South Carolina’s kicking game last year was what some would call a rollercoaster.

The Gamecocks struggled to consistently make field goals, especially from long-range, and are using spring ball as a way to iron out some of the kinks plaguing them last year.

“They approached it the right way,” special teams coordinator Coleman Hutzler said. “They understand the struggles we had a year ago and we need to do better.”

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After a few shaky outings from Woznick, White took over the full-time job after starting the year as the team’s long-range kicker.

They would combine to go 15-for-28 on field goals last season, 4-for-15 from over 40 yards.

Despite some struggles, White would finish the year as the starter, hitting a game-winning field goal against Louisiana Tech and going 14-for-25 on the year and hit every extra point he attempted.

This year he’s competing for that starting job with the hope he’s fixed the long-distance discrepancies.

“We got in those long distance situations and we struggled,” Hutzler said. “Once we made the move, we were going to stick with Parker through the way.”

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But White has competition this year.

Hutzler called the fight for the top kicker spot “wide open” with multiple guys vying for the job.

White’s obviously one of them but Woznick is another competing leg.

They have a few walk-ons competing this spring with Will Tommie, Brandon Chiazza and Austin Snow all kicking as well.

Shane Hynes, a Kent State graduate transfer, will arrive after spring practice and insert himself into the middle of the kicker race.

Hutzler said he’ll evaluate the kicking competition after the spring and then once again when Hynes arrives in the summer.

“We’re going to take the result phase by phase, and spring ball is a phase for us,” Hutzler said. “We’re going to look at spring at the end of it and look at those charts, then we’re going to attack fall camp when we have everybody here and go from there.”

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No starter will be named any time soon with so much time between now and the start of the season.

It’ll be an ongoing competition through the rest of this phase and throughout the fall preparing for Coastal Carolina.

“We’re going to chart everything for the spring and chart through fall camp and name a guy for the first game,” Hutzler said.