Kenny McKinley is on the brink of setting every major South Carolina receiving record.

He needs 17 catches and 359 yards to supplant Sterling Sharpe in those career categories. He needs nine touchdown receptions to pass Sidney Rice, and he can set the mark for consecutive games with a catch at 35 with receptions against North Carolina State at Vanderbilt.

Not bad for a quarterback from South Cobb High in Mableton, Ga., who in 2005 put all his trust in new Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier.

“I always had confidence that I was going to be a good player in whatever I did,” McKinley said. “Coach Spurrier, when he recruited me, told me I would be a good receiver and could be just like the guys he coached at Florida. For him to tell me that was impressive, because he’s been around the game a lot, but I didn’t know how to run a route.”

The 6-foot, 182-pound McKinley had 77 receptions for 968 yards and nine touchdowns last season and enters his senior year with 153 career catches for 2,139 yards and 15 scores. He and Florida’s Percy Harvin have been consensus SEC first-team receiver picks.

McKinley had 102 receiving yards against Georgia and 107 against Mississippi State last year as the Gamecocks jumped out to a 6-1 start and a No. 6 national ranking. They abruptly stumbled at against Vanderbilt and lost their last five games to finish 6-6, but McKinley remained stout with 151 yards against Tennessee and 125 against Clemson.

Despite McKinley’s constant success, barely attaining bowl eligibility and not getting invited was not what Spurrier had in mind after going 7-5 and 8-5 his first two seasons.

“We don’t like 6-6,” Spurrier said. “We did qualify for a bowl, but there was another school, Alabama, at 6-6. They had a little bit more pull than South Carolina did, but that’s OK.”

Returning to the bowl schedule is probable with McKinley, running back Mike Davis, four returning offensive linemen and a whopping 10 returning defensive starters.

The biggest question is quarterback, where junior Tommy Beecher gets the first crack after completing 14 of 23 passes for 175 yards a year ago. Beecher was Spurrier’s first quarterback commitment at South Carolina but played most of last year behind Blake Mitchell and returning sophomore Chris Smelley, who completed 92 of 162 passes for 1,176 yards.

Beecher and Smelley combined for eight interceptions in the spring game, so redshirt freshman Stephen Garcia, despite his arrests and suspensions, may have a shot.

“We have had several quarterbacks play the last three years, but we’re going to give Tommy Beecher a chance,” Spurrier said. “Chris Smelley has done well this summer and played fairly well at times last year but not so well at other times. We need to give Tommy Beecher every opportunity to see if he can take us a long way.”

Said McKinley: “If Coach Spurrier thinks he can do it, then it tells me he can get the job done.”

Headlining the promising defense is linebacker Jasper Brinkley, a preseason All-SEC choice last year who suffered a season-ending knee injury at LSU. Eric Norwood returns up front after amassing 19.5 tackles for loss last season, and junior cornerback Captain Munnerlyn is among the league’s best.

The Gamecocks would be well-served to start quickly again, because they are the only team nationally to close with six straight games against teams that won eight or more games last year.

“To be 21-16, I guess, is not as terrible as you might think,” Spurrier said. “We’ve beaten Florida, Tennessee and Georgia once. I knew it would be difficult. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be that much fun to try to do it.

“If it was easy, all them other coaches would have been winning at South Carolina.”

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