Everything Clayton White said going into South Carolina's final week of spring practice

South Carolina defensive coordinator Clayton White spoke to the media on Monday to look ahead to the final week of spring practice. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“Good afternoon. Hope you guys are doing great. Obviously, on our way to our last week of spring ball here. It’s been an exciting spring. A lot of new faces on defense, for sure, working, and it’s been awesome going against the offense. It’s been two good weeks. Ready for our spring game here on Friday night.”

On defense, how do you plan to limit your guys or maybe just rotate them so, you know, maybe one guy doesn’t get a whole bunch of snaps?

“Yeah, we definitely try to play it smart in regards of just the amount of plays. We had a couple guys on defense that played close to, I mean, between 750 and 800 snaps last year. So we’re very smart with those guys, but we have a lot of new faces that we really want to make sure we get a great evaluation. And it really comes from that, more importantly, than just a pitch count. But all of our guys are hungry, always improve. That’s one of the things we talk about when you walk into this door every single day. Coach, how can I get better? And sometimes sitting down is not the right thing, but we try to play it smart.”

Are there a couple things that you want to see get done in the spring game that would make you feel like this was a successful spring for your defense?

“Well, really, spring game is really just more about operation mode and understanding just the atmosphere, seeing guys not panic, not all of a sudden, doing things that they weren’t doing during spring ball, to be honest with you. You really want to see guys kind of perform the same way, keep their head on right, and just not get caught up in all the other stuff outside the football game. But far as just on the field, just make sure, you know, try to keep the ball in front as much as possible, and not a lot of explosion plays and touchdowns and stuff like that. You don’t want to go into the spring with that kind of feeling of watching people run up and down the sidelines. So our goal is to keep them in front.”

With all those new defensive tackles, what do you feel like you guys have gotten out of that group so far?

“It’s been awesome. I think Coach (Travian) Robertson, Coach (Jordan) Dove, those guys have done a great job of just developing those guys. And it’s really good to see an older guy like Nick Barrett get more reps than he has in the past. And Monkell (Goodwine), you know, when you had the other four previous guys, their reps were limited. So when they made a mistake, they got six snaps and made one good play, one bad play. You kind of forget about the good one, but now they have multiple reps. But it’s been awesome watching them play. They’re making plays and having an impact. The new guys, it’s just good to see them out there. Tall bodies that can play, they can run, and I think they’re doing a great job.”

You guys have already had two guys kind of make their intentions known to go into the transfer portal. What are the conversations you have with guys leading up to Wednesday? Or do you try and postpone all those until after the spring game?

“To be honest with you, those conversations are very minimum. I mean, they all have their agents and stuff like that, and their decision is already made. A lot of the time, if they come to you saying that’s what they’re thinking, it’s pretty much already done. So you wish those guys well and keep it moving.”

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With the signing of Demon Clowney, what is the process with him, and what are you expecting? And also, can you explain how you could sign him last week with the window already closed from one period and not yet open? How was he actually able to sign?

“I’m not sure if I can really talk about a signee, but to talk about the rule, I can talk about the rule. If you’re already a graduate, the window is always open for you to go anywhere. So I don’t want to, I don’t feel comfortable speaking on him. There’s a rule that we can’t talk about signees. I don’t want to even mess with it. But hope I answered your question, the main question. Sorry about that.”

With the DB room and all the flexibility you guys have there, how have you sort of rotated guys?

“Obviously, the addition of Brandon Cisse kind of gives a little bit more versatility, because he played nickel up the road. And then he’s obviously showing us that he can do it here. That really does help us. And I think some other guys are just emerging as players, guys who are now playing safety that played nickel before. So obviously that’s the main position that gives you flexibility, and how you want to rotate. Do you want to have a covered nickel? Do you want to have a big nickel, like (Jalon) Kilgore, who can really do all of that stuff? But it’s nice to have other guys that we can play with. I think Zahbari Sandy had a really good spring in regards of just another big nickel, kind of a Kilgore type, body type, but he also has some skill sets. He’s a guy that wants to improve, can continue to get better. He hasn’t played in a while, so he’s missing some things, some little minor adjustments here and there in the DB world. But I think it’s fun having the ability to at least consider some options.”

After the spring ends this week, what’s kind of the next step or main focus for you as you guys head into the summer and then fall camp?

“So obviously, recruiting will be the primary thing that we focus on the next month or so, five or six weeks. I’ll be on the road recruiting. And we have our linebackers coach, Trey Money. We have all our other analysts, Jordan Dove and Jaylen Foster. They’ll sit here and they’ll evaluate our spring and then kind of some things that we did, some things that compared to last year. And, you know, we have to do this differently because our personnel was different. So we look at those kinds of things like that. And then we dive into studies. We like to study the NFL defenses and what they’re doing and trying to stay ahead of the curve. And we study offenses as well during the summer, and then we also study, spend a day on each opponent, and a couple days on some other opponents. Won’t say who those guys are, but some of those guys get three or four days of summer work to make sure we’re good. But that’s pretty much our summer. It flies by. And then we’ve got camp, then we have July vacation, and we’re right back. So this, I mean, to me, right now it’s almost June.”

How has Fred Johnson done now that he’s got more of a role, conceivably more of a role, and the rest of the linebackers, too?

“You know what? I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the room in regards of just, one, they’re fun to be around. Like I said, I feel like I’ve gotten younger. I mean, I just left, you know, the oldest guys I can possibly have in a college linebacker room to probably the youngest guys ever. I mean, AJ Holloway is still 17. My son’s about turning 14. So I’m like, ‘AJ, you and my son are like the same age.’ But I feel like I’ve gotten younger. I’m not gonna lie, I feel like I’m a younger guy. I mean, I’m around a locker room of dudes, so I have to make the adjustment, you know what I mean? So I can’t continue to get closer and closer to certain ages and act that way. I have to really adjust myself to my room. But they’ve been fun. They’ve been really fun.”

“But far as football-wise, those guys have come a long way. They’ve really surprised me. I thought, you know, they all learned football very easily. I think they have all played with great effort. They’re big and physical. They can run. Fred has shown, we know what Fred can do athletically. I think the most important thing for him now is, at the end of his freshman year, to take this summer and the rest of this spring and really dive into true linebacker play, so he can be a true impact or athletically out in space and stuff like that. He’s one of the top guys that we have, but I think the room is doing really well. The new addition between the freshmen and Justin, JO, those guys really stepped in and did a good job. And it’s nice seeing (Jaron) Willis out there playing a lot of snaps and just seeing his maturation to him growing up and becoming a man and trying to be a big impact on his defense, whatever his role may be.”

Is there anything any of your linebackers say or do that you have to go to your son and have him kind of explain it?

“Nah. My son, I called him the other day about one of our favorite calls, and he forgot it, so I thought he still remembers. So I’ve got to re-teach him some things. But he got his own little football playbook at his school that he got to worry about, so I know he don’t care about my plays anymore until Saturday.”

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