Keir Thomas can’t help but to take it personally.
Over the last three games the Gamecocks have let opponents march the ball up and down the field seemingly at will on the ground, something Thomas isn’t happy about entering this week’s Texas A&M game.
“It’s an itch. We have to stop the run,” Thomas said, matter-of-factly. “We have a great opportunity Saturday to go out and prove we can stop the run.”
Despite a 2-1 record over their last three games against Vanderbilt, Auburn and LSU the Gamecocks have struggled to stop the run really at all in those games.
Taking out sack yardage the Gamecocks have allowed a combined 598 yards over the last three weeks with opponents averaging 5.1 yards per carry.
The issue came to a head against LSU with the Tigers rushing for 276 yards and three touchdowns, prompting a lot of work over the bye week on remedying the problem.
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“We take all that to heart. We want to stop the run,” Zacch Pickens said. “We’d rather them pass the ball instead of running it down our throat. That’s one thing we worked on: stopping the run.”
The Gamecocks are a little undersized up front, averaging 6-foot-3 and 276.3 pounds on their two-deep, and that could play a part but there are also formational and coaching things that can be done to offset that.
Muschamp mentioned the coaches have talked about changing a few things schematically to help in run defense, but ask the players and it all comes down to a specific mindset.
“You have to want to get off the block and want to make the tackle. I feel like we didn’t have that mindset in the LSU game,” Jaycee Horn said. “This week we’re definitely going to have to come into A&M with that mindset. They’re a smash mouth football team.”
The good news for South Carolina is it’ll learn quickly just how improved its run defense is.
No. 7 Texas A&M comes in Saturday for a 7 p.m. kickoff sporting the SEC’s best rushing attack in terms of yards per carry.
The Aggies, led by Isaiah Spiller, are averaging 5.3 yards per carry this season and stopping the run could go a long way in pulling off the upset.
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“We have to make some plays. That’s really it. It’s straightforward,” Thomas said. “It’s stopping the run.”
Spiller (6-foot-1, 225 pounsd) has been very good this season, atop the SEC in yards per carry (6), fourth in yards (512) and tied for fifth in rushing touchdowns (5).
In an effort to mimic him this week, the Gamecocks are using freshman Rashad Amos (6-foot-2, 215 pounds) because of their similar running styles.
"Amos has been really similar to him. He’s been running through us trying to give us a look; (Spiller) is really good. We heard that a lot,” Pickens said. “Tackling Amos and trying to tackle him is kind of the same thing.”
