On Saturday, South Carolina held their second inter-squad scrimmage of fall camp. And the biggest thing that I keep hearing about is that the defense, once again, dominated.
“This defense is as fast and physical as I can remember a South Carolina defense being in a long time,” one source said. “They were rotating about 15-16 guys and they all looked damn good.”
A lot of those rotations took place up front, which only backs up what the Gamecocks have talked about wanting to do with their defensive line. “Hockey shifts.” But at cornerback, Judge Collier and Vicari Swain also rotated a good bit. Emory Floyd also saw some time at cornerback as well.
As far as who stood out defensively, the name that got mentioned to me the most was transfer EDGE Kyle Kennard. This comes a week after Kennard looked good in the first scrimmage.
“Kennard is the real deal. He’s living up to all the hype,” one source said. “He just disrupts plays. On one outside run, he beat both the tight end and the left tackle and stuffed the running back. He’s fun to watch.”
I was also told that Kennard had a “nice sack” on LaNorris Sellers.
Safety DQ Smith’s day was highlighted on a “long pick-six.” Defensive tackle T.J. Sanders had three tackles for loss and two sacks while linebacker Debo Williams added three tackles for loss and a sack.
Outside linebacker Bam Martin-Scott, “played out of his mind,” showing off his speed around the corners while true freshman safety David Bucey continues to grab people’s attention. “Don’t sleep on Bucey,” said one source. “With how that safety room looks, I don’t know what his role will be defensively but with the way he’s playing, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him make the travel squad by contributing on special teams. He’s athletic and has been picking things up quickly.”
Offensively, the headline on Saturday was how running back Rocket Sanders looked. After not playing in last week’s scrimmage, from the different sources I spoke with they used words like, “fantastic,” and “his old self,” when describing what Sanders looked like on Saturday. The Gamecocks still aided on the side of caution with Sanders as defensive players were reminded throughout the scrimmage not to “bring five down to the ground.” He was still making cuts and making guys miss, as the object was to “thud” him up. In a lot of practices, that’s how teams usually handle “tackling” anyway.
True freshman running back Matthew Fuller had the green light to be tackled and the defense struggled to bring him down at times.
“He hits the hole and runs hard,” said one source about Fuller. “He broke a few tackles because he just keeps his feet moving.”
Transfer wide receivers Vandrevius Jacobs and Jared Brown were running with the ones and both “looked good.” Brown scored on a 60-yard touchdown pass from LaNorris Sellers, which was described to me as, “art,” with how nice of a throw it was by Sellers. Unfortunately, the play was called back.
Of Sellers day, despite missing some throws, Sellers “looked the best at of all the quarterbacks,” said one source. They added, “Robby Ashford did some good things, which was good to see. Even Davis Beville threw a touchdown pass to Nyck Harbor, but that was called back. With how good this defense is, it was tough for anyone on the offense to look good but Sellers looked smoother this week compared to last weekend’s scrimmage.”
Two other names that were brought up to from Saturday’s scrimmage were wide receivers Luke Doty and Payton Mangrum. Doty continues to be a security blanket for USC’s QBs while Mangrum’s highlight of the day came on a 40-yard touchdown where he broke multiple tackles.
True freshman tight end Michael Smith put together another solid outing. “He didn’t do anything crazy but he just continues to do the little things right,” said one source. “South Carolina has had some good tight ends in the past. I’d go as far as to say that Smith has the skill set to be right up there with the best of them. He’s that good.”
As far as the offensive line goes, Vershon Lee got the start at center while Cason Henry was at right tackle. At the two guard spots, transfers Kamaar Bell and Torricelli Simpkins III ran with the ones while true freshman Josiah Thompson also got some work with the ones at left tackle. How much stock should we put into this? Well, I’d say Lee and Henry are locked into their spots. While the competition increases at guard, Bell and Simpkins are on track to start. Left tackle could be more of a tossup to start the year. While Thompson’s ceiling is nowhere insight, I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone like ‘Big Tree’ Babalade start the year at left tackle. Whether Thompson would finish the year as a starter there is a different story. The point is, the offense line has more depth than it’s had in a long time.
Special team-wise, things are getting better. “It was solid on Saturday. All the guys have started to make kicks,” said one source. “It was a little slow last week but guys are looking more consistent.”
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