Joe Cox's time at South Carolina has been a roller coaster so far starting as tight ends coach and moving over the course of a few weeks to receivers coach.
He's settled there now and one of the newest additions to the coaching staff spent time with South Carolina media relations to talk about his room right now.
Below is a breakdown of the players he was asked about and what they've been doing in camp.
Shi Smith: “He’s had a pretty good camp. He does have some big play ability. He’s one of the guys that can score from anywhere and make a big play from anywhere on the field. I’ve challenged him a lot this camp understanding that it’s his time. He’s always had somebody with him. he’s always had a Deebo or a Bryan Edwards, unbelievable players where he could make a big play but maybe he wasn’t the guy they were counting on to make every big play. Hey, he is the Deebo, he is the Bryan. He has to prove it to his teammates, prove it to us every single day. he’s answered that challenge pretty well. I’m excited to see what he can be for this offense. He has to know a lot and be the guy that gets the most out of this group.”
Jalen Brooks: “We’re hoping everything goes through. That’s a big thing we’re waiting on. Jalen’s one of those guys that for the amount of time he’s been here he has as good of a grasp of what we’re doing as anybody in our room. We’ve been talking about this stuff since February. He’s a really, really sharp kid. He brings some length to the room and has good speed. He’s somebody that because of how he practices and his knowledge of every single thing we do is a huge asset for him getting on the field and being a playmaker. The first day he came out with some fresh legs and made some big plays and had a good scrimmage this past weekend. I’m really excited to see what he can do adding another guy that teams have to account for and we can game plan around.”
Dakereon Joyner: “Obviously for somebody that played, he’s a natural athlete. But for somebody that’s played the quarterback position, a lot of times people think that’s an easy transition. It’s not. There are a lot of things he’s still continuing to learn in terms of receiver play and what he has to do to get open and create space and savvy. A lot of that’s feel that comes with time playing that position. He’s done a good job. He’s a tough kid. he’s tough with the ball in his hands. He did have a good scrimmage and that’s one thing I talked about with him last week: this is his opportunity right here and we want to see what you do when the ball’s in your hands. Can you get open? Can you make plays with your hands away from your body in contested catch situations. He did a pretty good job of that. He’s a guy where the more confidence he gets playing the position and making plays in those situations is a guy who’s going to keep coming along and he’s going to e a guy we can count on.”
Luke Doty: “Luke is one of the most impressive young men I’ve ever been around. Luke has to deal with Coach Bobo’s meeting and my meetings. Thinking back to being a first year player in an offense where there’s a lot going on is crazy how well he’s been able to comprehend things. He’s got a great attitude; he’s a huge leader on our football team. All those younger guys, he’s the guy in that class. They all gravitate to him. They know he’s going to be doing things the right way. It shows. He takes notes in meetings. He practices the right way; he knows what to do. He’s a guy that’s going to be pulling along a lot of young guys for a long time. My hat’s off to him this whole fall camp with everything he has to learn. Playing all kinds of spot. I couldn’t imagine doing it. There’s no way. I think there are a few days his head’s spinning pretty good too where he might forget how to just play football. He’s made plays. Regardless it’s really going to benefit him for both positions doing what we’ve had him do this fall camp.”
Young players: We’ve had two young receivers that have done a really good job so far in Rico Powers and Ger-Cari Caldwell that keep coming along. Cari, first couple days of camp, I was on him pretty hard and he had a look in his eye that he didn’t know what we were doing. Then he comes to the scrimmage this week and makes the game-winning touchdown catch in a one-minute drill. He had two touchdowns in the scrimmage. He’s learning how to play a little bit as a different type of receiver in this offense. He’s a big guy and has to play big, which is a lot different than how Shi plays. Everybody coming in as a young receiver getting used to the physicality of the DBs your playing against, the speed of the DBs, how many different coverage looks, it’s a lot coming at them. Both guys have practiced the right way and put themselves in a pretty good position to possibly make some contributions. I tell everybody we have to count on everyone this year. Another young guy was mike Wyman. He’s done a good job. He missed a little bit of time but he’s been a workaholic guy of the group. All those guys have to continue to keep learning and putting themselves in a spot where we can call their number and we’re not scared to do that.”
Xavier Legette: What I’ve challenged him about is he’s still a raw receiver. Being a guy that is really athletic, he played last year, but has some quarterback background too. There are a lot of things that he needs to continue to learn that would really help his game. He has unbelievable work ethic. He’s a tough guy. He has speed, has strength and he’s a guy that not only do I think he has a chance to be one of those guys but we need him to be one of those guys. He’s been one of the guys I’ve challenged the most in the room. He has to play with a different mentality than most out there with his frame and what we’re asking him to do, he has to be the guy that’s going to play against most team’s best DBs. He’s going to going against their most physical DBs and has to be the guy that makes contested caches. And make plays to move the chains and make big plays too. He’s done a good job rising to that challenge so far.”
