How Nick Gargiulo went from Yale to potential transfer portal steal at South Carolina

Nick Gargiulo’s mom hates his mustache.

The brownish bristles with shades of red along his upper lip have thickened from the pencil-thin growth it started as over the past year or so.

The initial mustache was an identity thing. Gargiulo — who previously suited up with an old school neck roll when he played tackle before moving to center — felt the facial hair fit his shoulder-length, flowing brown mane and aggressive style on the field.

“I think (my parents), they’re lightening up to it just based on the Twitter replies,” he quipped. “… Anytime that I’m getting any sort of media there’s at least a couple of comments under like, ‘We’ve got to sign this guy just for his look.’ ”

Gargiulo, whether because of the mustache or otherwise, looks the part of the brawling lineman he was over his 25 games in four years at Yale. His 6-foot-5, 290-pound frame, wealth of experience and effervescent personality made him one of the more sought after offensive linemen in this year’s transfer portal cycle prior to his commitment to South Carolina on Dec. 18.

The economics and political science double major said he was pecking away at a thesis paper on voter suppression in the United States for a comparative politics class when his phone began to buzz. And buzz. And buzz.

Gargiulo estimates 75 schools reached out to him after entering the portal. He whittled down his list to include South Carolina, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois and Boston College before settling on Shane Beamer’s squad.

“When I entered (the transfer portal), I mean, it was like recruiting on steroids,” Gargiulo joked. “Twitter DMs. Phone calls. And it timed up perfectly with my finals period to where I was trying to study for exams and finish some papers and I’ve got to field like 25 calls per day.”

Now on campus in Columbia, Gargiulo profiles as a physical, high-character addition to a South Carolina offensive line in need of veteran help given the departures of three starters from the 2022 team.

Talk to those that coached him in New Haven, Connecticut, and they’ll tell you Gargiulo may well be one of the steals of this year’s first transfer portal window.

“There’s a few things that Nick likes,” said Yale head coach Tony Reno, whose son Dante is a four-star 2024 South Carolina quarterback commit. “Nick likes to play football. Nick likes to lift weights. And Nick likes to eat. Those are the three things Nick likes, in that order.”

Landing in New Haven, starring at Yale

Then-Yale offensive coordinator Joe Conlin spotted Gargiulo tripping his way through an agility circuit at a Bulldogs prospect camp after his junior year of high school.

The Yorktown Heights, New York, native was on campus hoping to earn a shot at the elite private school in Connecticut that counts almost as many United States presidents among its distinguished alumni (five) as it has NFL draft picks (six) the last 40 years.

Conlin saw something in Gargiulo but wanted to see more effort. Gargiulo responded, quickly.

“I kind of challenged him a little bit,” Conlin, now the head coach at Fordham, told The State. “I was like, ‘If you’re going to come here and dog it, you might as well go home,’ or something like that. And he absolutely blew it out (of the water) the rest of the day.”

A longtime basketball player, Gargiulo has an athleticism that’s rare to find in players his size. He shifts from side to side with ease, yet, with his massive frame, he can take defenders head on, able to maul the man in front of him to reach the second level of a defense.

Yale offensive line coach Al Netter, a former four-year letterman at Northwestern who previously worked on Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan staff, had only been on the job in New Haven a short time when Gargiulo caught his attention.

The Bulldogs were working through an offseason blocking drill shortly after the coaching staff shifted Gargiulo from tackle to center for the 2022 season when 300-pound defensive tackle Adam Raine bore down on him.

“He really sank on the bull rush and like, he’s so bendy, I swear his butt hit the ground,” Netter said, laughing. “As he really sunk his hips and got back underneath (the block), he stoned the guy right on the last scrimmage. And I was like, ‘Damn, that’s really, really impressive.’ ”

Gargiulo contemplated a handful of offers coming out of high school, most of which consisted of Patriot League and Ivy League opportunities. A few bigger programs sniffed around but never extended offers.

He eventually settled on Yale.

“One of the first questions I asked when I got to Fordham — which is 30 minutes from where he grew up — was, ‘Why the heck did you guys not recruit this kid?’ ” Conlin joked.

Ups and downs and a new beginning at South Carolina

Gargiulo could feel a sharp pain shooting up his lower right leg. He’d been rolled up on four games into the 2021 season. Being the bruiser he is, he tried to tough it out for another 10 to 12 plays.

Finally, Gargiulo couldn’t take it anymore.

Doctors determined he broke his right ankle/fibula. Gargiulo underwent surgery the following day and began the roughly eight-week recovery period. He was on the practice field coaching the offensive line 72 hours after the initial injury.

“We had three true freshmen starting on the O-line my senior year, so I had some work cut out for me making sure they were up to speed with the game plan and whatnot,” Gargiulo said. “I really doubled down into that role and got a ton of fulfillment from that.”

These are the stories most everyone has about Gargiulo from his time at Yale.

Netter points to what was supposed to be the 2020 season. Starting 10 games as a sophomore, Gargiulo was poised for an All-Ivy League-type campaign before the conference canceled athletics for the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He soldiered on as he always did, personally creating workouts for the offensive line during quarantine. Gargiulo then had his teammates send him results so that he could track what they were doing.

When he returned to the field in 2022 after playing just four games the previous two years between injuries and the pandemic, the coaching staff asked Gargiulo to move from his spot at left tackle to center to make room for a talented underclassman. He took the assignment with grace, attacking the position with the smarts needed to make protection calls along the line of scrimmage.

The staff took notice of his selflessness. Gargiulo’s teammates took notice, too. They elected him as Yale’s lone captain for the 2022 campaign — a tradition that dates back to the 19th century but rarely counts offensive linemen among the exclusive fraternity.

“It doesn’t very often go to an offensive lineman, which makes it, I think, even more impressive, because typically it goes to a more spotlighted position,” Netter said. “But I think it’s just kind of an affirmation of who he’s been since Day 1 as far as his work ethic, his buy-in, his ability to connect and not only support people, but also push people since Day 1.”

Gargiulo now joins a South Carolina offensive line working to sort out its personnel in preparation for protecting Spencer Rattler next fall. The expectation is Gargiulo will compete for the starting center spot vacated by Eric Douglas, with an ability to move around the line as needed.

There will be a natural adjustment to the speed of SEC ball. That comes with the territory of shifting from FCS to major Power Five football. The constant between the two levels? Gargiulo’s facial hair.

“The mustache and the flow,” he said, “is staying.”