Boogie Huntley shares what he's working on in spring practice to improve from last year
Spring practice is a unique time in college football. While teams are practicing 15 times over a month-long period, there’s no game to prepare for. Sure, there’s a spring game at the end, but it’s not the same as one during the regular season.
And so, it becomes valuable time for players to work on what they may have struggled with last season. For South Carolina, there were plenty of issues on the defensive side of the ball. But the focus right now is how each player can get better.
“We don’t have a game for a while, so we really get to focus on ourself,” Alex “Boogie” Huntley said. “And so just one of the things we’re working on, especially in spring ball, is effort, intensity, energy — stuff like that. It’s the things that don’t need a certain scheme cause we’re not necessarily game planning for anybody right now. We’re just really being able to work on ourself, dial in on the little things.”
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For Huntley, the main item on his agenda this spring has been his hand placement. The senior defensive lineman is coming off his best statistical year in which he recorded 33 tackles and two sacks.
Being back for another year, he’s been really focused on trying to sharpen his game so that way he can be ready for the next level.
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Now, of all things Huntley is working on, how did it come down to hand placement? It’s something he picked up on from watching tape last year. And it’s not just him noticing it, it’s his coaches as well.
“When it comes to watching film or self film, we do it the most ourselves. Every time you flip on a play, whether you want to see the play, you’re also going to look at yourself, ‘Oh, what could I have done better there?’ And so oftentimes, if I see it, the coaches will probably see it,” Huntley said.
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Huntley admitted that there’s a “list of things I want to work on and improve this spring, summer, coming into fall.” Though, he didn’t specify what else he’d like to improve in his game.
“But right now, the biggest thing is hand placement, recognition, stuff like that,” he said. “The coaches, they do a good enough job to where we can see what they see. A lot of times when it comes to things guys have to improve on, we’ll already know because we know what we’re looking for and what they’re looking for.”
