Heading into the season, South Carolina’s secondary was expected to be the strength of this Gamecock defense, but two weeks in and the Gamecocks are searching for answers on the back end.
On paper things looked great in the preseason, but through the first eight quarters things have been largely disappointing with the Gamecocks allowing far too many big plays.
“As a whole as a secondary we need to play better. The explosive plays when you have 10 in your first two ballgames, you can’t have that. It’s hard to win games when you’re giving up explosive plays. We’ve done that and we have to get better.”
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On paper the secondary looked like one of the better units in the conference with two potential first-round picks in Jaycee Horn and Israel Mukuamu, a returning freshman All-American with Jammie Robinson and RJ Roderick, who entered the year with 16 starts.
But on the field things haven’t been rosy. Teams are averaging 8.7 yards per attempt against the Gamecock secondary with five touchdown passes to just one interception.
Missed opportunities have defined the group with guys not taking advantage of easily defended or intercepted balls, which is why the group is struggling early.
“We have to get the ball off people…We challenged our guys. We have to do more in the secondary. We have to be more productive in the secondary. We’re averaging eight yards an attempt. That’s the most I’ve ever been around,” Muschamp said. “We need to limit explosive plays. That’s the most alarming thing that’s happened.”
The Gamecocks have tried a few new bodies out there with Jaylin Dickerson logging 55 snaps against Florida and John Dixon starting and playing 56 snaps.
It’s still to be determined who will play—that gets evaluated this week in practice as South Carolina figures out its best five on the field—but Muschamp left impressed with Dixon’s game on the road.
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“I thought he played well. He made a couple nice tackles on the perimeter. He had a 50-50 ball and thought he was going to make an interception and their guy did a good job getting it off of him. I thought he defended the seam ball extremely well regardless of what was called,” Muschamp said. “I think he continues to improve and do some good things for us. We have to continue to get better with him. I was really proud of how he played yesterday. I thought he played well.”
Another thing the Gamecocks could do if the secondary continues to struggle is play more base 4-3 defense, putting another linebacker on the field in lieu of a defensive back.
If that’s the case, then Ernest Jones, Brad Johnson and now Damani Staley would be on the field at the same time. Staley, filling in for an injured Sherrod Greene, made his first career start and picked up two tackles.
Playing more regular is one thing Muschamp said Sunday night the coaching staff is discussing along with playing more DIME defense.
We’re looking at that. A lot depends on what you’re facing offensively. We’ll continue to look at that tonight. I thought Damani did a good job. He played well in there. There were no issues,” Muschamp said. “The DIME package helps you with matchups and helps you disguise where you are from a structural standpoint. We’ll continue to figure that out as we move forward.”
