Gamecocks ‘need to play’ better in secondary. Could these young players help?
It didn’t take South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp long to say what was painfully obvious in watching his team’s loss to Florida.
“We need to play better in the secondary,” the fifth-year coach said.
They gave up five explosive plays, defined by Muschamp and his staff as plays of 20 yards or more. Last year, they averaged allowing just more than two per game.
The culprits in South Carolina’s problems were multiple. Safety/dime linebacker R.J. Roderick struggled on some plays. Redshirt freshman corner Cam Smith had at least one that didn’t look good. Five Gamecocks misplayed things on a long catch and run by Gator Kadarius Toney. The Gamecocks also gave up 10 yards after the catch on third-and-14.
And that came in a game in which the Gamecocks played a multitude of options in the secondary.
Roderick spent a lot of time as a sixth defensive back. Jaylin Dickerson played a lot of safety, as did Israel Mukuamu. Anchors such as Jammie Robinson and Jaycee Horn were in there plenty.
And a younger player in sophomore corner John Dixon also got a lot of work.
“I thought he played well,” Muschamp said. “A couple nice tackles on the perimeter. Had a 50-50 ball right there, I thought he was going to get the interception. Their guy did a great job of getting it off of him. I thought he defended the seam ball extremely well, regardless of what was called.
“I thought John really showed up and flashed.”
That seam ball referred to a pass interference call that set the stage for a Florida touchdown. Dixon made contact early on a ball likely too high to catch. Tampa product was third on the team with five tackles and broke up two passes.
With Mukuamu helping at safety and some of Smith’s struggles across the first two games, USC will likely need as many options as it can get at corner.
And they might have to get a little deeper to the group of freshmen.
“Joey Hunter played,” Muschamp said. “He held up at corner on our punt return team. He’s a guy that possibly could play that I think has got the ability. Just get to get him ready to go. O’Donnell Fortune has shown some things to us.”
Hunter is a longer corner who also played some safety. He missed all of last season with a torn ACL. Fortune starred a Sumter High School and is a taller option at 6-foot-1, 175 pounds.
Even after going deep with that group, the Gamecocks are still searching for answers, whether it be personnel or scheme.
“We’ll continue to try to mix things up best we can without having our players think,” Muschamp said.
This story was originally published October 5, 2020 at 5:10 AM with the headline "Gamecocks ‘need to play’ better in secondary. Could these young players help?."
