull except touch the football. He might as well have been waving a big red cape.
That play was over a year ago. Back before Stewart had begun his South Carolina career. Before he drew SEC triple teams and still notched 6.5 sacks. Before he turned into the best defensive freshman in America, an early gem in the 2027 NFL Draft class.
It was in August during fall camp. The Gamecocks were practicing on their indoor practice field. Everyone at South Carolina already knew plenty about Stewart’s talent. He was a five-star recruit. Dominated in the spring game. Had perhaps more length and athleticism than anyone in the Gamecocks’ edge rusher room.
But they hadn’t seen Stewart engulfed by rage, fueled by emotion. Then offensive lineman Trovan Baugh pissed him off.
“He was pulling, I guess,” Stewart said. “And I just randomly feel he smacked me. I was on the floor.”
“One of the O-linemen got the best of him,” said edge coach Sterling Lucas. “The offense was going crazy.”
“It got chippy between him and (Baugh),” said D-lineman Nick Barrett.
“I was mad,” Stewart said. “I knew what play it was because I could see the O-linemen looking down so I already knew he was blocking down.”
It was a counter run. Quarterback Robby Ashford took the handoff, putting the ball in the belly of his running back — the 5-foot-9, 206-pound Dunn.
“I didn’t even realize what happened,” Dunn said. “It happened so fast. … As soon as I got the ball — boom! There was nothing I could do.”
Watching it on tape, there are shades of Jadeveon Clowney’s famous hit against Michigan. Stewart and Lucas are quick to see the comparison. Just the timing seems impossible. Snap, handoff — boom! (Dunn wanted to clarify three things: He didn’t fumble, his helmet didn’t fly off and “after that play, I proceeded to have two explosive runs,” he said.)
The play put South Carolina’s coaching staff in a precarious spot. Here they had one of the best recruits in program history, who is perhaps better than even they thought. He has been on campus for a few months and is already doing stuff like this? Sheesh!
But also: He’s doing this when he wants to. Mind you, it was a non-tackling period. No one was supposed to hit the ground and Stewart pile-drives a teammate into the ground — and why? Because an offensive lineman slapped him? Because someone got under his skin?
“It was good to see,” defensive coordinator Clayton White told The State. “But it also wasn’t the most team-oriented move.”
Added Lucas: “That’s the mentality we’re talking about, right? Things might not always go great, but how do we respond?”
Dylan Stewart maturing at South Carolina
The most-memorable single image of Stewart’s freshman year was another one of those angry-bull moments. It’s the picture of Stewart standing over Ole Miss quarterback Jaxon Dart, pointing a fake machine gun at him and pretending to pull the trigger.
It was a poor sight made worse by the timing. The Gamecocks were already down big. Stewart thought the Rebels’ O-line was holding him all day. Then he finally broke through and sacked Dart. And that wasn’t enough. He had to celebrate so egregiously that he drew an unsportsmanlike penalty.
The development of Stewart revolves all around his psyche. Can he respond to adversity? Can he just keep playing when things go wrong? When the triple teams come or tackles keep getting away with tugging on his jersey?
Through one game of 2025, the progress was evident.
In the Gamecocks’ 24-11 win over Virginia Tech on Sunday, Stewart was battling all day. He and fellow edge Bryan Thomas were speeding up Hokies quarterback Kyron Drones, but they weren’t getting to him. Late into the third quarter, Stewart had more penalties (two) than sacks (zero).
Finally, he broke through, sacking Drones late in the third quarter. His celebration was tame. No flags came out. And his sack opened up lanes for his teammates — on the next drive, Jatius Geer came around the edge and sacked Drones.
“I do think that’s a big growth in him,” White said of Stewart. “We kind of preach that to him. Understanding who you are, and understanding the value that you have, and what other teams (are) going to try and do. And, you know, take it as a positive.”
After the game, coach Shane Beamer admitted that, if this were last year, Stewart probably would’ve let the frustration get to him. He would have been overtaken with the double-teaming and the chipping without thinking,“Hey, this offense is devoting a ton of resources to stopping me — that should help everyone else.”
“He affected the quarterback even when he wasn’t in the backfield,” Beamer said. “And that’s what I was most proud of, just his demeanor during the game.”
This story was originally published September 4, 2025 at 7:00 AM with the headline "How South Carolina defender Dylan Stewart improved his on-field demeanor."
