Wonnum putting it all together for junior season

D.J. Wonnum has had his fair share of success over the first two years on campus: two-time SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week, team captain and 89 career tackles.

He’s been a force coming off the edge as the BUCK in Will Muschamp’s defense, but heading into his junior year he’s working on taking the next step in his game.

“Basically working more on coverage,” Wonnum said. “I did a lot of work with coverage, getting my feet right and other than that, pretty much that stuff.”

Wonnum’s primarily played at that end position, rushing the quarterback off that side and has been pretty good doing it.

He picked up 57 tackles last year, 13 for loss, and had a team-leading six sacks. This year, he’ll still be in that same role but the coaching staff might move him around a little bit more to showcase his speed and coverage ability.

“He’s doing a little bit of everything. He’s on the field,” BUCKs coach Mike Peterson said. “We’re moving around a lot of guys that had a lot of production for us last year. We’re trying to feed off of that and find some things that he can do really, really good for us.”

The next big leap for Wonnum, who’s poised to have a breakout year, is stepping up as a leader on the defense along with TJ Brunson.

Wonnum’s play already speaks for itself on the field but now his coaches want to see him be more vocal with some of the younger players.

“He’s one of those guys that leads by example,” Peterson said. “Every day I’m getting on him about not only doing your job but bringing somebody along. He’s adapted to it and he’s doing a great job at it.”

Wonnum, who’s entering his third season, will be the anchor of a BUCK and end group that returns a lot of production from the year before.

Not only is Wonnum coming back, but the Gamecocks get Bryson Allen-Williams back with rotation players Brad Johnson and Daniel Fennell back in the fold.

They think this could be the fastest front seven they’ve had under Muschamp and think, with Wonnum helping lead the charge, it could be a special group.

“It’s a good advantage,” Wonnum said. “We take it more as an advantage to have quicker guys take on the blocks but get off the blocks easy.”