South Carolina needing to force more takeaways defensively

After leading the SEC in creating turnovers last year, the 2022 South Carolina defense hasn’t been able to repeat that success through three games.

The Gamecocks have only forced one turnover—a fourth-quarter interception by Marcellas Dial against Georgia State—with a handful of turnovers on down as well.

There’s a reason why the defense has struggled to make the big plays, according to Clayton White.

“You’ve gotta be in the right place,” White said. “At this level, no one’s going to toss you the football or lay the ball on the ground for you to go pick it up. We need to be in the right spot more—that’s being honest. Obviously, those will come, but we have to keep harping it at practice. You have to be in the right spot.”

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South Carolina averaged 1.8 turnovers per game last season and had only two games where they didn’t have a takeaway.

This year, the Gamecocks rank No. 127 in the FBS in turnover margin at minus-7. They haven’t picked up a takeaway against an SEC team.

They have faced two of the top offenses over the past two weeks in No. 10 Arkansas and No. 1 Georgia. Both teams severely outmatched South Carolina in those contests, combining for 1,004 offensive yards and 12 touchdowns.

During practices, White said they have to do things that will help create long-term change and better results come game day.

“Every single day we’re just trying to chop wood and just make sure that we are doing something that’s going to affect the end result,” White said. “And that’s us playing better defense. And if our team needs us in the fourth quarter we gotta be able to step up and stop the run when it counts.”

“Right now, we can’t worry about the stats. We need to stop the run when it counts and get off the field when it counts.”

Injuries could be warranted as another problem the defense has encountered. Teams never want to use injuries as an excuse for poor play, however, the Gamecocks were without five starters when they faced Georgia. Two of which—Mo Kaba and Jordan Strachan—are out for the rest of the season.

Debo Williams said the players have no reason to feel sorry for themselves in the face of adversity, regardless of who’s not out there.

“Next man up mentality. Everyone has to step up,” Williams said. “We’re SEC players for a reason. When it’s your time, it’s your time to shine. Every one of us are brothers. I don’t think it’s a chemistry thing.”

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Fortunately, the players prepared themselves in the event something went wrong. For Gilber Edmond, he would pay close attention to Strachan and mentally ready himself if his name was called. As it turns out, Edmond took over starting edge duties by week three.

“I was envisioning myself being in that position, so I was taking a lot of mental reps while (Strachan) was on the field and I was on the sideline,” Edmond said. “When he actually went down it was easy because I kind of already put myself in that position. I kind of already went through it in my head.”

With those injuries come newcomers being forced into action. In South Carolina’s case, they have come in bunches. Four freshmen took the field at one point during last Saturday’s loss to Georgia.

Shane Beamer has been impressed with the way they have helped the defense work through injuries and poor play. He knows their capabilities will continue to flourish with more experience. But with the SEC gauntlet not far away, he emphasized that it’s becoming now or never for the Gamecocks to do better.

“We don’t have time to wait. We’ve gotta go now,” Beamer said. “We want to grow up, we want to get better, we want to do all these things. Well, the time is now. So we’ve really got to improve quickly because time is running out if you will because this season will be over before you know it.”

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