South Carolina All-22: Week 1 punt blocks
South Carolina dominated in nearly every possible way last week on special teams against Georgia State. As we head into Week 2, we show you the All-22 on the two punts the Gamecocks blocked in Week 1 and how it could impact this week’s game against Arkansas.
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As I mentioned on Quick Slants yesterday, expect the return game to make an impact. This video shows a little bit of what I mentioned in that story.
Call it Beamer Ball 2.0 or Lembo Ball, what we saw last week was one of the most impressive special teams performances in college football history. It’s not like teams aren’t prepared for South Carolina to try to block a kick, but, last week was a reminder.
In the first 14 games in the Beamer-Lembo era, South Carolina has blocked six kicks. Thats the same number of kicks blocked by USC in the the previous 49 games, which dates back to the Birmingham Bowl in 2016.
Arkansas will be ready for USC to bring pressure this week, and that’s okay. Why? What we’ll start to notice each week are teams respecting the Gamecocks punt block unit. Opposing team’s coaches will instruct their own players to stay at the line of scrimmage to block just a little longer to make sure the kick gets off. This will lead to South Carolina having an opportunity to make a difference in the return game on punt.
Certainly there’s a lot of factors that go into that in order for USC to have a long return. For one, teams need to give USC a chance to return it. Will they kick it to them or will they try to kick it away from the returner? If they do give South Carolina a chance and whether it be Josh Vann back there or whoever, don’t be surprised this week if the Gamecocks return a long punt to help with field possession.
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