How the Gamecocks are fostering competition early in practice

A quiet morning is interrupted by the intermittent “Thwack!” breaking through the silence. Yelling, some cheers or jeers follow it and then the morning quiets again before another uproar happens.

The Gamecocks do this drill near the start of every practice, and it’s become an honored tradition on camps. Up close, this drill isn’t anything different at any other campus, known as the Oklahoma drill.

It involves an offensive and defensive lineman and a running back, but it’s been adapted into something unique to South Carolina: the cock drill.

“It fires us up. It gets us going. The guys are going to get after it. They enjoy smacking the pads together,” quarterback Jake Bentley said. “It gets the whole team fired up for practice.”

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Now Bentley doesn’t participate in the drill but does get to see the energy it brings to the team early in the day’s practice.

The premise is simple: the linemen get set against each other between two pads. It’s the offense’s job to get the running back to make it past the defender and the defense’s job to prevent that.

It’s something the players look forward to, and they get pitted against similar players day in and day out.

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Usually the matchups are similar: linemen go against linemen, tight ends and running backs against linebackers and wide receivers against cornerbacks.

For instance, tight end K.C. Crosby’s usual partner is linebacker Bryson Allen-Williams, lineman Alan Knott against Ulric Jones or Kobe Smith, running back Ty’Son Williams against linebackers TJ Brunson and Elridge Thompson.

"It’s great competition. That’s like my brother,” Crosby said of Allen-Williams. “That competitiveness has been here since we got here.”

Players can request different opponents, and it becomes a topic of conversation in the locker room. They start to yell at each other and call out different players, trying to get the coaches to pit them against each other in the next day’s drill.

And if a player wins, then it gives him bragging rights until the next day, when they get to do it all over again.

“It’s definitely a highlight of the day,” Knott said. “We got guys jawing all day talking about, ‘I’ll get you in the cock drill tomorrow.’”

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The drill is a part of head coach Will Muschamp wanting to increase the physicality in practice to toughen up his team in the trenches.

Crosby said practices are “as physical as it gets,” and will help make games easier this season.

The team will continue doing its traditional “cock drill” at practice. It’s something the players look forward to every day with the chance to prove how tough and physical they are in front of their teammates and coaches.

“I like it better than running,” Williams said, smiling.

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