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What's behind the improved defense this season?

There were a lot of questions circling the Gamecocks this preseason: who’d start at quarterback, how is this coaching staff going to perform, how is the defense going to perform after being gashed all last season?

Halfway through this season, at least one of those questions seems to be answered.

The Gamecock pass defense ranks 61st in total defense, 28th in scoring defense and 12th in red zone defense. A big part of that has been the play of the linebackers and defensive. The units have accounted for over 65 percent of the team’s total tackles (290).

“A lot of people underestimated us but we know how talented we are,” defensive back Steven Montac said. “We don’t have a lot of depth, but the people we have here are pretty talented. And with the coaching staff here it’s just going to make us better.”

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Montac, who’s split time at safety and defensive back, plays alongside returners Chris Lammons and Chaz Elder. Lammons, whose first two seasons were hampered by injuries, has burst onto the scene in 2016.

He leads the team in interceptions with two, and he’s seventh on the team with 25 total tackles. A big part of his development, he said, is the new coaching staff, particularly Coach Muschamp.

“He’s a dude who’s going to push you to the best you can play,” Lammons said. “He’s a coach that’s going to make sure you do whatever you’re supposed to do.”

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The new coaches, led by Muschamp and defensive back and defensive coordinator Travaris Robinson, are more hands-on, Lammons said, and focus on energy and technique to get a relatively inexperienced defense better.

“A lot of coaches yell at you and don’t correct your mistake, but they correct your mistake. We watch film a lot with the coaches and he corrects every mistake,” Lammons said. “He’s just not a guy who’s going to yell at you all the time. He’s going to correct your mistake.”

Energy is one of the main things Lammons and Montac brought up, saying Muschamp will be lively and if coaches have to repeat themselves, the head coach bursts in with an emphatic “Yeah!” during a meeting.

Montac said Muschamp loves the saying “hell of a deal” as well and will break it out for something good on film. Muschamp and Robinson also offer one-on-one film studies for players who want it.

Players like Montac, who played a new position at safety this year, take advantage of these opportunities.

“It helps me a lot,” Montac said. “(Muschamp) coached a lot of great safeties: Matt Elam…and Earl Thomas, probably the best safety in the league. He coached a lot of great safeties, so it helps me a lot.”

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South Carolina is going to rely on its defense the remainder of the season, needing four wins to make a bowl game and facing potent offenses like Tennessee and Clemson.

With questions still lingering about a starting quarterbacks and the coaching staff, the defense is confident it can hold it’s own moving forward behind defensive specialists like Muschamp.

“You don’t want to be here just to go through the motions; you want to win,” Lammons said. “He’s a guy that wants to win.”

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