South Carolina will say goodbye to their starting nickel cornerback as Cam Smith announced on Twitter today that he would be forgoing his senior year and declaring for the 2023 NFL Draft. The redshirt junior is the first member of the Gamecocks to make his intentions known.

Smith helped anchor a suffocating Gamecocks secondary unit that finished the regular season sixth in the nation for opposing quarterback completion percentage (53.5%). The team’s secondary will likely have a bit of a makeover next year. In addition to Smith’s departure, outside cornerback Darius Rush and free safety Devonni Reed will be out of eligibility at the end of the season. South Carolina’s other starting outside cornerback, Marcellas Dial, is also a redshirt junior who has yet to make his intentions known. Dial had a career year for the Gamecocks, leading the team in interceptions (3) and passes defensed (11) for the season, so he may also feel tempted to test his value as a pro.

Smith joined South Carolina as a member of the team’s 2019 recruiting class. Coming out of Westwood HS in Blythewood, he was a consensus four-star cornerback and the second-best recruit to come out of the Palmetto State. Smith chose South Carolina over Georgia Tech and fellow SEC competitors Georgia and Tennessee.

Smith retained the ability to redshirt his true freshman season after only appearing in three games and went on to appear in eight games in the team’s shortened 2020 season, starting three as a redshirt freshman. Smith’s redshirt sophomore season would see his most productive year as he was second on the team for interceptions (3) and led the team for passes defensed (11). He’ll leave Carolina with 91 total tackles, six interceptions, and 24 passes defensed over his career.

The 21-year-old is widely expected to be a late first- or early second-round selection this coming April. In an early look at positional prospect rankings, Smith is not as consistently ranked near the top of his position as Georgia’s Kelee Ringo, Oregon’s Christian Gonzalez, or Penn State’s Joey Porter Jr., who recently announced his own declaration, but Smith caught the eye of ESPN’s Matt Miller, Todd McShay, and Mel Kiper, who ranked him as the second-best cornerback behind only Porter.

There’s no word yet on whether or not Smith will participate in the team’s bowl game, but if he does, he will be able to utilize that extra game, the NFL Scouting Combine, and South Carolina’s Pro Day to attempt to increase his draft stock before the first round commences.