Everything Clayton White said on day two of spring
South Carolina football defensive coordinator Clayton White met with the media on the second day of the spring.
GamecockCentral.com has an edited transcript of White’s comments below:
Opening statement…
“Really appreciate you guys coming here. Gratifying to be here, back on the grass yesterday, and it felt great to be out there around the teammates and coaches and recruits, and all that good old stuff, but it was awesome.
“The things that we did in the off-season, it was nice to see those guys kind of come together, and just run around and play, and have a good old time, so it was awesome. Any questions?”
How the defense will blend the 3-3-5 and 4-2-5…
“You know, when the season was over with last year, obviously, it’s a brand-new season, brand-new everything. We have to dissect and research, and make sure that we’re not just going to do things just because it’s a brand new year, but our personnel fits to where we can be.
“Kind of a flex nickel defense what I’ve been kind of talking about, pretty much. Obviously that means playing two fronts and nickel personnel will be the base. And I think our guys understand our system well enough to where they both blend and the words in one defense means the same thing in the other because of the versatility of our players and how deep we are in this defense. And I think that our guys, they light up when we talk like that. They light up when we know we have options and different things that we can do on the field to defend all these multiple offenses that we have to face. So flex, so flex nickel it is.
Biggest concerns and things to look forward to…
“In the linebacker room, in general, we did have two departures. Right now we’re excited about what’s here. Those things happen earlier months and things that happened three or four months before that, we only live and learn from those things. We’re not going to dwell on them.
One of my main things, policy is, don’t get mad twice. Learn twice, learn from something and make sure we grow from it. Things happen for reasons. Guys leave the program for certain reasons, but the guys that we have here that we brought in to replace we’re very excited about them and what they bring to the game.”
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Initial impressions on freshmen and transfers…
“It’s early. You really can’t say who they are and what they are. But what I can say is, they work hard. They’ve done a great job awithCoach Day in the weight room. And a lot of this stuff is really transition. We brought two experienced guys in the linebacker room. We brought two brand new, great looking freshmen that are living and learning. And they’re showcasing their skills. They’re having a chance to, yesterday was a very simple install just so I wanted to see guys run and play and communicate some aspect of the game. I love what we see as far as the energy and the commitment level as far as learning the stuff. And we’re just trying to do a great job right now trying to have the old guys teach the young guys and the guys who’ve been here for two and a half years, you know, take a step up.”
On Dylan Stewart…
“Yes. Talented, you know, long, good size. You know, he does a good job. But yesterday I saw him doing the walkthrough yesterday. I asked, did he see something? And he gave me the most intense look that I’ve seen. So he definitely turned it on just from an attitude standpoint. The culture and the things that we do here, he hasn’t flinched yet.
“Is a freshman going to be perfect? Is anyone going to be perfect? Really not, right? I think he’s learning from that stuff. I think he’s enjoying the grind. I think he’s taking that and really going to grow with it. And to me, when you’re uncomfortable and when things aren’t great, that’s when you really grow the most.”
On the benefit of experience…
“Absolutely. Everybody talks about culture in their program. To me personally, culture is judged when things are bad, all right? Everybody, when things are great, everything’s great. For everybody, every household in America, when things turn, that’s when you really find out what your culture is really like in your house. And to me, the way things went last year, and for most of our defensive guys to come back, to me, that says a lot about our culture, our program, the defense that we have here and what guys really want. Everybody has options. Coaches and players all have options. And we’re back. That’s very exciting. Once the dust kind of settled and you look in a room and you see familiar faces, hear familiar voices, and guys with more than a chip on their shoulder.”
What White likes about the defensive line going into spring…
“I love the big guys up front. And we have our big guys back and we added some more big bodies. This is a big league. So you want to have as many big guys as you possibly can. We added some big guys on the edge. We added some bigger linebackers. So we feel like we’ve gotten bigger in the front seven. We also added some experience in the front seven. To me, that makes you feel better as a program. The more of those guys you have, the better, because this road can be bumpy, this road can be narrow. Got curves in it as well. Animals jumping everywhere. It’s a tough road to ride here.”
Has he picked brains of new coaches on staff?
“Well, some of the coaches, we talk enough about it in here on the staff. Obviously, it’s getting to know some guys as they come in. You don’t want to grill them on the very first day and try to see their knowledge on their very first day and try to see their knowledge. You’ve just got to trust the fact that whoever Coach Beamer hires, that they have the level of coaching expertise that you eventually get to.
“Me and Coach Dowell talk every now and again on some things that we like and that we don’t like. We pretty much talk every week because we meet every week during the season as far as schemes and bounce a couple things off each other’s head as far as organization and just, you know, base stuff. But I do love talking to offensive coaches.
“Two of my most gratifying, I guess the word would be beneficial, years of my coaching career were at the University of Connecticut where I was a special teams coordinator and a running backs coach. I wouldn’t be a coordinator if I wasn’t ever a running backs coach because of just the opportunity to coach under a legend coach, rest his soul, George DeLeone.”
On the other cornerback spot opposite OD Fortune…
Now it’s OD and it’s the first time we’ve had a true open, open market situation. And obviously Judge (Collier) has more experience. I think Vicari (Swain) brings something. Emory (Floyd) has stepped this game up. He’s not dealing with track. So he’s focused on football and you can see it. So it’s only going to make us better as a football team. Competition is one of our top things and they’re competing in a good way. I think they’re doing it the right way. I love what I see. They’re all big and they’re all strong and they’re all fast.”
