The next step for Brunson

SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL

For TJ Brunson, he entered his junior season with a lot of fanfare with him, the coaches and the fan base expecting him to make the jump to one of the top middle linebackers in the SEC.

In his second full season as a starter, there were flashes of him becoming but as his position coach would say, there were a few too many mental inconsistencies for a guy three years into the program.

“I think TJ, unfortunately was working through some injuries he battled throughout the year. He just had some mental inconsistencies,” Coleman Hutzler said. “He’s obviously put in a lot of work this offseason, we’re healthy, we’re not doing anything this spring and he’s put a lot of time in—which is a blessing of this new facility—in the meeting room working on the mental part of the game with me, by himself, with the group on their own. We’re investing the time so that doesn’t happen again.”

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It’s a tall task trying to play middle linebacker in this conference with Will Muschamp and Travaris Robinson wanting the MIKE to set the defense, get every player in the right spot and make plays as the centerpiece of the defense.

Brunson’s stat line last season looks really good on paper: he started all 13 games and led the team with 106 total tackles and a fumble recovery.

But, as the Gamecocks defense struggled the back half of last season, Brunson wasn’t thinking much about the plays he did make; he was focused on the ones he didn’t.

“I did a pretty good job of controlling the defense. If things went array, getting everybody to calm down and understand we have to keep playing. I understood what was going to happen a lot more,” he said in December before the Belk Bowl. “Now, the flip side is trusting what I see and making more plays, more flash plays.”

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That’s what’s next for Brunson. After playing 37 games in three seasons, he’s seen about everything he possibly could in the SEC, but now it’s about making those plays when the opportunity presents itself.

He played last season hobbled with a knee injury and sat out spring practice recovering from meniscus surgery but is fully healthy entering summer workouts and fall camp.

Now comes putting what he and Hutzler says into action. Brunson’s been a full participant in summer workouts, working on getting stronger to get off blocks on the interior and faster to cover running backs on the perimeter.

He and Hutzler are also spending ample time in the film room to see on video what his pitfalls are so he can continue to work on those this summer. Spending time watching film is something he’d done before, but never to the point he is right now.

“All young players that’s the hardest transition,” Hutlzer said. “It’s one of the biggest transitions from high school to college: the amount of time, the amount of investment that it takes off the field. There’s a 20-hour rule right? There’s only so much you can do on the field, but there’s so much more to the game. That’s where we have to raise our level.”

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Brunson’s done well in his two full seasons anchoring the defense but still has a lot of room to grow heading into his final year on campus.

He was named to Athlon’s preseason’s fourth-team All-SEC, joining seven other Gamecocks to make one of the publication’s four all-conference teams.

As a junior, he had the chance to test NFL waters and leave school with a year of eligibility on the table. That was never an option for Brunson, who said he had too much left to prove as a senior.

“Four years or school for sure and making sure I was putting my best out there for when I do decide to go. I feel like I didn’t have an amazing season this year and have some stuff I still need to work on,” Brunson said. “I need to set expectations now.”