Zacch Pickens talks South Carolina defense before Charlotte
While South Carolina’s defense has been rocked by injuries so far this season, Zacch Pickens has been a welcome sense of stability.
Through three games Pickens is second on the team in total tackles with 18 and has half a tackle for loss to his name.
While his numbers haven’t exactly been eye-popping thus far, he’s continued to show improvement week by week.
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Pickens said he feels like he’s played “OK” this season but still has some things that he needs to work on, notably his pad level and being aggressive in the pass rush.
After posting a PFF pass rush grade of 60.3 against Arkansas he was able to increase his grade to 64.5 against Georgia.
Pickens had a missed tackle rate of 14.3 percent against Arkansas but was able to cut that all the way to 0, bumping his tackle grade up from 53.4 to 74.8.
With the disappointing loss against Georgia it’s easy to come into a week of practice with a low morale, but Pickens said the defense is remaining positive.
“We just come positive, we mainly just staying positive with everything,” Pickens said. “As a player, as a competitor, we want those games. That’s the games we’re looking forward to to show everybody what we can do.”
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The senior added that he knows the team didn’t play up to their expectations against the Bulldogs and are looking forward to proving themselves this Saturday.
“We’re trying to be better than what we showed because we’re 10 times better than what we showed out there that Saturday against Georgia,” Pickens said.
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Going into the 2022 season there were a host of defensive linemen available to partner up with Pickens on the inside. Alex Huntley emerged as the number two guy and thrived before going down with an injury.
With Huntley out, Pickens said that guys like MJ Webb and TJ Sanders have stepped up big time.
“They’ve been pretty good, especially TJ, going from not playing to playing a lot,” Pickens said. “Having MJ there, he’s mainly the oldest guy so with him he really gets TJ ready. TJ tries to take some stuff from me and it kinda doesn’t work out for him, but he’s starting to learn what to do when the blocks come to him.”
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Outside of the defensive line, Pickens lauded other young Gamecocks like Nick Emmanwori and DQ Smith for how they’ve stepped in roles previously filled by NFL talent guys. He added the way that the two freshmen have progressed so far this year is representative of the defense of the whole.
“They’re learning, especially Nick, Nick doesn’t really need nobody – he’s basically going to be like a veteran already,” Pickens said. “DQ, he’s coming along, he played nickel, he’s not really used to it, he fit that spot and he’s learning well. Everyone is growing and that’s one thing about us – we’re still growing.”
With two tune-up games in a row on the docket for South Carolina, Pickens and the Gamecock defense will have the perfect opportunity to get back into rhythm before a tough stretch of SEC games.
“We’ve got nine more games to play…we’ve got more football, we’re just gonna keep competing,” Pickens said. “That’s one of our main cores, we’re just gonna keep competing and keep our heads down and keep fighting.”
