When Keir Thomas was coming out of Miami Central high school in 2016, his list of offers was an eye-popping one and included the likes for Alabama, Auburn, Florida State and Tennessee.

One other school that had interest was Georgia, who employed Tracy Rocker at the time as defensive line coach and Rocker recruited Thomas some.

Thomas ultimately committed to South Carolina and, four years later, gets to link back up with Rocker at South Carolina this year.

“I love coach Rocker,” Thomas said. “He stays on me and he’s a hard coach. He’s going to tell me when I’m wrong and tell me when I’m right. He’s just a good coach.”

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Rocker came to South Carolina this offseason as the team’s new defensive line coach, filling the position vacated by John Scott Jr. who took a position at Penn State.

Since taking the job, he’s been on campus now trying to get to know his personnel along the defensive line and had five practices with his group before COVID-19 suspended spring practice.

In those five sessions he was able to make a solid impression on his group.

“Coach Rocker is really trying to get this dog out of me,” Zacch Pickens said. “He knows it’s in me, but it’s a work in progress, too. He’s going to get it out of me.”

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He comes over after a two-year stint at Tennessee and has experience coaching at three other SEC schools and the Tennessee Titans of the NFL.

Because of that, he’s bringing some ideas to the defensive meeting room to try and help streamline things for next season and clarify some defensive terminology.

“It gives us a chance to simplify some things. Why did you call it that? Someone questioned that when we called it that and it’s because we’ve called it that for the last four years,” defensive coordinator Travaris Robinson said. “Why’d you call it that? Wouldn’t it be simpler if we called it this? I had to be flexible and coach Muschamp had to be flexible in how we call certain things. I think we did a good job simplifying some of the terms. It’s been really good. Those guys, I think they fit in well to what we’re trying to do.”

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The Gamecocks’ defensive line is one of the deepest and most talented groups on the team with an influx of youth—Pickens, Joe Anderson, Jordan Burch and more—with steady veterans like Thomas, Rick Sandidge, Aaron Sterling and J.J. Enagbare.

The message to those guys has been simple to start the relationship.

“Keep practicing. If you keep straining and fighting, you go as fast as you can,” Pickens said. “If you mess up, mess up fast. Don’t mess up being lazy.”