Who will replace Parker White? Pete Lembo gives latest on kicker competition

Asking a Gamecock kicker to hit field goals this year at the same rate as Parker White might not be realistic or fair to those trying to replace South Carolina football’s all-time leading scorer. But you won’t hear Pete Lembo complaining, whining, or seemingly even worrying about finding the next kicker in line.

That’s just part of the gig for South Carolina’s veteran special teams coordinator.

“My mentality has always been ‘next man up’ and maybe that’s from being a head coach for so long or just having been put in a lot of situations through the years coaching, whether it be injuries or different circumstances,” Lembo said Friday. “I think that just gets back to the culture of your program, which is very much Coach Beamer’s culture here, that we prepare you to do a job as best as we can. We believe in you. And then you step up, you step in and you get it done the right way.”

So far this spring, Mitch Jeter and Alex Herrera have been doing just that as the two are in what Lembo called a “very good, competitive battle” for the starting place-kicker job that White held down for most of the previous five seasons.

Lembo, like all of South Carolina’s football coaches, tracks everything and both kickers are hitting at an 80-85 percent rate in practice through 11 on-field days.

“Just to give you kind of a barometer, Parker was a 90 percent-plus guy last year in all of the charting that we did, so those two guys, in 11 practices this spring, are not quite there,” Lembo said. “But they’re certainly in an acceptable range in terms of the percentage of kicks that they’re hitting and, and they’re both kind of vying back and forth and getting a lot of team reps with the first and the second unit. So I’m pleased with both of those guys.”

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With the competition still so close, Lembo doesn’t appear to feel any pressure to go ahead and name a winner this spring.

In fact, he seems more than comfortable letting the competition extend through the spring and into fall camp when others — like transfer walk-on Jack Luckhurst, who is currently rehabbing an injury, and preferred walk-on commitment Daniel Lester — could also enter the conversation.

Lembo said Friday that the Gamecocks could name a starter as late as “a week or so” until the season opener against Georgia State.

The kickoff specialist competition also features Jeter and Herrera as the front runners along with combo-kicker William Joyce.

Lembo says that Jeter has presented the stronger leg while Herrera has been more accurate in kickoff placement. All three will get opportunities to kick off in the stadium during Saturday’s scrimmage.

While running back Juju McDowell did an admirable job holding down kickoff return duties last season, there’s still an ongoing competition there as well with increased depth throughout most of the roster, something that wasn’t a luxury last season.

“Obviously, JuJu McDowell got a lot of those game reps last year,” Lembo said. “Xavier Legette is doing a nice job back there. MarShawn Lloyd is getting a lot of reps back there. Lovasea Carroll is getting reps back there. We have other guys, (Payton) Mangrum, (Antwane) Wells, that are rotating back there. Josh Vann can move over from punt returner and he’s a very nice kick returner as well.”

Vann is currently competing with fellow receivers Ahmarean Brown and Trey Adkins for punt return duties, Lembo said, while adding that Dakereon Joyner could also help in some way in the return game.

“I do feel like our numbers are better, our competition is better (at kickoff and punt return),” Lembo said. “We’re trying to take a step further with those guys just in terms of attention to detail back there. We always try to include different situations in practice that might come up for those returners. Kind of the rules of the game type of things so that they’re prepared. When you practice those situations, you see how comfortable guys are. And if they’re comfortable when the unusual things happen, you’re more likely to trust them and put them in the game. So we’ve been doing a lot of that and will contniue to do that the next week and then during preseason camp so we can really solidify our top 4-6 guys.”

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