Details you may have missed: Kentucky edition
South Carolina opened SEC play Saturday afternoon with a decisive 31-6 win over Kentucky, putting the game away with a big third quarter.
In case you missed it, my full thoughts on the game are here, and as always the goal of this piece is for you to learn something you didn’t notice while watching the game.
Details you may have missed: South Carolina vs. Kentucky
— After rotating a bunch of guys last week on defense, Carolina rotated even more this week, even before the game got out of hand.
Vicari Swain received the most playing time of his young career (33 snaps) after entering the game at cornerback in the first quarter.
After Carolina used a main linebacker rotation of Debo Williams, Demetrius Knight Jr., and Bam Martin-Scott last week, Bangally Kamara and Fred JayR Johnson were also a part of the early rotation.
The defensive line/EDGE rotation remained similar but not exactly the same. DeAndre Jules received the start as the nose tackle in a three-man front. Bryan Thomas Jr., after missing last week with an injury, entered the rotation. JT Geer did not play.
Safety/nickelback remain the spots that don’t feature much rotation. Peyton Williams has played some at safety in non-garbage time during the first two weeks but its mainly been Nick Emmanwori, DQ Smith, and Jalon Kilgore on the field for almost every meaningful snap.
— In addition to his role on kickoff coverage, Nyck Harbor was spotted on the punt block team against Kentucky. Harbor had a tackle on the kickoff team.
— Despite being second on the depth chart, freshman tight end Michael Smith started for the second straight week.
— It was easy to miss, but Torricelli Simpkins III, who has played on the right side for most of the season, did get part of a drive at left guard. Last week, when the staff brought in Trovon Baugh, it was as a direct replacement for Simpkins. This week, they instead slid Simpkins over to left guard in place of Kamaar Bell and put Baugh in at right guard.
— Carolina opened the game in its 3-3-5 defense but appeared to play more 4-2-5 overall, though they did sprinkle in the 3-3-5 and at one point got pressure on Kentucky, backed up at their own goal line, with just a three-man rush.
— In the highlight below, South Carolina inserted the H-back into the A-gap (between the center and guard) presnap, which isn’t completely unheard of but isn’t something you see a ton of. The Gamecocks installed this concept back in the spring but didn’t show it until this week. In this particular setup, it’s an unbalanced formation into the boundary (short side of the field), which meant Kentucky was overloaded to that side on defense and opened up all that space to the wide side once Rocket Sanders bounced it out and Kentucky lost contain.
[Win two tickets to the South Carolina-LSU football game]
[BIG-GAME SPECIAL: 50% OFF! Unlock with promo code SpursUp]
— South Carolina did a good job of using motion to attack Kentucky’s zone defense. The way to stress most zone concepts is to overload particular areas of the field so that the coverage called is unable to cover every receiver in a particular area.
In the case of Carolina’s first touchdown pass, it’s not exactly a motion but there’s a similar effect as they already have two receivers and a tight end to the left of the formation and then Rocket Sanders, lined up on the right side, runs a route into the flat on the left side as well (with the tight end helping out in protection. Sanders’ route is designed to keep the underneath defenders from drifting back and helping deep while the two receivers run a scissors concept (post from outside receiver and corner from inside receiver) to put the cornerback in the deeper third in a bind. With some added eye candy of a glance to the right and designed roll to the left, it works exactly as it was designed.
[Win two tickets to the South Carolina-LSU football game]
[BIG-GAME SPECIAL: 50% OFF! Unlock with promo code SpursUp]
On Carolina’s second touchdown pass, Dowell Loggains motioned Josh Simon into trips (3 receivers on one side of the formation) and ran what appears to be a variation of four verticals (notoriously tough to defend with cover 3).
This version happens to be a four verts “switch” where rather than motioning and remaining as the innermost receiver on that side of the ball, Simon “switches” with the receiver closest to him and runs his route further outside, again designed to mess with Kentucky’s responsibilities in the zone coverage.
Sellers anticipates exactly where his receiver is going to be open and throws a strike into the zone opening and puts it in a spot where only his receiver can go get it.
[Win two tickets to the South Carolina-LSU football game]
[BIG-GAME SPECIAL: 50% OFF! Unlock with promo code SpursUp]
— Even with the helmet communication devices at their disposal, Carolina is still using traditional signs from the sideline as well. With only the quarterback able to hear the communication, he would then have to relay the play to the rest of the offense, while the staff can signal the play to everyone which allows for a quicker pace.
— With the game out of hand in the fourth quarter, Carolina was able to get several of its down-the-line defenders into the game.
Mo Kaba, returning from major knee injuries in back-to-back seasons, played at linebacker for the first time this season.
Gerald Kilgore, Peyton Williams, David Bucey, Joseph Byrnes and Buddy Mack all got some playing time at safety.
Former four-star signee Jalewis Solomon took late-game reps at cornerback while Kelvin Hunter was at nickelback.
On the offensive line, Tree Babalade, Markee Anderson, Ryan Brubaker, and Jatavius Shivers all got reps for the kneel down.
— In last week’s Details piece, I credited running back DJay Braswell with being a key gunner on South Carolina’s punt team but after further review, I believe that was a case of mistaken identity. In this week’s game, it was actually No. 23 on defense (not 23 offense), Gerald Kilgore, who was flying down the field covering punts. As I mentioned, that’s one of the key but usually unsung spots on special teams.
— Wide receiver Tyshawn Russell and defensive tackle Nick Barrett did not travel.
