Lonnie Teasley shares why last year's shortcomings will help South Carolina's offensive line in 2024
The way in which last season went was disappointing to say the least for Lonnie Teasley. In his first season as South Carolina’s offensive line coach, the Gamecocks front five struggled mightily to block up front. It was a glaring issue in what ended up being a 5-7 season in 2023.
By this point, it’s well known the offensive line gave up 41 sacks last year. South Carolina was only able to average 2.8 yards per carry, which meant the line wasn’t able to block enough up front. On top of all that, the injuries piled up throughout the season, making it hard to find much consistency.
But that’s all in the past now. South Carolina enters a new year with a fresh slate and a chance to remedy some of last season’s shortcomings. Teasley is certainly expecting better results from himself and his group this time around.
“You learn from everything you do. So you learn from what you did last year, things that did work, things that didn’t work, and you try to grow from them,” Teasley told GamecockCentral. “And then you got new players, so it changes. So you adapt to the things that happened. You adapt to your new players and figure out the best way to get them better and get myself better as well. I don’t know if it’s easier, I think every year is different.”
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One of the main reasons why Teasley feels good about this year’s o-line is the fact that they can all learn from their previous mistakes. He mentioned there were points last year where the unit would get down when the injuries started to snowball. But he also knows they can’t use that excuse for what went wrong.
“You’ve still got to come out and you’ve got a job to do and you better do it at a certain level. So it’s taught me that you have to appreciate that stuff. You better be modeling it as well as far as battling through adversity. And it was a good lesson for all of us in the room,” he said.
“We were talking about it during the year like, ‘This isn’t what anybody expected.’ But we’ve got to keep adding. We’ve got to keep finding ways to get better. We’ve got to keep trying to give ourselves a chance to win. So just learning that and then it’s making sure, it’s not that you don’t do it or I didn’t do it, but just making sure you’re always trying to get everybody ready to go.”
With fall camp starting, South Carolina should be in much better shape up front. A pair of freshmen starters from 2023 will return in Tree Babalade and Trovon Baugh. Jakai Moore, Vershon Lee and Cason Henry are all back as well. Plus, the Gamecocks will have three talented freshman from this year’s recruiting class — Josiah Thompson, Kam Pringle and Blake Franks — coming in. And that’s all without mentioning three more offensive linemen brought in from the transfer portal with Kamar Bell, Aaryn Parks and Torricelli Simpkins III. Markee Anderson will be back from injury, too.
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Teasley said the summer has been very good for the team, with a handful of players making big strides with their physical shape.
“Josiah came in at 265 (pounds) and now he’s pushing 300. It’s been huge,” Teasley said. “Cason is coming off an injury and getting his strength back to where it used to be and beyond, I think has been huge. Markee took a lot of gains in the weight room and got a lot stronger. So a lot of those young guys, I’ve been seeing some gains from them.”
And with all the returning and new faces in the room will come plenty of competition. It’s something Teasley definitely appreciates and knows will make each player better going into the season.
“Everybody gets a shot to execute and who’s executing at the highest level consistently. That’s who’s going to end up being the starter,” Teasley said. “And I always tell the guys, if you’re not the starter, if you’re in the two deep then you’re a starter. If we learned anything from last year, you’re one play away from playing. So if you’re a top 10 guy, you’re a starter.”
