Everything Clayton White said on second half collapse, Coastal Carolina game

South Carolina defensive coordinator Clayton White spoke to the media ahead of South Carolina’s home matchup against Coastal Carolina.

Wednesday was also the first time White spoke to the media following the Gamecocks’ 31-30 loss to No. 3 Texas A&M after leading 30-3 at halftime.

Here is everything he had to say.

The Insiders Forum: Discuss South Carolina football!

Opening Statement

“Good afternoon. I hope you guys are doing great. Obviously, we are back here after the outcome of last week. Just really want to recap on some highlights from the game, from us defensively, super proud of how our guys really started the football game with four turnovers in the game, ended the game with four turnovers. And, you know, the most proud point that we had, I think, was the sudden change moment where we had the turnover inside the I think the ball was inside the ten (yard line), maybe the six, and they get no points, obviously, the low lights for the second half over 350 yards, four touchdowns, and obviously didn’t like the outcome.”

“But each week, you live and learn, and you have to always try to make sure you learn something from things like that. This week, with Coastal, basically a team that is averaging 40 points a game the last four or five games, they made some changes around, had some injuries with their quarterback. Between (Samari) Collier and Tad (Hudson), they do a great job down there just getting points up on the board and running backs, hard-nosed, o-linemen has played together quite a bit. Have a bunch of wideouts, so many different single-digit numbers. I can’t even keep up. They play eight guys: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 17. Very athletic tight ends. So excited about the matchup coming this weekend.”

Have you changed the name on your door to Sugar Ray Robinson?

“No, I’m just glad Coach (Shane) Beamer addressed that yesterday. Just one of those. It was a rumor that kind of had some legs to it, and obviously, we made fun of it, and then thought it was, you know, I’m glad that he addressed it. I don’t have to double back on it, but definitely, I got some gloves in there. Yes, for sure, I actually met, I actually met Bonecrusher Smith when I was a kid. So those are my boxing moments.”

What happened in the second half?

“They got rolling. We didn’t answer. Aaccountability, obviously, you definitely, as a coordinator, you got to take the brunt of it, and definitely will, always gotta, didn’t get the guys. When we in the locker room, like Coach beamer said, we was in there, we said, they’re gonna they’re gonna strike back. They’re gonna strike back. And they had some momentum plays, some momentum in different other phases, and we couldn’t slow him down.”

“And we obviously, like, you know, Coach (Mike) Furrey just said some of that stuff was on us. And they made their plays when they did. They had some play calls that we haven’t seen, but accountability definitely starts with us. Anytime we have that kind of lead, we feel like our defense travels on the road. We have a good defense, and we travel on the road. And obviously we did not step up to the plate when we needed it the most.”

I asked Coach Furrey about the tale of two halves. How do you separate the good from the first and the bad from the first and the bad from the second?

“Well, with us, we want to make sure that our guys understand that, like, the first half was not a fluke. We’ve done something like that before. We played that way before the road. It was not a fluke. Really, the second half was more of a fluke than the first half, to be honest with you. So we’re trying to, you know, make sure our guys understand that, because confidence is a very important thing. When you leave a game like that, you mean you as low as you could possibly get from a confidence and mentality standpoint, and our job as coaches just to pick them back up once we get back up.

“I think that’s been the focus for the week, to make sure we get back up, starting yesterday in practice, I thought our guys did a really good job, but you have to take the place from it. You have to learn from it. It’s like any other game, but you know, just got to learn, and you have to learn from those moments. And we’ve been in those moments before, but not quite like that. But there’s still things to learn.”

In a game like that, where you do kind of have the lead that you did, and you’re playing a passing attack like they have. How do you kind of strike a balance between playing softer coverage or still trying to be aggressive in that type of situation?

“Great question. You know, you sit back in hindsight (is) 20/20, on Monday morning. I definitely was like, ‘What in the world? Why? Why not? Why not do this?’ When you up like that, and you kind of want to know what kind of mindset they were going to bring to the game. And we were in some pass calls. We were aggressive. We kind of mixed it up, and some mistakes here and there, mistiming of a call here and there, and then just this didn’t roll our way.

