Everything Joe DeCamillis said previewing South Carolina's matchup with LSU

South Carolina special teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis spoke to the media on Wednesday to preview the team’s Week 7 matchup against LSU. Here’s everything he had to say.

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What do you say to young players when they have a big mistake?

“Forget it and drive on, right? FIDO. You got to try to get them through that as quickly as possible. We’ve been very fortunate at this point because they’ve [Mason Love and Max Kelley] done a good job in those first four games, struggled some against Kentucky. Going into a hostile environment, we got to get that correct real quick. So, pleased with where they’re at. And, obviously, we want to have those two [plays against Kentucky] back. Hopefully, we get those corrected.”

How does a hostile environment in Death Valley affect what you are doing with some of your operations?

“Just as far as the same thing offensively, the silent snaps and all that kind of stuff, you need to make sure you’re prepared for that. I don’t think the crowd noise and all that stuff is going to affect us on kickoffs or kickoff returns and all that kind of stuff. It’s going to be a neat environment to be in. Before I got into college football, that was one of the places I want to go see during my, whatever they call it, my ‘retirement era.’ But now, I get to see it live, which is pretty cool. So, looking forward to it.

“They’ve got an unbelievable group of returners. That’s going to be our biggest challenge. They’ve got guys that have scored 10 touchdowns out of the three of them. Barion Brown scored five, [Zavion] Thomas scored, I believe, three or four, and they have another guy that’s got one. So, they’ve got a real group of returners. It’s going to be a real challenge for us.”

What was your perspective on what you saw from Mason Love’s fake punt pass?

“Great throw. Obviously, we’ve seen him make those plays before, run through people in the past, and that guy from Kentucky made a nice play. We felt like it was the right time for that. Felt like the play was there; still feel like the play was there. We just got execute better at the end of the play.”

You only have a 25% touchback rate on kickoffs. Do you want your guys to go out and cover, or has that been based on the opponents you’re facing?

“Yeah, it’s a game-to-game type of situation. But I do think that we’ve done a good job of covering here in the last two years, knock on wood. That’s part of our mentality. You can’t learn much from touchbacks, in my opinion. You can’t really change field position; you know it’s going to be at the 25. If you cover it, there’s a chance that you get the ball inside the 15. And we’ve done it a few times.

“The other night, Moe [Brown] had a great big hit that got everybody cranked up and got everybody rolling. So, I hope we’re able to keep doing that. But, again, you never know game to game and how the wind’s playing and all those type of things. So, we’ll go from there.”

When you’re evaluating guys early in recruiting and preseason camp, how much do you pay attention to the punter’s arm, just in case fake plays become part of the playbook?

“There’s no question. Every place I’ve been, one of the things that we do when we go work a guy out is you’re going to watch him throw. You want to know it both ways, right? Let’s say we’re recruiting a kid, and he goes someplace else. When I get to the scouting report, I can go, ‘Hey, this guy can throw it. So, the fake might be up.’ I think it’s important that way, too.

“Obviously, with Coach [Shane] Beamer‘s acumen for fakes around here, you better have a punter that can throw it. I can tell you that much. And Mason did a good job with that the other night.”

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