Everything Shawn Elliott said about South Carolina spring practice on Monday

South Carolina tight ends coach/run game coordinator Shawn Elliott met with the media on Monday to discuss the progress of his group in spring practice so far. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“Second spring back, I think it’s going really well. I mean, from an offensive standpoint, I think the transition with Coach (Mike) Shula has been great. I think our staff is working well together. I think our players are embracing the things that we’re doing. And I mean, the effort has been outstanding. For us, one thing that we like to see in spring is great effort with all the position groups, from the tight ends to everyone involved, and we’re right on point.”

What is the most difficult part about replacing Josh Simon?

“Recruiting. Going out and finding another Josh Simon, I don’t think you can do that. But we’ve got the players in the tight end room that I think are gonna step up and take that slack within the offense. They’re doing it. They’re having a really good spring right now. Josh had a knack for breaking tackles and being, I won’t say, elusive, but he was just a strong runner with the ball in his hands. And I think we have several guys in that room that can do that as well. Just need a little bit more time to develop and progress.”

What have you seen from Jordan Dingle and Brady Hunt now that he’s back this spring?

“Yeah. Well, let’s start with Jordan Dingle. Blue collar guy, hard worker. He’s a guy that wants to please in every rep. Great effort. Very intelligent young man. He’s a great addition to our room. I really enjoy having him in there, and he comes to work every single day. He’s a guy that has a lot of experience, so that’s something that he leans on. He’s not shy from the football game as if you were having a true freshman come in. This guy’s played in a lot of ball games, and you can certainly tell.

“With Brady, he’s gotten a little bit more, I’d say, athletic. I think he’s moving around a lot better than he did a year ago. He’s always been one that’s been, you know, just at the top of the charts when he talked about assignments and knowing what to do and how to do it. He’s a silent leader for our group. They’ve done a really nice job this spring and this offseason, getting prepared to come in there and take over for the Josh Simons that have left us, along with other guys in the room, Mo Brown and Lukas Vozeh, those guys are right there in the mix. They had a pretty good scrimmage this past Saturday. So we’ll see how it all shakes out.”

With Maurice Brown, it seems like every year he takes another step forward. Have you seen him do that again this year in spring, working towards year three?

“That’s the great thing about sports. When you see guys take steps forward. Mo was on special teams, and then he got a little bit more involved a year ago, and he’s taking the next step. He’s one of the more explosive players that we have with the ball in his hands. I think he on Saturday, he had a huge run down the sideline. He’s a strong, physical. He’s a bull, I mean, with the ball in his hands, and he’s going to be hard to tackle.

“The strength and the speed that he brings is something that’s pretty intimidating, to be honest with you. I know he was on the sideline Saturday, and you know, he had a secondary defender come up on him. And he lowers the boom on him and continues running, you know, just right through him. And that’s something we love to see in that room. The physicalness that he brings is at the top.”

What do you want to see from Michael Smith in year two?

“Michael’s just a tremendous athlete. He can catch the football and do a lot of things that you expect when you see his film, see his high school film use. If he can catch it in high school, he can catch it in college. Just coming in and really being a dominating player at the line of scrimmage and on the perimeter, understanding the concepts of what it takes to do both, because he’s a special athlete that could do it out there in the perimeter and and also in the inline blocking, and that’s something he has to understand.

“He didn’t do a lot of that throughout his high school career, but when you put it down there on the line of scrimmage, how much different it is from being out there on the perimeter. So I want him to be stronger in the run game, to kind of really use his physical presence, because he’s a big, strong man, and overpower people. And just understand the game of football can be fun, both on the perimeter, catching the football, and then drive blocking and moving men against their will.”

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You mentioned earlier that the transition to Mike Shula has been pretty smooth so far. How would you describe what you’ve seen working under him with the offense?

“I don’t know if it’s anything differently. I just think we have really good communication in that room. We got a really good group in there with (Mike) Furrey and Coach (Marquel) Blackwell and Mike and all those guys in our room, Coach (Lonnie) Teasley and Coach (Greg Adkins). I mean, it just seems like we’ve all been together for a long time. Sometimes it takes a little while to kind of get comfortable with one another.

“We have a lot of open opinions. We can discuss things freely. We can sit back and, you know, it’s not critiquing other positions. We can say, ‘Hey, why don’t we try this? Why don’t we try that?’ And Coach Shula, he’s always like, ‘Yeah, let’s see if that works.’ When you have an open mind as a coordinator like that, that always helps the assistants to be more freely in their speech. And we sit in there and discuss things and come up with problem-solving solutions, I should say.”

With this now being your second year, what are your reflections about being back in Columbia and back in this role?

“Well, certainly, from a football aspect of it, from this time last year to now, I was just coming in. I’m learning a new offense. I’m learning new players’ positions. I mean, everyone involved, you know, I was the odd man out. So you kind of try to find your niche and see where that is. To this point, after a full year being back, like I said, it’s real comfortable now. I mean, truly smooth.

“And like I said, you can just kind of be yourself. You don’t have to sit there and listen so much. You can speak your mind a little bit more. But it is fantastic being back in here in Columbia, and like I said last year, I don’t feel like I ever left. But just being back, so tremendous honor to be here at South Carolina and to be working with these young men. To be here at the University of South Carolina, it’s been a really nice transition.”

From this point to the spring game, what’s the next step you want to see from your tight end room?

“We’re only halfway through so you know, spring is such a short amount of time. You make strides in spring, but you don’t make huge jumps in spring. 15 days, and you got two in helmets, which, you know, whatever you want to take from those days. None of those are playing football. And then you have a spring game. You only have a few opportunities.

“But what I would really like to see is explosiveness out of that group when the ball is in their hands going downfield, making the runs after catch, doing the things you’re going to put us in position to be a powerful offense. And I think when you take a tight end position, and you can have a guy that can play in the perimeter with great success, whether it’s selling the perimeter blocking or in the throw game, then you’re going to be a tremendous offense. And I would like to see our guys take the next level out in the perimeter.”

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