Everything Clayton White said about South Carolina football spring practice on Monday

South Carolina defensive coordinator Clayton White spoke Monday after the Gamecocks spring so far.

Below is a transcript of what the fifth-year Carolina coach had to say.

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Good catch — it looks like I missed the question about Nick. Let me go back through the transcript and add that in. One second!

Opening Statement

Awesome, good afternoon. Hope you guys are great. Glad to be here again, 2025, obviously our first time here, speaking with you guys. But it’s been a nice, exciting two months, just getting to know these new faces, exposing these guys to the Carolina football way, the Beamer way. And obviously, making sure they understand the defense, how we want to do things, how we want to communicate, how we want to get things going. But besides that, it’s been a great two weeks. Obviously, spring ball last week, practice one and two. Like what we’ve seen, guys are hungry and eager to keep growing.

What he’s seen through the first two practices

Yeah, I mean, obviously, you want to be excited about your new faces. And it’s a lot of new faces, so that always makes things brand new and exciting. Anytime you get something new like that, it makes you kinda excited a little bit. But I think what I’ve seen is a lot of guys being eager to learn our defense and trying to expose them to enough things where they can learn and grow fast, but also make mistakes and learn from their mistakes.

The most important thing is how they’re communicating. Day one running to the ball versus day two is night and day. Just teaching them the way that we have to be doing here in the SEC, especially the way we play.

What Fred JayR Johnson needs to do to reach his potential

I think most of our players are at that point where they want to continue reaching their potential, and it’s a process — it’s a day-to-day process. It was nice to see, I pulled in a little early today, and our guys have to be in the building at 7:30. I realized that he was already in his locker by 7:05. I think it’s little things like that. It’s really not on-the-field stuff for a guy like him, as athletic as he is.

It’s really my job and his job to meet each other halfway to make sure he can maximize his potential. But it’s going to be the day-to-day process, how he carries himself on and off the field. Really, mainly off the field as a person — going to class and doing everything right. Those are just building those habits to make you maximize everything that you have. I think if he just continues doing that, the other stuff will naturally come. Defense, you eventually get it over a long period of time — that’s kinda what I tell him. Just keep grinding every day, and then you’ll be great.

Replacing snaps at defensive tackle

Yes, I think one, get the players here, first and foremost. We got some players here, we have some guys that we recruited. We have some guys that we recruited out of the portal, and just keep exposing them to what we do.

I will say one thing about the guys that we have that are left, those are the same guys that were here in ‘22 and ‘23 as well. So they put a lot of good stuff on tape. Last year, they put a lot of good things on tape. Our guys can learn from our film from last year. They can learn from our practice film, how we practice. I think that’s going to accelerate that room faster than what we think.

But right now, those guys are doing great. They’re practicing hard, and they’re doing the little things with Coach Robertson and Coach Dove up front on the inside. I like what they’re doing — just gotta continue it and keep growing every single day.

What he’s seen from Zavion Hardy

Yes, he came here, we had to take care of his body first, get his body up to the size that we like. I love his frame, I think he moves very well. He moves probably just as good as anyone that we’ve had in that room, as far as just lateral quickness and just acceleration and athletic ability.

I love that he’s 6-foot-5 on a short day, you know what I mean? And so you love that part. Right now, he’s trying to get the play strength up, continue grinding in the weight room, get his body right. He’s been two years in JUCO, and JUCO’s program, as far as just taxing a college player’s body, is not the same as it is at this level. So he has to get used to that.

And the meals with Yimy — our guys, I don’t know what they put in that food down there, but for whatever reason, our guys can put on weight. He’s put on some pounds, some muscle — that’s the most important part. That’s what Coach Day and Coach Yimy do a great job together. Yemi puts the food in, and Coach Day turns it into muscle. So I’m excited. I’m excited to watch him just continue to grow.

Who’s working at nickelback

Yes, I think Jalon Kilgore had such a great season last year. He had five interceptions last year, which is a lot. That’s probably valid for the top in the conference. So with him, he gives us a lot of flexibility. He’ll stay at home to start.

