Tonka Hemingway does it all for South Carolina in win over Jacksonville State
Every now and then, South Carolina will face a goal line situation and have a trick up its sleeve. During the first drive on Saturday, the Gamecocks faced second and goal at the two-yard line.
Mario Anderson lined up in the backfield behind Spencer Rattler, who was under center. But to his left stood 6-foot-3, 285-pound Tonka Hemingway.
Rattler took the snap, fed the ball to Hemingway, who spun off a defender and lunged into the end zone for a touchdown. When he came out of the pile, he had a big smile on his face.
“It’s just something I grew up doing,” Hemingway said. “I want to help the team as much as I possibly can. When it happened, I was just trying to score and help the team.”
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Usually, Hemingway spends his time on defense as he’s a defensive lineman. But it’s not uncommon for the coaching staff to want to use his talents with the offense. It’s happened before.
“They just called me over there, and I just do whatever they tell me to do. That was up to them,” he said.
That wasn’t all he would do, though. Locked into a 14-14 tie, Jacksonville State was driving with a minute to go in the first half.
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Hemingway, lined back up at his normal position, blew past a blocker and pressured the quarterback, who couldn’t handle the snap. The ball was free on the ground and Hemingway came away with it. It was South Carolina’s first turnover in 14 quarters.
With the ball back and good field position, South Carolina would drive down the field and score a touchdown to go into halftime on top.
“It was just great for me to help my team,” Hemingway said. “For (the offense) to go score when I got that turnover, it kind of sparked things going into halftime and we were able to keep things rolling.”
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It was a fight to the finish but Hemingway and the defense were able to force four turnovers to pull off a 10-point win over Jacksonville State. The win snapped a four-game losing streak.
“We feel real good,” Hemingway said. “Yeah, we were 2-6 but these past couple practices and weeks we had, we didn’t practice like we were a 2-6 team. So going into these games, we’ve still got that chip on our shoulder that we shouldn’t be 2-6.”
