White: Gamecocks have 'installed 60 or 70 percent' of defense

And, now that the Gamecocks have started spring practice he’s not holding back much any more with White saying Monday he’s already installed over half of his base 4-2-5 defense in just three spring practices.

“My ultimate goal when I install is to give them as much as possible without overloading. The first three practices, in my mind we gave them quite a bit,” he said. “We probably installed 60 or 70 percent in three days. Obviously it’s not every single call or variation of your defense but it’s multiple layers within packages.”

Also see: Full recap from Monday's coordinator availability

For White, that’s a good thing. He wants to throw as much at his players early to not only see what they can handle but also install the base levels and concepts of his defense so they can build off of those later.

He treats installation plans almost like weekly in-season game plans, giving players different calls for each down to learn almost like they were playing in a game.

“Every practice is almost like a game. I give them a first down call, a second down call, some things we’ll do on third down. That’s just so they can understand and broaden their horizons as far as football knowledge,” White said. “That’s where I’m at; even in 7-on-7, they might get some third down pass calls or some short yardage pass calls or medium pass calls. I’d say about 70 percent of the defensive has been introduced.”

What’s really helped White and his staff from an installation perspective is the meetings and walk-throughs they were able to have with players before spring practice started.

Also see: Gamecock OL target nearing a decision

They were able to have nine uninterrupted weeks of time together for White to start from “the ground up” installing his defense.

“That’s the first time I’ve been able to do that in this long (coaching). We were able to break some barriers in our defense in regards to teaching and help these guys learn it faster. This is year nine for me but this is week one and two for them,” White said. “I had to really come down a lot. We broke a lot of barriers. I became a better football coach the last nine weeks. I can honestly say that. I’ve become a better ball coach the last nine weeks because of the transition.”

Defensive installation, compared to offense, seems to not get the same level of notoriety and there’s not as much understood about it.

But Monday White spoke to how he goes about installing his defense and the plan he goes through.

The first thing White does is take a week to go over different offensive formations so players can understand those before moving on to other topics.

Also see: Latest recruiting and draft scoop and buzz

“We spend a week on that. That’s an every day thing. We start from there and then go in from there to your three-down stuff, four-down stuff and move on,” White said. “You go with coverage and blitzes. It’s pretty fun. Once they get that first part? It becomes fun.”