We obviously have Sandy back from an injury last year, who’s helping us. We’re also working Jaquell there. Also, Cissé’s hopping in there at times, playing coverage nickel and learning that position as well. So we have options, which makes it fun for me as a coordinator. I’ve got some guys I can play around with in regards to keeping our defense versatile and keeping guys on their toes.

Replacing the leadership of Demetrius Knight

Yeah, I mean, that was awesome. I would say a year ago at this press conference, I wouldn’t have said that Demetrius Knight was gonna be the voice of our football team and pretty much our program.

So hopefully right now, we’re putting guys in those positions to hopefully come out of their shell. I really can’t name a person, because I wouldn’t have said Demetrius Knight last year. So I don’t want to say a name now and put someone on the spot to make them be someone they’re not.

I think most importantly, we want our guys to be themselves. We want our guys to lead in their way, because you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t a leader, I don’t think. I think Coach Beamer’s doing a good job and Coach Day’s doing a good job of putting these guys in position to expose themselves in regards to just getting out in front of the football team. And I’m trying my best to do the same.

Difference in Dylan Stewart from last year

I will say that the main thing with Dylan that’s different is just his process. I always thought that from day one that he had a special knack for certain things on the football field that not a lot of people can do.

I believe that his day-to-day life is also just, being a high school freshman last year, understanding just the little things on how to move day to day. And I think that’s what I’ve seen the most from him. He’s understanding our defense to a bigger picture, not just the defensive end spot.

I think he’s also starting to point other guys in the right direction as far as some details on our defense. I think that’s fun to watch. He’s grinding through it, he’s running to the ball, and he’s having fun — a little bit more fun. His personality seems like he’s kind of a reserved person, but he comes out of the shell a lot. I think it’s fun whenever he does that.

Replacing Nick Emmanwori’s Impact

Him, DQ, and Jalen Kilgore each played over 750 snaps last year. I think one of those guys even hit 800, but I’m not sure which one.

Replacing that kind of volume is tough, but it’s more than just the snaps. Now it’s kind of getting back to a normal person, if that makes sense. Having Nick for three years was a luxury. One year, I told him, “Go cover Florida’s best receiver,” Now, with his testing numbers, you see why we trusted him to cover guys who ended up being first-round picks.

You can’t really replace a player like that. It’s just back to normal football now.

Replacing Key Starters Through Depth

Yes, I think, I mean, obviously we’ve had that conversation here at the defense, is that we’re gonna take what happened last year and learn from it, and use it to our best knowledge that we can make, so we can put the best product on the field in 2025. Starting this spring, starting in our meetings, I do believe that, you know, you do want to, I mean, the production is gone, right? They’re not walking back in here, so we’re trying to take that step forward and understand that, let’s learn from what they, I mean, most of us was here last year, so let’s do a great job of learning of how we got there.

We went through some bumps, we went through some valleys, but those guys kept fighting, they stayed together, they played as a team, they had fun, they communicated. They took pride in the details of the defense, and they took pride in the details of learning the offense, and understanding what teams were trying to do to us. And I think that was the reason why we were successful last year, and obviously, I still say that our offense did a really good job last year of running the football and getting first downs. I think both of us were 10% better on third down percentage, but we were 10% better, they were 10% better. They ran the ball almost 200 times, so that really helped.

So it’s a team thing. So it really helps each other, so I think that helps a ton.

Development of second-year guys in the secondary

That’s really what makes it kind of fun, to be honest with you. When you’re a coach, you’ve been here, you go through the season, you grind through the season — which, that’s unexplained, that’s a book in itself.

And then when you come back in January and you’re watching the second-year players who you recruited the year before, the light bulb kind of comes on for those guys. It’s fun watching them play, be in the right spot at the right time, and make plays. That’s the part that makes us coaches a little bit younger. I lose a guy who’s married with two kids, now I got guys who just got their license a year ago. That makes me younger and that makes it fun for us as coaches. We just want to continue, keep recruiting, bringing in guys that have great makeup and backgrounds, that’s what makes coaching really fun.

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