What Dowell Loggains and Clayton White said previewing Vanderbilt

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

Dowell Loggains

— Tweaked some of the things they did offensively during the bye week. Had a chance to focus on themselves. A lot of credit to the guys, they took the challenge very serious.

— The offensive line play was everything on Saturday. You’re not going to have great teams without great offensive lines. Protection always beats coverage. If you can protect long enough, your receivers have more time to get open.

— Every week is a different challenge. Vanderbilt is an extremely tough team to get ready for. It’s not the same team they played last year. There are people who perceive them to be better than South Carolina. The question is can SC handle prosperity? It’s going to be a four-quarter dog battle. It’s going to be a difficult challenge.

— It’s getting five plays to play well together. How does a young player get better? He plays. The offensive line continues to play together and they get a little better. knew what they had and there would be growing pains. They’ve shown a little peak of what they can do when things are going good. But it doesn’t matter now. They have to do it again.

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— LaNorris Sellers and him talked about how they’re going to have to play A&M to win this game. The mindset was to attack and not ease into the fight. They needed to go attack and show they’re serious about winning this game. And that’s what Sellers did. The week of prep he had, no one was surprised by how he played because he had his best week of practice.

— Rocket Sanders has been through the wars of the SEC. He knew the team needed him to play well to win that game. His veteran presence is like when they had Xavier Legette last year. He provides a perfect example for what the young guys need to do.

— The slot is a hard position to play because you have to be able to think quickly and understand coverage. You can feel Mazeo Bennett’s intensity out there. If you asked him, he’d probably say he hasn’t done enough. Part of playing that position is being fearless, which he is. He’s just getting started. He just needs to keep taking the right steps to get better and growing up fast.

— Diego Pavia is a baller. Reminds him of when he coached Johnny Manziel in Cleveland. He makes plays. He makes everyone around him better at a high level.

— They’ve done the pin and pull blocking. Didn’t know if it was ready to do it at the level they did it against A&M. Hadn’t done a ton of it to that point but that’s what the bye week was for. Given the extra time, they felt they could get that going to help stretch the field.

Clayton White

— Very proud of how unbelievable the crowd was. Every Saturday night is outstanding. Reviewing the game, loved how it started out. Second quarter was bumpy but the finish was great.

— Very similar trying to scout for Marcel Reed vs. Diego Pavia. You have to understand who’s the main piece to the puzzle. He’s been leading the way for Vanderbilt. The defense has to do a great job on Saturday.

— It does help a lot facing Sellers and Ashford to give them a full speed look of what they’re going to see on Saturday.

— One of the successes Vanderbilt has had this year is converting on third down. The ball is king to them.

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— Thinks it’s in Dylan Stewart to be able to turn it on when it comes to playing on Saturdays. It was born within him. He’s still a young kid and keeps to himself. He’s funny in his own way.

— The players understood the situation making the 4th and 1 stops. Was surprised A&M didn’t try to sneak the first one. The guys were ready for that situation. The second was Debo Williams running through and making a play with other guys behind him to clean it up.

— You are surprised on the outside looking in seeing how well Pavia has played. But not surprised by the time the season gets going. But when you watch the tape, some things can be surprising. He makes Houdini plays.

— Since he’s been here with Beamer, it’s been a point of emphasis to play well at the end of the season. You have to do a good job in November and finish strong. That’s what you have to do in sports and life. Finish.

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