During the final 10 days until the start of South Carolina's season, Gamecock Central will use each day to take a look at 10 storylines that will most directly affect the success of Carolina's 2018 campaign.
With eight days until kickoff, we look at our No. 8 storyline - fixing the kicking.
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As Gamecock Central writer Will Helms detailed in this piece, a large portion of South Carolina's kicking woes from the 2017 season don't necessarily fall on the shoulders of place-kicker Parker White.
While it's easy to just point to the kicker, there are a number of areas where things can go wrong when there's a missed kick. If the Gamecocks are going to have the season they want, and continue to win close games, they'll have to clean those areas up.
“It’s consistency. That’s the name of the game as a specialist, no matter what,” special teams coordinator Coleman Hutzler said during preseason.. “It definitely did not fall on Parker White’s shoulders. We had laces and bad snaps and missed spots and all of that. It all kind of combined for some ugly numbers, especially over 40 yards.”
Some of those numbers can be a bit misleading, though.
While White was 14 of 25 overall, he hit 10 of 11 kicks from inside 40 yards. With a potentially improved offense, the Gamecocks could be much more likely to go for it on certain fourth downs this season, which would lead to less long attempts.
Hutzler has been happy with White's progress this offseason.
“It’s amazing what a little competition does. Parker White had a great summer, really had a good spring and great summer and stepped up his game,” he said. “Shane (Hynes’s) come in here and is competing and so is Woznick. We have three guys that came in and made strides, made improvements and they’re competing at a high level.”
While South Carolina has not officially announced a starter, Muschamp has said that White will likely be the guy.
A combination of an improved White, better snaps and holds, and less long attempts, should lead to a much-improved kicking game this season.
