Spur of the Moment
South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier and his assistants met with media vultures today after his annual media golf outing.
Here are the highlights of what was said, as the Gamecocks prepare to begin preseason practices next Friday and get ready for the Aug. 30 Thursday night season opener at Vanderbilt ...
** Spurrier said Vanderbilt, which played in its second bowl game since 1982 last season, is “putting a lot of marbles into that first game on national television. But we’ll be ready also.”
** Spurrier was asked about the potential contributions of freshmen, including wide receiver Shaq Roland, the fourth consecutive South Carolina Mr. Football landed by Spurrier’s staff. Roland is one of three well-regarded freshman receivers, along with Jody Fuller and Kwinton Smith.
The Gamecocks have some uncertainty at receiver. Their leading returning receiver is slot guy Ace Sanders (29 catches, 383 yards in 2011). DeAngelo Smith and D.L. Moore are atop the depth chart at the other two receiver spots. Smith has four career catches, Moore 32, including just eight last season.
“Kwinton has been here I think both sessions of summer school,” Spurrier said. “I think Jody and Shaq came for the second one. Shaq is probably a little bit behind, just learning the offense. Shaq’s probably got a little bit farther to go than maybe Kwinton just because he’s been here a month longer.”
** Everybody is healthy, Spurrier said. Running backs Marcus Lattimore and Shon Carson, who suffered season-ending knee injuries last season, are both 100 percent.
“Shon came back a little sooner (than Lattimore) because his surgery was a month or so earlier than Marcus’s,” Spurrier said. “So he’s fine also. The trainer says both of those guys are 100 percent and should be ready to go.”
The running back depth chart right now is: Lattimore, Kenny Miles, Brandon Wilds and Carson.
Don’t expect Lattimore to do a lot of contact as he returns to full-speed participation.
“We don’t really tackle too much to the ground and we try not to fall into legs in practice, unless you’re scrimmaging,” Spurrier said. “Really, Marcus didn’t scrimmage that much last year before the season anyway. We try to protect our guys as much as we can. From what I understand, he should be ready to do everything he did last year.”
** Junior quarterback Connor Shaw enters his first season as the full-time starter, and seems to have put in some serious work in the offseason, which was a calm one for USC quarterbacks compared to the drama that often surrounded Stephen Garcia and his disciplinary missteps.
“Connor is the kind of quarterback all coaches like to have,” Spurrier said. “He’s dedicated to being the best he can and there’s no off-the-field issues.
“I saw him the other day and said, ‘Connor, you’ve got to cut back on lifting.’ He looks like a little linebacker right now, as big as his arms are. He said, ‘Yeah, I probably need to cut back a little bit.’ He tells me he’s been throwing four or five days a week. As we know, you can have muscles and play quarterback, but you don’t want to over-do lifting as a quarterback, I think.”
** Running backs coach Everette Sands has gotten some positive feedback in his conversations with Lattimore and Carson. He can’t supervise their offseason workouts – only the strength and conditioning staff can do that – but he can speak with the players in the summer.
“Both of them said they’re feeling great,” Sands said. “Neither one of them has missed anything all summer – every lift, every run.”
What does Sands think is the biggest obstacle remaining to return to full speed after a running back’s knee injury?
“Cutting is usually one thing,” Sands said. “It’s a mental thing, and cutting is a big part of that, and the next thing is running and knowing you’re going to get hit. That’s going to be the next big thing, is their mental process to make sure that – OK, I got hit and I can still run good.”
** USC could redshirt Wilds because he played last season as a true freshman. With Lattimore and Carson out, the Gamecocks didn’t have a lot of depth in the backfield, so they turned to Wilds and Miles. Now, they have a bunch of depth, with the aforementioned four backs as well as Mike Davis, the top-rated recruit in the Gamecocks’ incoming class.
Sands regards Wilds as a potential change-of-pace guy in a two-back attack with the quicker Lattimore. Wilds is definitely the biggest of USC’s four returning backs. He is listed at 218 pounds – the same weight as Lattimore – but Sands said he is 230-ish. So don’t expect the coaches to even consider redshirting Wilds.
“That’s not something we’ve talked about, because we’re looking at doing a little bit more two-back stuff,” Sands said. “We’re going to try to use him. They’re going to decide who’s going to be playing. There’s nothing in stone right now about what we want to do, but I have a great group of backs to work with.”
