Clayton White looking for 'right next person' to fill void in secondary

How do you replace Nick Emmanwori? It’s a tough question that South Carolina will be looking to answer this season.

The simple answer is you don’t, or at least you try not to think about it as replacing Emmanwori, according to defensive coordinator Clayton White.

“You won’t see another Nick for another 20-plus years, first and foremost,” White told GamecockCentral.

Emmanwori was a huge part of the Gamecock defense over the last three years, appearing in 37 games with 36 starts. He led the team in tackling during his freshman and junior seasons, landing on the SEC All-Freshman Team in 2022 and earning first-team All-America honors in 2024.

In April, Emmanwori began his professional career after being selected 35th overall by the Seattle Seahawks in the NFL Draft. With him out of the picture for this year’s defense, his absence leaves a gaping hole in South Carolina’s secondary that will undoubtedly be a challenge to fill.

“The hard thing to replace with Nick was just his football IQ and how smart — he was very intelligent,” White said. “… Nick’s very smart, like football and just regular book smart. So that’s the hardest part of replacing anything. The body part and replacing his frame, I knew that wasn’t gonna last that long.”

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Rather than dwell on the challenge of replacing Emmanwori, White looks at the situation as trying to put the “right next person” at safety as soon as possible. One internal option he’ll look hard at during fall camp will be Peyton Williams, who’s been with the program since 2022.

“It’s crazy because Peyton has been that guy who’s just been waiting behind Nick and DQ,” White said. “Every time his number has been called, he’s answered. So that was great.”

Williams didn’t see much action in his first two seasons, as he only played in three games as a freshman and didn’t play at all in 2023. That changed dramatically last year when he played in all 13 games and even made one start against Vanderbilt while replacing an injured DQ Smith.

In that game, Williams made a career-high seven tackles and had two pass breakups, including a fourth-down stop late in the third quarter. He also played in Emmanwori’s place for the entire second half of the Citrus Bowl versus Illinois and recorded four tackles.

If Williams were to start when the season begins, odds are White would feel confident about the job he would do.

“He understands our defense as good as anybody out there,” he said. “So it’s exciting to have him back there. Big time security blanket with some talent.”

Regardless of who fills the void left by Emmanwori, White knows he’ll at least have one longtime veteran in the secondary. Smith, who came to South Carolina the same year as Emmanwori, returns for his fourth and final season as the starter at strong safety.

“It’s definitely flying by for sure. There’s no doubt about it,” White said of Smith. “He’s one of my favorite players of all time that I’ve coached. … I’ve always loved DQ. It’s definitely awesome having him back.”

Smith has started in all but three games during his college career. He’s coming off a season where he made 54 tackles and had two interceptions with five pass breakups. “It means everything” to White to have him back for another year,

“Our new guys, the Cisses, the Norwoods and our young guys, they still have somebody they can look up to look at whenever things go bad,” he said. “It’s not always going to be peaches and cream. There’s going to be some rough days. I think that having a DQ in the middle, that’s when you have to have those guys that have been through it before.”

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