“But you definitely think like that. You do. You can’t sit back and just play prevent. But there is times. There is time for things like that. But obviously, you definitely don’t want to have them to strike as fast as they did. I think that was the main thing that kind of caught us off guard. Maybe we probably wouldn’t expect, we was up 30 to three and a half. So it’s kind of like, okay, we probably need to be ready for them to try and strike fast. And didn’t quite answer that.”

Clayton, in your opinion, what makes a good fourth-quarter team? You guys historically have been always really solid since you’ve been here, since Shane’s been here, but this year a little bit different. What differences have you noticed about this team in the fourth quarter compared to years past?

“I would say things like that. Once you’re on the field and in between the white lines, we can coach all we want. We can, we can, you know, get them, get them the right plays, and do as much camaraderie stuff that we possibly can to make them understand the fourth quarter is important. I do think leadership. I do think that our guys talk about it. They try it. They understand the importance of the fourth quarter. We talk about it a lot in practice.”

“We just have to do a better job. It’s just doing our job in the fourth quarter, and not, you know, understand the stakes a little bit higher, and just gotta be more focused, more locked in. And I think that’s the main thing. I’m not saying we’re not locked in, but, you know, you definitely want to be more of a better fourth quarter team than we have this season.”

“We just got to keep harping on it. We can’t, can’t stop, you know, I think this signs of strength in the person is like, don’t give up. So we’re not like, stopping coaching it and teaching it. And I think our guys are understanding, and hopefully they can get better as a person, as a player, at some point in their life or in their football career.”

I think of the first halves that you guys played against Alabama and Ty Simpson, and then last week against Marcel Reed. Are there things that you guys are doing, like wrinkles you’re you’re putting in, that are really just frustrating these quarterbacks and getting them off their block, and then they’re able to make adjustments at halftime and get back to themselves, or is it just that’s it’s just, that’s how it’s happened?

“I mean, like I said, when we play these kind of quarterbacks, the best thing for us that we play LaNorris is, you know, we see him playing three Saturdays in the spring. We’re playing two Saturdays in the fall, and we play them pretty much every day at practice. So that helps us a ton get ready for a quarterback who can literally escape and out leverage you with just his feet. That really helps us a lot as far as how to plan, so I think that’s the main thing that helps. It’s not our first time seeing a mobile quarterback. Teams that don’t have mobile quarterbacks, it’s harder for them to handle LaNorris because of those types of things. But we have a couple of things for sure that we make sure we understand how to handle those kind of quarterbacks.”

Coach beamer mentioned after the game on Saturday that he’s had a lot of good conversations with guys about coming back. How many conversations have you had with guys about their future plans and what they’re going to do after this season?

“None as a DC right now. None. Focus right now week to week. Kind of let our general manager, our player director, player personnel, and Coach Beamer and that crew, kind of have those conversations. Those kind of, we kind of split those two. The good thing about college football is our guys are, all NIL and all that stuff that we’ve never it never comes up in a conversation during the fall. So that makes it really good for the coaches. We don’t have to deal with that stuff. So that’s the best part. I love about it. And it’s not public. You don’t know what’s going on, so you have to worry about it.”

You’ve been around a couple of different offensive coordinators here, different personalities, not saying one approach is better or worse, just Mike Furrey brings a lot of energy. What have you seen from him in this new role over the last two weeks?

“Last week, I think I spoke on just how proud I am just watching someone who’s been elevated to multiple times since he’s been here, just the way he attacked it, just from the beginning, from the very first day, and he kind of just started. And then you can tell that his personality is definitely (there), you can see it. I mean, he hasn’t changed a bit, so I think that’s very important. I’m just proud of how he’s doing and how he’s taking it on, learning some things from a professional standpoint. Just like what I’m seeing.”

The Insiders Forum: Discuss South Carolina football!