Clark Lea reveals concerns with South Carolina's special teams

If Vanderbilt wants its first SEC win since 2019, they’ll have to be buttoned up on special teams this Saturday against South Carolina. The Gamecocks are an overachieving team in 2022 given their preseason projections, and a large part of the reason is their ability to make a difference on special teams.

South Carolina is finding ways to make explosive plays both ways on special teams. They’ve had game-changing kick returns and punt blocks that flipped the field. They also excel in the kicking department. It’s an excellent third phase of the game for Shane Beamer’s club. Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea is impressed and knows his team has to be on their A game to prevent the Gamecocks from taking advantage in that area.

Here was Lea praising South Carolina in that regard when asked about their special teams brilliance so far:

“They have skill players that they put in really good positions, and I they’re well-designed. And Coach [Pete] Lembo does a great job with their special teams group and obviously coach Beamer and his family history, I mean, that’s always been an important part of the way they’ve played football. But they design really well around the skill they have and then they capitalize on your mistakes. So, you know, if half of the success of a punt block is in the design of the rush. The other half is in finding the weak spot and the protection. And they’ve proven to be able to do that really well.”

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Commodores just can not let the Gamecocks kill them with big plays on special teams if they want to pull off the big upset.

“And obviously, we understand the importance of not just not giving up those big plays, but creating plays for ourselves on special teams. We’re gonna need to be on point and on our game in that in that phase. And if we’re not, they’ll make us pay for it. They had a long return against Missouri called back and the long return against Texas A&M to open the game. This is a very capable group in all the phases of their special teams. And, you know, they’re gonna put pressure on us. We gotta respond not just by being solid but by putting and applying pressure on our side too.”

Dangerous unit. Clark Lea is scared and for good reason. Needs his guys to be alert on Saturday.