** Sands said he’s never had a backfield this deep, so might he redshirt Davis?
“If we don’t have to have him,” Sands said. “I don’t care if you’re a freshman or a senior, my goal is to get the best guys on the field. If he beats everybody else out, then he’s going to be in the mix. If he doesn’t, then of course we’re going to look at the opportunity to redshirt him. But he’s going to be a good player.”
Sands dismissed the notion that USC ought to play Davis as a true freshman because he could – emphasis on that word – end up being good enough to turn pro after his third year of college, which would be his redshirt sophomore year if he redshirts as a true freshman. The logic to that being: Use a guy for all three of the years you have him, rather than just two, which would be the case if you redshirted him as a freshman.
“The thing is this: With all the other guys that we have, that’s not really being factored in at all,” Sands said. “We’re not going to use him just to say we used him, because he might leave early. It’s more of: What are our needs right now?
“Really, right now, I have three guys that have started an SEC game (Lattimore, Wilds and Miles) and one of them is arguably one of the best in the country. I truly believe that Kenny Miles is in the best shape of his life. And Brandon did a great job when he was in there last year, so it’s going to be interesting.”
** Sands has talked to Wilds about the areas where he wants to see him improve heading into his sophomore season.
“The biggest thing with Brandon is for him to remember that he’s a 230-pound back,” Sands said. “At times, he wants to make some people miss, and there are times you’ve got to do that, but there are some times you’ve got to lay the wood. He got better at that during the spring. You saw him running behind his pads a lot better.”
** Sticking with the offense, one of the most interesting storylines on the offensive line this season is tackle Brandon Shell, the second-highest rated recruit in USC’s Class of 2011, behind some guy named Clowney. Shell redshirted last season. Even when USC needed tackles after Kyle Nunn got hurt, the coaches decided to go with redshirt freshman Cody Gibson and true freshman Mike Matulis. But that doesn’t mean they thought any less of Shell. Far from it.
Now, line coach Shawn Elliott has Shell penciled in as the starting left tackle heading into preseason practices, though that could change. Matulis is ahead of Gibson at the right tackle spot, in terms of the depth chart listing, but Elliott considers them basically equal. Matulis missed spring practices because of shoulder surgery.
The other three linemen are no surprise: A.J. Cann at left guard, T.J. Johnson at center and Ronald Patrick at right guard, with Patrick being the only new starter among those three, because USC lost just two lineman after last season – right guard Terrence Campbell and left tackle Rokevious Watkins.
The bottom line for Shell is game action. He needs it. And Elliott seems intent on putting him in there and letting him develop as he goes.
“Sometimes you play a little bit hesitant because of the speed and you’re not really sure about what you’re doing,” Elliott said. “I think the more you play and the more reps you get, the more comfortable you become. Then your footwork and technique and physical ability come back into play. We’ve got to put him in game-type situations and make him feel comfortable.”
What did Elliott think of Shell’s spring?
“It was just an average spring,” he said. “When you go up against a great player like Jadeveon Clowney, you can’t really have a great spring. He’s got to get strong, and I think he’s done that this summer. This fall is going to be for real. This isn’t a Saturday scrimmage.”
The biggest snag point for Shell at this time?
“He hasn’t played,” Elliott said. “That’s it. Here’s a guy that’s going to walk out there that first game and it’s going to be in a sold-out stadium in Nashville, Tenn., against Vanderbilt, and we’re going to see exactly how he does. There’s not a hang-up with Brandon. I think he just needs to get some reps in a big-time college football setting.
“I have no idea who will be the starting tackles. So we’ll find out. (Shell) may be best at right tackle. Matulis may be best at left tackle. Cody Gibson may come into the mix. I think it’s going to be a battle for those tackle positions.”
Elliott has three tackles for two spots, so might he rotate them to keep them fresh during games?
“I want to play the best five guys,” he said. “If that means interchanging some guys at some point when they get tired, maybe so. However it shakes out, we’ll see.”
** Quarterbacks coach G.A. Mangus enjoyed seeing Shaw’s development in the season’s final three games, in which Shaw threw 18, 20 and 17 passes and completed 88.9, 70 and 64.7 percent. Granted, the first game was against The Citadel. Shaw’s yardage totals in those games: 217, 210 and 230. He combined to throw eight touchdowns and one pick in those games. His yards per attempt were 12.1, 10.5 and 13.5. His previous best yards per attempt: eight.
“He takes care of the football,” Mangus said. “If you take care of the ball and throw for a high percentage, no matter how many times you throw it, if you’ve got a good defense, you’ve got a chance to win.”
Footwork in the pocket continues to be something Shaw works on. It was the main thing he focused on in the spring.
