South Carolina football: Q&A with Jaylen Nichols

Over the weekend, Jaylen Nichols notched off one of his individual goals at South Carolina.

The Gamecocks’ offensive lineman graduated and will begin looking at what graduate avenue at South Carolina he wants to trot down with two years of eligibility left.

Before he graduated, though, Nichols spoke about his time so far, the continuity on the offensive line and looking ahead to the offseason and 2022 slate.

On having an extra COVID year to use if he wants it

“It’s fun. I still got Jovaughn (Gwyn) with me, Eric (Douglas) with me, Dylan (Wonnum). Everybody is still here. I’m going to have a ball this year.”

On having a lot of the same older guys around him this year at South Carolina

“It’s great. I’ve known (Gwyn) since I was in high school. I met Jovaughn when I was in ninth grade. I’ve known him for seven years now…We went to high school before I transferred and he transferred out. We weren’t super tight but knew each other.”

Does that continuity up front help?

“Yeah. I know I can trust him. I know he’s going to be good. It’s building a good trust.”

On how bringing everyone back on the line helps the Gamecocks’ offense

“We know what we’re good at what we’re bad at. We feed off each other’s energy. It helps all of us.”

On playing left tackle exclusively this spring

“I was left tackle the whole spring this time…I just want to stay in one spot right now. I don’t like all that bouncing around. It is what it is. I’ve been able to learn more at left tackle cause I never really played left tackle. I’ve been right tackle all of high school and when I was a little kid. It’s not too much different, just switching your feet up. That’s a lot.”

On having to retrain his brain to play left tackle

“Yes. It literally is. Going from doing this your whole life to this is not easy. It’s not. I can fly back going right. But when they first put me at left tackle I was like, ‘Hold on, you got to do this? Got to do that?’ ok, I can do this. You think about it a little more. At right, I can just fly.”

On his skill set translating to playing left tackle at South Carolina

“My hands. I got heavy hands. I can hit somebody, now. If I can’t do anything else, I can hit somebody and move somebody off the ball. That’s one thing I can do.”

On when he learned about his heavy hands

“I think coach Wolf told me that my freshman year. I don’t know what we were doing and I don’t know what it was but I hit something and he’s like, ‘You got some heavy hands.’ Then ever since then I was like, ‘I got heavy hands. I’m going to hit somebody.’”

On continuity with South Carolina’s coaching staff

“Last year, we knew the coaches but didn’t really know them. This year, we’re a lot closer. With coach Wolf, he was recruiting us forever and we already knew him coming in. Knowing this new group? We’re going to be all right. We know how each other works and know how practice is going to do and expectations.”

On expectations with the offensive line

“We just want to roll over everybody. That’s how I’m feeling. I just want to win. I don’t know. Winning? It just feels so good. Winning that bowl game felt so good. I want to feel that again and I want the boys to feel like that too.”

On having success in the bowl game

“Taking those steps and being able to move them, we’re like, ‘Oh ok, we can do this the whole game.’ we told satt to just run the ball and we can move them. Don’t worry about anything else. They added in the RPO getting the ball to Jaheim and that was cool with us.”

On Jaheim Bell

“Man, that boy is going to be a first-round pick. I don’t know what all he’s going to do but he’s going to be a first round pick…I’m watching him at practice and that dude’s going to be legit.”

On the impressions of South Carolina’s offense in the spring

“it’s fun. I mean it was spontaneous. You never know what’s going to happen. Juice is like a lightning bolt and you have Jaheim and everyone else. Those boys are going to put in work.”