COLUMBIA, S.C. — When Justin Stepp joined the South Carolina coaching staff, it was a chance for him to come home. The Pelion product is now working roughly 30 minutes from where he grew up and starred in high school.
Sterling Lucas is enjoying a similar feeling.
The Orangeburg-Wilkinson graduate was a star linebacker for the Bruins and he went on to play at N.C. State.
Lucas is back in South Carolina and will make his unofficial debut as a Gamecock assistant in Saturday night's Garnet and Black Spring Game.
Lucas has professional coaching experience that spans over the past eight years. He began as a strength and conditioning graduate assistant at North Carolina State in 2013 and took the role as a defensive graduate assistant for a year in 2014.
Starting in 2016, Lucas joined the Baltimore Ravens where he worked as a Administrative Assistant, quality control and defensive assistant for both linebackers and defensive line over a span of five seasons.
Lucas made his transition to the Jacksonville where he worked with the Jaguars in 2021. He is now using what he learned in the NFL to help mold the South Carolina defensive ends and outside linebackers into a unit that will give opposing offenses trouble on Saturdays in the fall.