Dylan Stewart causes uproar in South Carolina: Fans ‘give away’ their jerseys and call for coach's dismissal
Star defender still viewed as an elite prospect, but his response to coaches has changed the conversation
Dylan Stewart entered the season viewed as one of college football ’s most gifted young defenders. After a chaotic loss to Alabama, however, his NFL projection now comes with a very different kind of scrutiny.
The South Carolina edge rusher was suspended indefinitely by coach Shane Beamer after a game in which he was penalized multiple times, swung at Alabama tight end Josh Ford and later resisted attempts by coaches to remove him from the field.
Todd McShay believes that sequence will matter to NFL scouts.
“The thing that concerned me, quite honestly, is it was a dumb mistake to go and have the personal foul penalty or the unnecessary roughness penalty,” McShay said.
“It’s the behavior afterwards. It was unhinged. It felt really unhinged. And that was concerning.”
Bigger issue came after the penalties
The most damaging part of Stewart ’s night may not have been the punch itself. Late in the fourth quarter, freshman Julian Walker was sent in to replace Stewart .
Stewart waved him off, pushed him away and remained on the field until multiple South Carolina coaches became involved.
“It was just the disrespect to Shane Beamer, your head coach, the disrespect to the assistant coaches,” McShay said. “As an [NFL] evaluator, the talent is explosive. He is elite. But evaluators are trying to figure this out: what are we bringing in?”
Beamer made a similar distinction when announcing the suspension: “There’s a standard of how we do things in our program,” he said. “It’s beyond the punch. The punch is unacceptable.
“But it’s some of the other stuff that isn’t how we do things in this program. Accountability is a core value of this program, and we are all accountable to the standard.”
Elite talent no longer only part of evaluation
Stewart ’s physical upside remains obvious. He recorded 6.5 sacks as a freshman in 2024 and 4.5 more in 2025, building a reputation as an explosive edge defender with the burst, flexibility and pass-rush repertoire NFL teams often target early in the draft.
That's why the incident stands out. Josh Pate described the Alabama game as one of the most damaging performances he could remember from a player with Stewart ’s level of talent.
“If Dylan Stewart entered Saturday’s game with the goal of completely tanking his draft stock, I don’t know that he would’ve done anything different than what I watched,” Pate said.
“One of the most self-destructive nights I can remember seeing an elite talent have.”
Beamer has framed the suspension as a chance for Stewart to learn rather than simply a punishment.
“The right thing to do is the hard thing to do, and that’s to sit him down,” Beamer said.
Stewart ’s ceiling hasn't suddenly disappeared. Neither has the athletic ability that made him a potential first-round pick. What has changed is the evaluation around him.