“He’s got such great feet,” Mangus said. “The spring is so condensed now and so short and you’re not allowed to hit a whole bunch. You try to take a couple things and get better at that in spring, and then in the summertime go get better at a lot. You’ve got more time.
“That (footwork stuff) was a big focal point of ours, coming out of the season. While, granted, he was 8-1 and he helped us a lot, you can always get better. I thought that was something he really could work on. He’s got such great feet and he can make the right decisions, the quick decisions, for when to use his feet, but sometimes if he could hang just a hair longer and use his feet to stay in the pocket and find that throwing lane, which he has to do because he’s not the tallest guy.
“So he can use his feet to find some throwing lanes and I thought he did a good job of working on that in the spring. Hopefully, we’ll see some of that result this August and as the season progresses.”
** Defensively, you won’t see a major alignment change with Lorenzo Ward as the coordinator. He took over for Ellis Johnson after Johnson became Southern Mississippi’s head coach.
USC’s alignment will remain the same, but Ward favors a more aggressive approach. Johnson didn’t like to blitz with more than his front four – the defensive line – because he didn’t want to leave the back end of his defense too vulnerable in pass coverage. Ward has said he will blitz more with his linebackers – and he has a bigger spur linebacker now, DeVonte Holloman, who will help in those efforts.
“We definitely want to be in attack mode,” Ward said. “That’s the message that we’re preaching to the players, so that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to make them aggressive and I feel like we’ve got a bunch of young men that they’re better players when you tell them where they’re going.”
Why does he think this aggressive blitzing approach is best for this group?
“I just think that unless you’ve got a total group that has been together for a long period of time, then you can play a lot more technique and fundamentals (with a group that has played together for a while),” he said. “But I think we’re built on speed. We’ve got Clowney, who has never started a down, but he’s played some, so it’s not a group that – even though they’re good enough, I think – can just sit there and play technique and beat people.
“We’re going to play them aggressive, and when you do that, I think two things happen. You make the opponent understand that you’re not going to sit on your heels, you can’t get us on our heels. And you’re putting the pressure on them to make sure that they’re putting the right play calls in at the time.”
In short, as this group learns to play together, and eventually rely on technique and fundamentals, Ward wants to take advantage of a strength that the players don’t need to learn – athleticism.
** Finally, Ward had to replace corners Stephon Gilmore and C.C. Whitlock, and he did that with Victor Hampton and Akeem Auguste, who returns for his second senior season after missing last year with a foot injury. Auguste started in 2009 and 2010. Hampton has never started. This much you know.
One guy to keep an eye on, in terms of his role in the nickel package, is redshirt freshman cornerback Ahmad Christian. He is listed third at Auguste’s spot, behind Jimmy Legree, but Ward really likes the progress Christian has made.
“We feel like Ahmad made enough progress in the spring that he could help us,” Ward said.
link: http://www.postandco...mentId=blogDest
South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier and his assistants met with media vultures today after his annual media golf outing.
Here are the highlights of what was said, as the Gamecocks prepare to begin preseason practices next Friday and get ready for the Aug. 30 Thursday night season opener at Vanderbilt ...
** Spurrier said Vanderbilt, which played in its second bowl game since 1982 last season, is “putting a lot of marbles into that first game on national television. But we’ll be ready also.”
** Spurrier was asked about the potential contributions of freshmen, including wide receiver Shaq Roland, the fourth consecutive South Carolina Mr. Football landed by Spurrier’s staff. Roland is one of three well-regarded freshman receivers, along with Jody Fuller and Kwinton Smith.
The Gamecocks have some uncertainty at receiver. Their leading returning receiver is slot guy Ace Sanders (29 catches, 383 yards in 2011). DeAngelo Smith and D.L. Moore are atop the depth chart at the other two receiver spots. Smith has four career catches, Moore 32, including just eight last season.
“Kwinton has been here I think both sessions of summer school,” Spurrier said. “I think Jody and Shaq came for the second one. Shaq is probably a little bit behind, just learning the offense. Shaq’s probably got a little bit farther to go than maybe Kwinton just because he’s been here a month longer.”
** Everybody is healthy, Spurrier said. Running backs Marcus Lattimore and Shon Carson, who suffered season-ending knee injuries last season, are both 100 percent.
“Shon came back a little sooner (than Lattimore) because his surgery was a month or so earlier than Marcus’s,” Spurrier said. “So he’s fine also. The trainer says both of those guys are 100 percent and should be ready to go.”
