South Carolina defense going back to the basics ahead of Akron
In Saturday’s tough loss to LSU, South Carolina’s defense showed more signs of struggle than previous games. In total, the defense missed 17 tackles and had two sacks.
As a new week begins, the Gamecocks are back to work preparing for a new opponent, the Akron Zips.
“Just proud of our guys, how they practiced so far this week coming off a heartbreaking loss,” defensive coordinator Clayton White said. “Good work yesterday, good work today, looking forward to getting back in Williams Brice this Saturday night.
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South Carolina’s defense recorded just one interception despite a season low 60 percent completion rate from LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier.
“We always tell our guys to obviously go block the quarterback because he’s going to go for the interception. Block got to be in front and you can’t be low,” White said.
One offensive advantage for the Zips is the rotation of two different quarterbacks. Both Ben Finley and Tahj Bullock have been playing a good bit under center this season.
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“I mean they have two different types of quarterbacks kind of very similar to what we had last year but with Spencer (Rattler) and LaNorris (Sellers),” White said. “Obviously gives two different types of style but I think they’re both tough, they’re both respected, they both can make plays with their feet and their legs.”
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In order to beat the Zips, South Carolina will need to recover from numerous missed tackles against LSU. White has taken his team back to the fundamentals in hopes of fixing the problem.
“A lot of times our guys sometimes you can overstrike instead of breaking down. Not breaking down but creeping into the tackle, shaming into the tackle we call it,” White said. “So we had a couple things and then sometimes we just didn’t wrap and squeeze so this week we’ve been getting back to some of the fundamentals of tackling. Bringing running backs and receivers and tight ends down and quarterbacks down to the ground. But obviously we definitely missed more tackles that game than we did the first two.”
