There are a lot of reasons to want to look up to Israel Mukuamu if you’re John Dixon.
Mukuamu stepped up and played early as a freshman and locked down the starting cornerback role as a sophomore. Now, he’s a potential All-SEC and first-round pick as a junior.
So it’s easy for guys like Dixon to look up to him and he’s doing it because he’s blown away by Mukuamu’s mental acumen.
“I’ve been working on learning the defense better and trying to be more like Izzy knowing what everyone has to do,” Dixon said, “because it makes the game real easy when you play faster.”
Dixon, who committed to South Carolina on Early Signing Day with the 2019 class, started the season opener in what he called a “literal dream come true” but played primarily special teams after that.
Now he’s competing for one of the top five spots in the secondary as a sophomore.
The Gamecocks have options in the secondary and one of those, when they’re in nickel, is sliding Jammie Robinson to nickel, Mukuamu to safety and a new corner into the game.
That has a chance to be Dixon, but he just wants to help his team anyway he can.
“Honestly, my goals are team goals,” Dixon said. “I want us to be as good as we can play to the highest potential. Me personally I want to be the best I can be and give up zero touchdowns. Anything I can do to help the team win is what I’m going to do.”
His biggest competition there is his roommate Cam Smith, who’s having a strong preseason camp himself.
Both are vying for that spot, but there’s no ill will between either and they’re actually pushing each other to work harder.
“I’ve been seeing both of them competing. Both of them are my roommates so we’re always around each other hanging out,” Robinson said. “I know they both are going to compete and the best guy’s going to get the position. Whoever gets the spot it ain’t going to hurt the next person. They’re both going to come and compete every day.”
Another big step in determining Dixon and Smith’s roles comes Saturday with the Gamecocks scrimmaging Saturday night in Williams-Brice.
Whatever happens, Smith said, won’t impact the relationships between the two second-year players.
“The satisfaction is knowing we’re competing and we’re competing the same every day. Ever since we got here I worked out with him every day after workouts and after practice. When we go work, we’re all together,” Smith said. “We know what we can do. Say anybody else gets the job; it’s congratulation to us. We worked out hard to do that.”
