How South Carolina Got Right Back In This

by Chris Paschal 

I was in the backseat of a pickup truck yesterday afternoon in Montgomery, Alabama having just found out that I had lost in the semi-finals of a law school trial competition I was in. I wasn’t in the best mood. Remarkably, Todd Ellis, the Voice of the Gamecocks, found a way to cheer me up. The XM Radio turned on and moments later I heard Todd Ellis say, “oh there’s a fumble… and Carolina’s got it!” That was the beginning of the biggest fourth quarter for Gamecock Football in a long time.

At the beginning of the season, I wrote a post titled “Who’s to Blame?” after South Carolina lost to North Carolina. Here’s who I thought was to blame: the defensive leadership, the quarterback play, and the coaching staff. All three of those units absolutely laid an egg in Charlotte, NC to start the season. At the end of yesterday’s post-game press conference, coach Will Muschamp said that the team had been through a lot so far this season and that the team has been very inconsistent.

That was evident through the first four games of the season. It’s almost unfair and irresponsible of me to break the first four games into two categories, but if you did, it would be that the North Carolina and Missouri games were bad showings and the Alabama and Charleston Southern games were good showings. That’s not good enough with this schedule. Something had to change. Here’s what changed.

The Defensive Players Mindset

There is a big difference between thinking that you’re good and proving that you’re good. This defense at the beginning of the season thought it was a good defense. It thought that it had good players. That’s all fine and dandy, but this is a results driven game. Talking about recruiting rankings and draft projections don’t actually force the interceptions or sack the quarterback. I think the North Carolina and Alabama game really woke this defense up. This defense needed to get punched in the mouth a little to get settled in. Between the Kentucky game and the Georgia game, this defense has played like an elite defense.

The Front Seven

It starts up-front. South Carolina’s defensive line is elite. Just ask Georgia Head Coach, Kirby Smart. In his post-game press conference, he said, “they out-played us up front… it wasn’t the controlling the line of scrimmage performance we like to have… [South Carolina’s] got good front guys, they’re able to control the line of scrimmage… they played really physical.”

Depth is a huge bonus for South Carolina. In the interior, South Carolina can play four guys that are big (all over 300 pounds) and that can gobble up blockers. At the edge, South Carolina finally has pass rushers. Aaron Sterling, JJ Enagbare, and DJ Wonnum can all get after the passer. But the anchor of this defensive line is Javon Kinlaw. When you have a 6-6, 315 pound, interior defensive linemen that can rush the passer, dominate double teams, and has a motor, you have a weapon on defense. Kinlaw will hear his name in the first round of next spring’s NFL Draft.

Linebackers

Linebacker Ernest Jones is quietly having one of the best seasons for this South Carolina defense. He is long, fast, has great vision, and is starting to dominate in run defense. This linebacker unit as a whole is starting to tackle much better, as well. Muschamp mentioned that for some reason this defense thought it could just lower a shoulder into a running back and expect him to go down. (Again, evidence that in the beginning portions of this year this defense thought that all it had to do was show up.) These linebackers are bringing their feet and wrapping up now. Three moments where this was most noticeable.

1. With seven minutes left in the second quarter, Georgia threw a screen pass out to James Cook, one of their many dynamic running backs. Sherrod Greene for South Carolina not only diagnosed the screen early, but he beat Georgia’s tight end who was trying to block him and tackled Cook for a loss. This was a tackle that Greene would have missed last season. This season, it was a loss of three yards.
2. With a little less than four minutes left in the third quarter, Fromm threw an intermediate route to Swift. TJ Brunson absolutely ran through Swift for a massive hit and limited gain. This was exciting because you could see Brunson running his legs through the hit.
3. In the second overtime, on first down, Swift tried his famous cutback at the line of scrimmage to evade TJ Brunson. Instead, Brunson stuck him and wrestled him down for no gain.

Secondary

Then there are the defensive backs. The group I have been the hardest on because I expected the most. In my South Carolina preseason preview, I said that it would be the defensive backs that would be the best position group for South Carolina. Between North Carolina and Alabama, I looked like an idiot. But a few South Carolina players also looked a little foolish, as well. Jaycee Horn and especially Israel Mukuamu talked a lot about being the best cornerback tandem in the country.

