'Nothing to be happy about': Debo Williams not letting up knowing defense has more to do

Everyone seems to be happy about South Carolina’s 44-20 win over Texas A&M.

Well, almost everyone. More like 99.9 percent of everyone.

With the way linebacker Debo Williams spoke about the win, you’d think the Gamecocks would’ve been the team to have lost by 24 points. Even though Williams and the defense did plenty of good, pitching a second-half shutout against the Aggies, it wasn’t good enough for him.

This doesn’t come as a complete surprise. Williams, the leader of the defense at linebacker, demands perfection from his teammates. Even before the season started, his goal was for the defense to strive for “donuts”, which meant shutting out an opponent for all four quarters. South Carolina has been close but hasn’t been able accomplish this feat just yet.

“We know we have to get better,” Williams said. “Like I said, it’s not good enough. We’re not putting zero on the scoreboard. Our offense shouldn’t have to worry about anything. So, as a defense, we gotta continue to get better and there’s more we gotta do.”

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While there hasn’t been a shutout yet, South Carolina’s defense has been about as good as, if not better than advertised this season. The Gamecocks have only allowed opponents to score under 19 points per game. That’s been more than good enough to give the offense a chance to win each time out, which has worked out well so far at 5-3 on the year.

But like Williams suggests, the offense shouldn’t even have to worry about scoring at will, even after a 44-point effort against A&M. He expects the defense to continue to improve, which feels hard to believe, considering how well the unit has played through eight games.

“We just heating up. We haven’t played a perfect game yet,” Williams said. “I’ve been saying donuts all year. We have yet to give a donut. So as a defense, I can speak for the defense, we’re not even at our best.”

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Even though South Carolina is coming off a big win and playing good football, it still irks Williams that the team isn’t better than what the record shows. The Gamecocks suffered losses to No. 15 LSU and No. 11 Alabama by a combined five points earlier in the season.

If a few things had gone their way, the overall record would be looking much different right now. But there’s nothing he or anyone can do to change what happened. And in some ways, the redshirt senior linebacker believes only being 5-3 might be better for them from a motivation standpoint.

“You don’t want to dwell on the past. But I’m human. I do think about it and where we would be,” Williams said. “But I feel like that’s made us even hungrier. It could be a different story, or we wouldn’t be as hungry right now having that type of record. We hungry. We starving.”

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With four games to go, South Carolina will play two of its next four games against ranked teams but starts off this final stretch on the road against a good Vanderbilt team this weekend. Williams has liked what he’s seen from the Commodores. But he knows, even though the Gamecocks are playing a lot better lately, it’s going to take much more to reach their ultimate goals.

“At the end of the day, we’re 5-3. It ain’t like we’re 8-0. It’s nothing to be happy about,” he said. “It was a good win. It should have been 44-0. I’m going to harp on my defense. I’m going to tell them it’s not good enough, and as an offense, keep doing what y’all doing. We’re going to play complimentary football. It’s nothing to be happy about. We’re not where we want to be. We’re not where we’re going to be.”

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