Everything Clayton White said ahead of South Carolina road trip to Ole Miss

South Carolina defensive coordinator Clayton White spoke to the media ahead of the Gamecocks’ trip to Ole Miss.

Here is everything he said about the Saturday night game.

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Opening Statement

“Hope you guys are great, glad to be here. We are obviously on brand new week here. Getting ready for Ole Miss, going out to Mississippi play another SEC night game. We’re excited about it. Our guys are working hard. Always trying to bounce back from a tough loss last week, and we are, you know, it’s tough to come in on Sundays after you had an opportunity to win a big game and we walked away, obviously in defeat, but we got to (pick our) head back up and (get) ready to roll”

Clayton, on the 79-yard drive Alabama had to tie the score. Did they do something different that maybe got you guys off your heels a little?

“They didn’t do anything different from what they saw on film, maybe a little bit different throughout the game, it was a little more pass heavy. We didn’t do a great job of adjusting and really getting pressure on the quarterback.”

“He looked a little bit more comfortable there than he did the first 58 minutes of the football game, however you want to count it, but I have to do a better job of making sure our guys stay aggressive throughout the end of the game, even at the crunch moments like that. Got to give them credit for going down and getting it done.”

That last touchdown Alabama had seemed like a creative call. What was your mindset going into that?“

Well, it was kind of interesting little situation where the ball is on the 40 after the fumble. Thought they were going to really try and just run it and try to get it in field goal range and kick it and go home. But, they were kind of running their offense. So, its 3rd and 10, wasn’t sure if they (would) run or pass, and so they kind of got a hat for a hat on us. And we kind of told the guys that they break the run, let them score and give us a chance. So we didn’t want them to kick it with no time left, especially inside the 15-yard line.”

Nick Barrett and Monkell Goodwine were just forces against Alabama. Have they been playing like that all season? Was there a certain increased physicality that you saw against Alabama?

“It’s definitely increased. I mean, they’re physical dudes. They’re big, strong guys, two of our biggest and strongest guys on this football team. So to watch them play that kind of dominant fashion was not really a surprise. We’ve seen those guys, Nick’s been that way since he’s been here, but it’s nice to see it on a Saturday, you know what I mean, against a big time opponent. But that was fun and kind of got us going. It really got everybody kind of fired up, watching those guys make plays and celebrating. The crowd getting into the game. Obviously, we have a fantastic environment where they see big guys make plays and celebrate, and all the stuff that Monkell was doing that was kind of it was turning us up. So I thought that was they played a major factor in how we played on Saturday.”

Clayton, you guys were able to continue pretty high flying offense pretty well. Ole Miss has another one. How easy is it to say , “Well, you did the year. So you can do it there,” especially considering it’s probably different offensively?

“It’s definitely easy to say. You definitely say it. But obviously, you know, coach (Lane) Kiffin has been known for his high powered offense over the years, so think this is about my fifth time, maybe fourth time going against him. So he’s always had an opportunity. He always does a good job of putting points up and plays and making you cover the entire field.”

“So it’s a different offense than it was last week. So it’s completely different, different coaching style and all that kind of stuff. But our guys understand the challenge that we have, understand the kind of offense that we’re facing, and that offensive mindset and their mentality.”

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One of the biggest plays in that Alabama game was Vicari (Swain’s) forced fumble. Noticed you brought two defensive backs on that blitz right there. When is a good time, or the kind of pros and cons of sending defensive backs on blitzes and how the situation in the game kind of dictate an aggressive move like that?

“Well, obviously you can’t just call those off the hoof. You have to have a good feeling of when that’s going to happen based off their look, and our players have to do a great job of executing what we have, you know, basically how we can have that dialed up. And we were waiting on a certain situation, and it happened, and Vicari did a great job of rushing and beating the blocker, and that sack (caused the) fumble with the hand. And it was, it was his good hand, at least, you can tell it’s his good hand, but definitely proud of how they all executed most of the calls throughout Saturday night, that was just one of them.

Coming off a game where you forced five three-and-outs, did you see a more confident defense coming into practice?

“Just overall, we sit in here on Sundays, and guys are hurt, you know. So it’s the confidence should build up as we go out throughout the week, as we get a good feel for Ole Miss. But I mean, they have a lot to be proud of. You know, a lot of teams probably haven’t done that to that to Bama, but they they definitely have a little bit of confidence coming out of it.”

“But for the most part, you kind of have to erase it and move on. And like, you can’t celebrate long. You can’t dwell along with this league and and then, pretty much any league would definitely not this one. You don’t have time to, I mean, you see the schedule and kind of move on, so you better keep going.”

How have you seen Ole Miss his offense change since (Trinidad) Chambliss got the job? And is there any relation with your Washington on film to what you see in practice from LaNorris?

“I will say it’s definitely the offense has changed a little bit, he’s now the starter. He’s a productive quarterback. There are some similarities of what I see every day, not as big, but definitely same type player. Can tuck it, can run it, hard to sack and throw it all that good old stuff, really good on the move, does a good job of managing the offense and being smart with the football. Don’t take a lot of sacks, get out of sacks. But definitely a challenge, for sure.”

Secondary really didn’t give up a long pass against Alabama and no defensive pass interference at all. What sort of technique were they working with? When you went back and watched on film, were they just doing everything right on every play?

“Not everything right it’s tough to get that perfect game going, but I’m definitely proud of how they played the ball down the field. Vicari on the late breakup down the field against (Germie) Bernard. You know, I ran 40 yards down, I get excited by that kind of that stuff. Wish we’d have finished a couple more interceptions I feel we had one or two in our hands.”

“I was definitely proud, I think that’s still is the hardest position to play in football. I coached it for 18 years, and so I just know that’s a hard position to play and hard position to officiate. The rules are pretty much based on how the DBs play, and most of the rules are, but I thought I got very proud of how they played and how competitive they were just covering routes and being body to body on most intermediate, short and long routes.”

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