Everything Joe DeCamillis said in his Wednesday press conference previewing SC State

South Carolina special teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis spoke to the media on Wednesday to preview the team’s Week 2 matchup against South Carolina State. Here’s everything he had to say.

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William Joyce said he found out he won the job right before kickoff. How did that process go? How did you tell him? When was it?

“I think he was telling a tale there a little bit because I think he knew before that.

“Obviously, like we talked about, it was a pure competition all the way up through it, but we did have a plan going into the game. We knew how we were going to play him. And he did a great job for us. Getting that short field goal at the start, I think that’s a good start for him. [He] made the extra points. Hopefully, it keeps going on from there.”

Is there a more exciting play in football than returning a punt for a touchdown?

“I don’t know, it depends on who you ask. But it was pretty cool, that’s for sure. Luckily, I’ve been a part of a few of those, which are always exciting. Usually, it’s a game-changer like that one, and it was. That’s a real credit to Vicari [Swain], but it’s also a real credit to those guys blocking for him out there. We put a lot of emphasis on it during the offseason and throughout camp, and I thought it paid off right there. It’s a real credit when you think about Jalon [Kilgore] was supposed to be the one that was returning that ball.

“So, [I] can’t be more happy and more pleased with Vicari. I think one of the things that was great for him was he had a rough spring, missed all that time and came back a completely different kid, in my opinion. I think, once you get some of that stuff taken away from you, and then, you find out, ‘Hey, football’s a pretty good deal,’ I think he’s more focused and more motivated than I’ve seen him since I’ve been here.”

Coach [Shane] Beamer alluded to some of the guys who let up on blocks or didn’t blow guys up and get flags. How satisfying is it to you when you go back and see several guys [do that] in the course of that play?

“We call them ‘finishing techniques,’ and those guys did a good job of executing it right there. Obviously, getting the punt that we got helps. Anytime you get one of those longer balls, you get a chance to get a return like that. That’s one of the things you don’t see a lot of – returns in college football, in my opinion – is because the punting probably isn’t quite as good as it is at the next level. To be able to get a punt like that, we cashed it in, which is great. And [it] helped us win the game.”

How would you evaluate Mason [Love]‘s punting from Sunday?

“I think it was okay. I’m expecting more from him just because I’ve seen him punt the way he’s capable of punting all the time. He got lucky on a few of them, to be honest with you – some bouncers that ended up going our way. I think he would tell you that, too. But he’s worked at it, and I think he’s going to be on his way to being a really, really good punter, to be honest with you.

“But let’s not go crazy. It’s the first game of the year, and nobody gets any trophies after that, and all that kind of stuff. We’ve got a long way to go and a lot of work to do in front of us.”

You mentioned it was supposed to be Jalon returning those punts, and Shane said Sunday he had a little hamstring thing that kept him from doing both. When he’s healthy enough to do both again, now that you’ve had that game from Vicari, how are you going to balance those two?

“I think that’s something we’ll have to talk about as a staff. He’s [Kilgore] still kind of banged up with it, so we’ll have to talk about as a staff. That’s more of a Coach Beamer question, probably, than it is for me.

“It’s nice to have a couple guys back there who can do it. Jalon was still back there as far as what we call ‘defense stay’ or ‘punt safe’ to where you’re playing with your defense, making sure you don’t get a fake run, all those kinds of things. Decision-making was at a premium, and he did that for us in the game. So, hopefully, he’s able to still keep doing that, and we’ll go from there.”

During warm-ups, William went back to about 55 [yards]. Is that the edge of his range? Where would you feel comfortable putting him out there?

“That’s going to be a game-time decision all the way through it. I really don’t like to talk about where their range is – you guys can see it when you’re watching them warm up. But at the same time, it’s not something I’m going to tell you every week, ‘Hey, his range is this,’ or ‘His range is that.’ That’s a competitive thing to me.

“I don’t know how far you saw Mason come back because he was still hitting, also during warm-ups. We’ll just have to see when we get to that situation. Hopefully, we’ll put the right guy out there.”

In saying that, is there an opportunity that Mason would kick a ball?

“I mean, when we put a guy out there, it could be Max [Kelley] – who knows. We’re going to go with the guy that we think can make it from there.

“I’ve been in this situation before, where we had a guy named David Treadwell. I know he’s a Clemson guy, which is blasphemy in this room, but we had him in New York [with the Giants]. [He] didn’t have the strongest leg in the world, but [he was] very accurate. Then, we had a guy named Brad Daluiso, that was right behind him. That was a guy that had a cannon for a leg and ended up being a really good field goal kicker in the league. And we used them both that year.

“So, we’ll see how it goes. It’s going to be a game-to-game situation and a play-to-play situation, and we’ll go from there.”

Is it almost unfair to have a guy like Nyck Harbor as a gunner on your punt team?

“I was thinking about comps that I’ve seen in places I’ve been before. And when you watch the kid at Ole Miss – the [DK] Metcalf kid – that’s the best comp I can think about because he was covering punts for Ole Miss during that time. I remembered everybody talking about, ‘Man, that guy’s going to be a great gunner in the league.’ And that was, maybe, one or two times, and that was it. But it’s nice to have.

“The thing that is great, I think, about it is Nyck’s commitment to it. There’s plenty of times in that game where he runs opposed; he does all that stuff. He could’ve begged off them, and he went in every rep. So, that’s a credit to him, in my opinion.

“I was really pleased with the coverage part of it in the game, both punt coverage-wise and kickoff coverage-wise. I thought we did some really good things from that standpoint. Hopefully, we can continue to do that because, to me, that’s what it’s all about – is changing field position from a coverage standpoint, more than anything else. Those returns are great, but you’re not going to get those all the time. But you are going to be able to cover and try to change field position that way all the time.”

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