What Dowell Loggains and Clayton White said previewing Texas A&M

On Wednesday, South Carolina offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains and defensive coordinator Clayton White met with the media to preview this weekend’s matchup with Texas A&M. Here’s what they had to say.

Dowell Loggains

— You always self scout and split it for Texas A&M. You try to figure why good and bad things are happening and then you fix them.

— The next step for the offense is to win this game. Not thinking about the past or too far ahead. They’re just trying to put the players into positions to be successful.

— Doesn’t think anyone has been able to figure out Texas A&M. You need to maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.

— Definitely missed Jared Brown’s presence out there while he was hurt. You go back to making him feel comfortable in the things that he’s doing. There’s also a mental toll of catching him up to speed on what he’s missed in the offense.

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— You get frustrated when you feel like you lose your edge when you’re up 21-0. Thought they lost a little bit of intensity when they were ahead against Oklahoma. But he was happy with the way LaNorris Sellers took care of the football in that game and didn’t turn the ball over. You’re going to have a chance to be in every game in the fourth quarter when that’s the case. It was a major point to go on the road and get a win against a really good defense.

— When you win the turnover battle, you’re going to win more than you lose. LSU was playing really well against A&M then the offense started feeling the pass rush and it put the ball in jeopardy. A&M has racers who can get home and create turnovers. Speed creates stress on offenses. There’s a fine line of taking care of the ball. But you’ve got to coach technique.

— Alshon Jeffery was so unique at 6-foot-2 with elite ball skills when he coached him on the Bears. He was an elite ball skill guy. So proud of him and the success he’s had. To compare someone else to him, it would be like comparing a winner to Connor Shaw. Never going to take anything away from how good Jeffery was. But it’s a good name for the players to chase.

— You don’t get through hard things, you grow through hard things. There’s no easy fix to the offense during the bye week. You’re trying to figure out a few things to improve on to give them a better chance. You look at everything and grind through those things. You try to figure out why sacks are happening. Are there repeat offenders? Do you need to look at a roster change? So you do all those things in a three-day window. It’s not a bye week for coaches. You’re trying to manage self scout, the next opponent and recruiting.

Clayton White

— Last week was a relentless pursuit to improvement. The guys were locked in. It’s great to be back and get ready for A&M.

— They have an idea that they’re going to see both quarterbacks in the game. They’re preparing for both. They get a lot of different looks from Sellers and Robby Ashford in practice, which helps.

— Some offenses try to be cute, some just go right at it. That’s what A&M does. Their top priority is to put the football in the hands of their best players and let them go to work.

— Boogie Huntley doesn’t get affected by the lack of attention he gets. He’s just being himself. That’s one thing White loves about this program is that guys can be themselves. Huntley is a prime example of that.

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— It definitely helps having faced different styles of quarterbacks this season. You already have some things you need in your tool box. They call it bank reps, they just gotta keep using them. It really helps to have Sellers and Ashford to get the looks they’ll be getting on Saturday.

— Fred Johnson is a superb athlete who can do anything on the football field. If you’re in the middle of the defense, you need to be wearing the green dot. So he’s been doing a great job.

— It’s their livelihood to run to the football. You have to be able to do that and have great effort to the ball. The players have to understand that’s what defense is all about.

— Evaluation of the defense is an ongoing process. It never really ends. Speed is one of the main things you want on the defense.

— Being here at South Carolina, if you do great things sometimes you’ll get noticed, sometimes you won’t. Your focus has to be all on the team. Really locked in on the month of November. Not in a hurry to be a head football coach. Wants to be a great DC right now. 

— They haven’t had a nickname before on defense, they don’t want one now. Appreciates it but he’s good. They’re Gamecock defense, that’s their nickname.

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