What OC Dowell Loggains, DC Clayton White said on Thursday following spring practice No.13
A pair of South Carolina coordinators met with the media Thursday to provide an update on how spring football practices are going for the Gamecocks and to look ahead to Saturday’s Garnet & Black Spring Game.
Below is a quick summary of what offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains and defensive coordinator Clayton White had to say following practice No.13. South Carolina will return to the field Friday morning for practice No.14.
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OC DOWELL LOGGAINS
– Advantage of naming a starting QB earlier is that you know who it is. But when you wait, one of the young guys could be better camp. Most of the time the locker room has a good feel who the starting QB will be even before the coaching staff because they know who should be out there. No timetable. Calls it a feel.
– Calls managing the transfer portal at this time of the year hard because you’re juggling watching film, recruiting, etc. at an accelerated rate.
– Says you can expect the offense to look “vanilla” in the spring game because they don’t want to show everything that they’re gonna be doing this fall. With that, as a coach, you’re evaluating more on technique and execution.
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– It hasn’t been decided yet whether he’ll be calling the offense for both teams like he did last year. Will be decided either later today or tomorrow.
– Last year was tricky for him because he didn’t know the players well. Now, he has a better idea of who guys are, which allows them to get some of the new faces more reps since he already knows what some of the returning players have done here.
– Shares that over the past week plus multiple NFL GMs and coaches have reached out to him about Rattler. What is a team getting that drafts him? Says a tough player who has an incredible throwing motion and is a great teammate and great leader. Adds that he wasn’t the one that led the QB room last year but rather Rattler did. What he learned from his time of being an OC in the NFL is that having players who can overcome adversity is extremely beneficial. Says Rattler knows exactly about that and has proven he’s a fighter.
DC CLAYTON WHITE
– Puts a lot of stock in the spring game because he views it as a test for players. They don’t have the coaches on the field with them and they have to respond to situations like a real game.
– Is looking for a clean spring game; staying healthy and executing
– You want to get the upperclassmen out there but he sees it more as an opportunity to get the younger guys out there, along with the new faces, to see how they perform
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– Says the transfer portal is similar to how they would handle high school recruiting in the sense of reaching out to players and then relaying it back to Beamer. It’s a lot right now with the spring portal window being open but there’s similarities with how they handle it
– White shares that the guys in the CB room have done a great job of competing. They really like how competitive it’s looking and they’ll keep evaluating moving forward.
– White says his favorite practices come during fall camp. Spring allows you to look at a few more things, make more changes. With fall camp, you practice every day and have a chance to improve. Players probably hate it, but he wants to get out there every day.
