How depth could be a game changer for South Carolina's defense in 2024
Since the start of fall camp, there’s been one word commonly and consistently used by South Carolina: depth.
It’s been a buzz word that’s gotten to the point of being overused by the team in the last three weeks. But there’s some truth to it. From the looks of it, the Gamecocks should be much deeper overall this season than they were last year.
This should be the case, specifically on defense. South Carolina will return eight defensive starters, along with other key role players from last year. In the transfer portal, seven defenders were brought in to help fill in any gaps, plus all the incoming freshmen joining the team as well. So barring any new injuries, they should be in solid shape for next weekend’s season opener.
“We have a group full of guys that can just play ball,” Gilber Edmond said. “I think we do have the guys that can handle that, come in and be fresh bodies and still produce. So that’ll be exciting to see.”
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With having a lot of able players at each position, the ideal plan would be to rotate guys in and out of games and keep them crisp. This will be especially important in the early months of the season when the weather, specifically for home games in Columbia, will be much warmer.
And that seems to be the direction South Carolina plans on heading for the season. Sixth-year defensive back David Spaulding described the defense’s depth as having “two to three” sets of starters at each position.
“It will help us being that the more depth you have, then you can rotate and keep guys fresh. You don’t have to worry about somebody playing all game or getting tired, getting injured,” he said. “So I mean, I’d say we’ve got three sets of starters. Everybody’s doing their assignments, playing sound football. So it doesn’t matter who’s in or who’s out. We can depend on whoever’s in at the time.”
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For defensive coordinator Clayton White, this will make a difference in how he approaches every situation. With the defense being more deep, he said it will change what plays he can call and how he wants to utilize players.
“When you’re not deep, you can’t call certain things,” White said. “So on the flip side, during the scrimmages, I saw the hockey shifts of the D-line. I was like, ‘Okay, let’s not drop them. Let’s rush them because they’re fresh. O-line don’t really sub that much, and running backs, they do sub, but for the most part, the offensive line kind of stays stagnant unless there’s an injury or helmet pop off or something like that. It’s a big difference because you want fresh legs to take advantage of whenever they’re in there. It’s been fun so far.”
