South Carolina defense explains second half no-show against Texas A&M

Entering the second half, the South Carolina defense looked as strong as it had all season. To that point, they had just held the No. 3 team in the nation to three points and 132 yards.

Then, 10 plays into the half, Marcel Reed found Izaiah Williams 27 yards downfield for six to make it 31-10. Once the Aggies got the ball back, it took them seven plays to do it again as Reed found Ashton Bethel-Roman for a 39-yard touchdown.

South Carolina then went three and out. Two plays later, Reed moved the ball 76 yards downfield after finding Roman-Bethel again. One play later, a 14-yard touchdown throw cut the Gamecock lead to six.

Suddenly, 12 minutes and 18 seconds after leading 30-3, the South Carolina defense had given up 203 passing yards and three touchdowns. A collapse on that level begs the question, what happened?

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Defensive coordinator Clayton White said Texas A&M got rolling. The Gamecocks, offensively or defensively, didn’t answer.

White and the entire Gamecock locker room at halftime knew that the top-ranked Aggies were going to strike back. The issue came with the Gamecocks’ inability to adjust.

“They had some play calls that we haven’t seen, but accountability definitely starts with us,” White said.

Linebacker Justin Okornkwo said Tuesday it’s something that definitely should not have happened. Everyone, from staff to players, is to blame in the end.

South Carolina’s defense has been the Gamecocks’ calling card through the tumultuous season. Through the offensive struggles, one thing that has kept them in games throughout the season has been their defense.

The defense has also shown a strong ability to defend mobile quarterbacks in Ty Simpson and Reed. A lot of that comes from facing LaNorris Sellers every day in practice.

White knows they have a good defense. He knows they have a defense that travels well on the road. He also knows that they didn’t step up when needed the most on Saturday.

There is good from the day to take home, it just happened to all come in the opening half. Keeping his defense confident after a loss like that is key. It’s his job as a coach to pick them back up.

“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,” White said. “Really, the second half was more of a fluke than the first half, to be honest with you.”

Hindsight is 20/20 after a second-half collapse like that. The loss left White wondering, “Why?” It forces you to look back at some of your playcalling in the half, as well.

You can’t just sit back and play prevent defense the entire half, he said, but there were times they could have run plays like that.

The Aggies’ offense caught South Carolina off guard to start the second half. Obviously, they did not want them to strike as fast as they did.

“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,” White said. “… Maybe we probably wouldn’t expect, we were up 30 to three at the 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.”

At the end of the day, the Gamecocks have to take the loss to the chin and look forward to their final two games. Defensive back DQ Smith knows those self-inflicted mistakes can’t happen, and they have to keep moving forward.

“And in the SEC, on the road, against the number three team in the country, we can’t make those mistakes,” Smith said. “We made those mistakes in the second half, and they came back and shot us in the foot. I don’t know, the result is the result.”

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