What South Carolina coordinators said about start of spring
South Carolina offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains and defensive coordinator Clayton White met with the media Wednesday to discuss the Gamecocks spring practice, which kicked off Tuesday morning.
Below is an informal and paraphrased recap of what each had to say about Day 1 of spring.
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Dowell Loggains
— The message to the QBs is the guy who gets the team in the end zone the most is the one who will win the job. Tells the story about playing with Matt Jones at Arkansas. It wasn’t always pretty in practice but when the scrimmages hit, he put the ball in the end zone. The guy who gets the team in the end zone and operates the best is going to be the QB.
— Five guys are getting reps at QB. LaNorris Sellers, Robby Ashford, Luke Doty, Davis Beville, and Dante Reno. The message to them all is the same. There is not a named starter but Sellers did take the first snap. We’re going to rotate. Sellers took the first reps but he didn’t take ALL the reps with the ones. Right now we’re very healthy on offense so there’s a lot of rotation and we’ll rotate every day. Every day is an interview. Also working with the new helmet communication systems.
— Last year, made the young QBs live at scrimmages. Those discussions will happen. Mike Shula is on staff as an offensive analyst and will be a part of those discussions as well. He is replacing Sean Ryan who went back to the NFL.
— There’s no timetable on naming a starter. We’re going to let it play out.
— Lots of new faces on offensive staff. When you hire good people and good coaches, they make everybody better. You interview a lot of guys and put together a profile of what you’re looking for and then start asking around people who have worked with them.
Mike Furrey followed Loggains with the Bears, so leaned on some connections there and it was rave reviews. Coach Elliott has head coaching experience and is passionate. Every day he’s fired up to be back here. His passion is contagious. Coach Blackwell has experience with Jimbo Fisher. We played against each other in college. He sees the game through the QB’s eyes and has had highly productive running backs and understands the big picture. He has SEC recruiting experience and will help in a lot of ways.
— As an offensive coach you’re trying to gather as much info as you can. Some of my best friends are defensive coaches. You want to know what gives them trouble. Why are defensive coaches making certain decisions and running certain looks? This game is constantly evolving and you want to know why defenses are doing certain things.
— Lots of new faces at running back and wide receiver. Don’t want to make any evals until those guys know what to do. It’s day 1 and once a guy knows what to do, it looks different. We’re at a different point as a team this year than last year in terms of running the offense. It’s just been one day but happy with the effort from those guys.
— We “two spot a lot” — it’s a big Nick Saban thing that Beamer learned from Kirby Smart. It maximizes your reps because you’re running a Team A and Team B at the same time so that everyone is getting a lot of reps. Then we go back and watch the tape. You prepare for football in the weight room and all that but you’ve got to play it to get better. We’ve got a deep running back and receiver room as far as numbers go, so they’re all getting reps.
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Clayton White
— Great to be back on the grass with the players and coaches and recruits. The culture things we did during the offseason were really good. Loved being back out there.
— Our personnel fits to where we can be a flex nickel system. Our guys are versatile and deep enough that we can blend the 4-2-5 and 3-3-5 defense together. Our guys light up when we talk about all the different things we can do to take on these multiple offense styles.
— We did have two departures in the linebacker room but those things happen and we don’t dwell on them. Guys leave the program for certain reasons and that’s okay. We brought in some new guys and are excited about them.
— It’s early. You can’t say as much about the newcomers yet but the new linebackers have all worked really hard. We brought two transfers and two great looking freshmen. We had a simple install for yesterday’s practice because we wanted the guys to run around and play free. Love the energy and effort. We want the old guys to help coach up the young guys.
— Dylan Stewart has bought into the grind and is enjoying the transition to college as a freshman. He has taken it to another level once practice began. It’s always a little uncomfortable for a freshman at first but he seems to thrive off that and continues to get better.
— Everybody talks about culture in a program but to me personally culture is built when things are bad. Anyone can have good culture when things are good, but it’s revealed when things are bad. Very excited that so many of our guys came back this year. See familiar faces in the room and the guys have a chip on their shoulder.
— Love having big guys up front. This is a big league. You want to have as many guys as you possibly can. We brought back a lot of our big guys and then added some too. We added big guys in the front seven as a whole.
— There’s a true open competition at the cornerback position opposite of OD Fortune. They’re competing in a good way. There’s no hate. I love what I see. The guys are all big, strong and fast. We timed them this spring and the clock was low.
It’s been plug and play at CB. First it was Rush and Cam. Then it was OD and Dial. This year it’s a true competition. OD is the guy on one side but Judge Collier, Vicari Swain, and Emory Floyd are battling for the other spot. Floyd isn’t running track anymore and has stepped up. All three are in the mix and it will be a good competition.
