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South Carolina's defense looking to limit explosive plays allowed

UVA BIO PICby: Mike Uva10/13/23Mike_Uva
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South Carolina defensive coordinator Clayton White (Photo by Katie Dugan)

Coming out of the bye week, South Carolina is looking to tighten up its defense.

Whether that be improving their pass defense, creating more tackles for loss, or getting off the field on third-down, there are multiple areas where USC needs to better. But when you add up a lot of those things up, it makes sense as to why explosive plays have been a killer this season for South Carolina’s defense.

“The big plays that we’ve given up, sometimes it’s a competitive catch or a guy breaks a tackle and breaks (it off) for 25,” said defensive coordinator Clayton White. “But half of those we really feel like that if we could have made a better step here, a better read here, got our leverage and kept our leverage here, that’s a four-yard game versus a 17-yard run.”

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When you’re struggling to put the opposition behind the sticks by creating tackles for loss, you’re giving the offense more options on second and third down. Some of that has to do with missed tackles while some of it also has to do with poor angles on breaks in the secondary or even pre-snap alignments. Regardless, it comes down to executing and finishing plays. Something South Carolina certainly needs to do a better job of starting this weekend against Florida.

“A lot of it’s fixable. A lot of it has to get fixed and it starts with us as coaches just continuing and believing in the process and not giving up and standing in the fight. Understanding that it’s hard out there for those guys and we just gotta keep putting them in situations to improve.”

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Another thing that hopefully this bye week provided South Carolina was a chance to continue to build on their lack of proven depth on defense. Between being thin with depth and being very, very young, the more reps they’re able to get as a unit can go a long way.

“If you can just keep coaching the heck out of it, eventually they(‘ll) get it. Sometimes it’s over a period of time for certain kids. Every kid is different but you have to keep coaching the heck out of it and you gotta find a way to coach it to a point where it clicks and you can look into their eyes and tell when it clicks.”

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