Early in the season, I think they were humbled a little bit. The key was, however, that they were humbled, but still confident in their abilities. And why not? They both are long, physical corners with all the tools needed to succeed in the SEC. That has flashed in both the Kentucky and Georgia game. RJ Roderick is playing well. Jammie Robinson has absolutely lived up to the hype that he was given when he signed with South Carolina last February. JT Ibe is playing well. It’s starting to come around.

South Carolina’s Offensive Line is Really Athletic

Jovaughn Gwyn, Donell Stanley, Sadarius Hutcherson all can move. They are powerful, quick-twitched, run blockers. South Carolina is averaging 5.7 yards per carry, which ranks 8th in the nation. They are averaging close to 200 yards per game. A lot of that has to due with Tavien Feaster and Rico Dowdle running hard and utilizing their God-given abilities, but a significant portion of the praise should go to this offensive line.

A lot has been made out about the “pin and pull” blocking scheme South Carolina has been using. It’s been really effective for multiple reasons. First of all, the Gamecocks have some grown men at tight end and wide receiver. The key to the “pin and pull” concept is the pin. Most of the time, the guys who are doing the pinning are the tight ends and wide receivers.

What happens is that the tight end and/or wide receiver fly into the middle of the defense and “pin” the interior defenders such as the defensive linemen and box safeties/linebackers. The guards then pull to the outside and try and kick out any outside defenders such as outside linebackers and cornerbacks. Watch Kyle Markway or Nick Muse or Bryan Edwards “pin block”. They are physically dominant. The guards that South Carolina have pulling are quick and have tremendous feet. This “pin and pull” scheme allows South Carolina’s running backs to find the gap and accelerate to the next level, something both Feaster and Dowdle excel at.

*Below I marked a play that highlights this best*

The Coaching Staff

I said after the North Carolina game that it physically hurt me to call Muschamp out for his coaching performance, but at the time I believed what I said. I truly believed that Muschamp was too afraid to make a mistake in the big moments. He was too tight. Too scripted. Bryan Edwards, Tavien Feaster, Dakereon Joyner all were afterthoughts in the North Carolina game. He can say all he wants that the calls he made in the North Carolina game were the right ones, but his actions have shown something else. I said after the North Carolina game that the offense had to “start throwing haymakers,” and that the “offensive play calling [had] to be a steady diet of vertical passes, jet sweeps, and everything [had] to be uptempo.” What have we seen since then?

The first offensive play against Alabama was a jet sweep to Bryan Edwards. Hilinski has thrown touchdown bombs of 31, 46, and 60 yards. The offense has been more aggressive. The defense is playing mean yet disciplined. That’s the Will Muschamp I was waiting to see and that I knew was deep down inside him.

The Jimmies and Joes have been there all season. Lately, the confidence, the consistency, the play calling, and the coaching are all starting to show up, as well. South Carolina has the players needed to win every game left on its schedule – yes, including Clemson. But as we discussed at the beginning of this piece, that hasn’t been, will never be, and won’t be enough to win most of the games left on the schedule. South Carolina has to keep whatever it has lit inside that locker room lit.

What’s Upcoming

A couple of weeks ago, Gamecock Nation was discussing how Kentucky was a must-win for Muschamp to keep his job. Just weeks later and South Carolina is staring down the Florida Gators for what might possibly be the biggest game the Gamecocks have had in Williams-Brice in a very long time. Somehow beat Florida, and South Carolina is another Georgia loss away from controlling its destiny in the SEC East. Comprehend that for a moment.

A few weeks ago, Muschamp’s head was being called for by most of the fanbase, and now South Carolina is in the middle of the SEC East hunt. Beat Florida, Georgia loses to Missouri or Auburn or Florida, and South Carolina is in the driver’s seat with Tennessee, Vanderbilt, and Texas A&M left on the schedule. It’s all possible. But it goes nowhere if South Carolina loses to Florida this upcoming Saturday. Every game feels like a season. Alas, life as a Gamecock fan.