Davonte Miles

Introduction

Davonte Miles is a defensive lineman who spent the 2025 season with the South Carolina Gamecocks and was dismissed from the program in February 2026, two days after he was arrested on a felony charge of possession with intent to distribute marijuana following a traffic stop near the South Carolina campus. The arrest and the speed of his dismissal — forty-eight hours from stop to removal — made him one of the most immediate roster casualties of the Shane Beamer era, and cut short a college career that had already included three seasons at Bowling Green and a prior team-standards suspension.

Background Information

Miles, 22, is from Rock Hill, South Carolina, and joined the Gamecocks for the 2025 season after three seasons at Bowling Green. In his single season at South Carolina he played in 11 games, recording six tackles, one for loss, half a sack and a quarterback hurry; the only game he missed all year was a home loss to Oklahoma. He had previously been suspended along with teammates Brian Rowe and Anthony Addison for what coach Shane Beamer described as a violation of team standards.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Felony charge, presumption of innocence. Miles was charged with intent to distribute marijuana (first offense) after a traffic-stop search; the charge is an accusation, and the reported dismissal was an athletic-department action, not a criminal outcome.

Miles was stopped at approximately 1 p.m. on February 10, 2026, near Bluff Road and S. Stadium Road for an improper display of license tag and a window tint violation, according to a release from the Richland County Sheriff’s Department. Officers smelled the odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle and searched it, finding approximately 20 individual bags of “green plant material consistent with marijuana” and a firearm. He was arrested and charged with intent to distribute marijuana (first offense) and taken to the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.

The program’s response was immediate and mechanical: under South Carolina athletic department policy, all arrested student-athletes are automatically suspended from their team. By February 12 — two days after the stop — Miles had been dismissed from the team entirely, an athletic department spokesperson confirmed. Miles responded with a lengthy apology posted to his X account.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The case drew attention less for the alleged offense than for the velocity of the consequences: arrest on a Tuesday, dismissal by Thursday, with the felony count carrying potential penalties that dwarf anything a football season could offer. For South Carolina, the automatic-suspension policy did what it is written to do, converting a police blotter entry into a roster move before the weekend. The arrest also landed during a stretch in which the Gamecock program had already managed prior team-standards suspensions, sharpening the contrast between Beamer’s public discipline framework and the criminal charge now attached to one of its defensive linemen.

Current Status

Miles was charged with intent to distribute marijuana (first offense) and dismissed from the South Carolina football program on February 12, 2026. The charge remained an accusation in the criminal-justice process, and no resolution of the charge appears in the available record. His public response to the episode remains the apology statement he posted to X in the days after the arrest.

Impact on Their Career/Life

A year earlier Miles was a rotational defensive lineman in an SEC front; within forty-eight hours of a traffic stop he was off the team, his South Carolina career frozen at six tackles and eleven games. The dismissal ends his eligibility picture at a program that had taken him as a Bowling Green transfer and ends, on the available record, with a pending felony accusation rather than a playing career — the pattern in which a single traffic stop converts a roster depth chart into a court docket.

Sources

• The Post and Courier, “Gamecock football defender arrested, charged with felony” (David Cloninger) — source