Clayton White explains why the play at nickel is bigger than just one position
Following South Carolina’s loss to Florida, one of the biggest talking points by Gamecocks fans has been the fact that Nick Emmanwori was playing nickle.
An All-American safety as a freshman, Emmanwori has been tasked the past two games with covering the opposing team’s slot receiver. This past game, the Gamecocks’ defense faced 86 snaps and blitzed on more than 50 percent of those plays. Now certainly Emmanwori wasn’t asked to cover Florida’s slot wide out the entire game but he was placed in those situations quite a few times.
When I asked defensive coordinator Clayton White what goes into that decision, he directed the focus back to playing better as a defense overall.
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“It’s a team defense. Just like when we say when you’re trying to stop the run, we say it’s all eleven. It’s the same thing on the back end,” said White. “The rush and the coverage go hand-in-hand. There’s some one-on-one battles that you have to win, some zone coverages you have do a great (job) of reading the quarterback. We have to have a great pass rush and we have to run the correct pressures when it’s time. It goes hand-in-hand. It’s an eleven guy game. If more than one guy is not doing his job on a play, it’s probably not gonna be a great result.”
Regardless of who is playing nickel, or any position in South Carolina’s secondary right now, the Gamecocks woes of getting to the quarterback is putting more pressure on USC’s secondary. Through six games, South Carolina’s pass defense is allowing more than 320 yards per game. That ranks last in FBS out of 130 teams. Another stat about USC’s defense is the fact that South Carolina has only 13 sacks through six games. Seven of those 13 sacks occurred in South Carolina’s lone two wins of the season against Furman and Mississippi State.
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So when White says that “the rush and coverage go hand-in-hand,” that’s what he’s talking about.
“If the pressure isn’t getting their in time, to me, a DB (can only) cover for so long so you want the pressure to get there. When the pressure isn’t getting there then you add another guy in coverage so it definitely affects how you call the game, for sure.”
There’s no secret that South Carolina has been thin on defense. Between injuries and lack of proven depth, many Gamecock defenders have been playing practically, if not every, snap every game this season. Against Florida, here were the snap counts seen by defensive backs:
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[GamecockCentral Business Network]
Marcellas Dial – 86
DQ Smith – 86
OD Fortune – 84
Nick Emmanwori – 80
Jalon Kilgore – 70
David Spaulding – 15
Kajuan Banks – 5
Judge Collier – 2
Against Tennessee, South Carolina’s defense faced 74 snaps. Here’s the snap counts seen by defensive backs that game:
Marcellas Dial – 74
Jalon Kilgore – 74
DQ Smith – 74
OD Fortune – 71
Nick Emmanwori – 69
Kajuan Banks – 5
Judge Collier – 3
“I think our guys are continuing to stay in the fight, stay in the grind, and just doing a good job of understanding where teams may attack us. (Knowing) the weaknesses and the holes that we have presented in the previous games, from big plays. A lot of teams are going to go to that. Try to make plays off of plays. We’ve just got to be ready for the ones that may come.”