The running back depth chart right now is: Lattimore, Kenny Miles, Brandon Wilds and Carson.
Don’t expect Lattimore to do a lot of contact as he returns to full-speed participation.
“We don’t really tackle too much to the ground and we try not to fall into legs in practice, unless you’re scrimmaging,” Spurrier said. “Really, Marcus didn’t scrimmage that much last year before the season anyway. We try to protect our guys as much as we can. From what I understand, he should be ready to do everything he did last year.”
** Junior quarterback Connor Shaw enters his first season as the full-time starter, and seems to have put in some serious work in the offseason, which was a calm one for USC quarterbacks compared to the drama that often surrounded Stephen Garcia and his disciplinary missteps.
“Connor is the kind of quarterback all coaches like to have,” Spurrier said. “He’s dedicated to being the best he can and there’s no off-the-field issues.
“I saw him the other day and said, ‘Connor, you’ve got to cut back on lifting.’ He looks like a little linebacker right now, as big as his arms are. He said, ‘Yeah, I probably need to cut back a little bit.’ He tells me he’s been throwing four or five days a week. As we know, you can have muscles and play quarterback, but you don’t want to over-do lifting as a quarterback, I think.”
** Running backs coach Everette Sands has gotten some positive feedback in his conversations with Lattimore and Carson. He can’t supervise their offseason workouts – only the strength and conditioning staff can do that – but he can speak with the players in the summer.
“Both of them said they’re feeling great,” Sands said. “Neither one of them has missed anything all summer – every lift, every run.”
What does Sands think is the biggest obstacle remaining to return to full speed after a running back’s knee injury?
“Cutting is usually one thing,” Sands said. “It’s a mental thing, and cutting is a big part of that, and the next thing is running and knowing you’re going to get hit. That’s going to be the next big thing, is their mental process to make sure that – OK, I got hit and I can still run good.”
** USC could redshirt Wilds because he played last season as a true freshman. With Lattimore and Carson out, the Gamecocks didn’t have a lot of depth in the backfield, so they turned to Wilds and Miles. Now, they have a bunch of depth, with the aforementioned four backs as well as Mike Davis, the top-rated recruit in the Gamecocks’ incoming class.
Sands regards Wilds as a potential change-of-pace guy in a two-back attack with the quicker Lattimore. Wilds is definitely the biggest of USC’s four returning backs. He is listed at 218 pounds – the same weight as Lattimore – but Sands said he is 230-ish. So don’t expect the coaches to even consider redshirting Wilds.
“That’s not something we’ve talked about, because we’re looking at doing a little bit more two-back stuff,” Sands said. “We’re going to try to use him. They’re going to decide who’s going to be playing. There’s nothing in stone right now about what we want to do, but I have a great group of backs to work with.”
** Sands said he’s never had a backfield this deep, so might he redshirt Davis?
“If we don’t have to have him,” Sands said. “I don’t care if you’re a freshman or a senior, my goal is to get the best guys on the field. If he beats everybody else out, then he’s going to be in the mix. If he doesn’t, then of course we’re going to look at the opportunity to redshirt him. But he’s going to be a good player.”
Sands dismissed the notion that USC ought to play Davis as a true freshman because he could – emphasis on that word – end up being good enough to turn pro after his third year of college, which would be his redshirt sophomore year if he redshirts as a true freshman. The logic to that being: Use a guy for all three of the years you have him, rather than just two, which would be the case if you redshirted him as a freshman.
“The thing is this: With all the other guys that we have, that’s not really being factored in at all,” Sands said. “We’re not going to use him just to say we used him, because he might leave early. It’s more of: What are our needs right now?
“Really, right now, I have three guys that have started an SEC game (Lattimore, Wilds and Miles) and one of them is arguably one of the best in the country. I truly believe that Kenny Miles is in the best shape of his life. And Brandon did a great job when he was in there last year, so it’s going to be interesting.”
** Sands has talked to Wilds about the areas where he wants to see him improve heading into his sophomore season.
“The biggest thing with Brandon is for him to remember that he’s a 230-pound back,” Sands said. “At times, he wants to make some people miss, and there are times you’ve got to do that, but there are some times you’ve got to lay the wood. He got better at that during the spring. You saw him running behind his pads a lot better.”
** Sticking with the offense, one of the most interesting storylines on the offensive line this season is tackle Brandon Shell, the second-highest rated recruit in USC’s Class of 2011, behind some guy named Clowney. Shell redshirted last season. Even when USC needed tackles after Kyle Nunn got hurt, the coaches decided to go with redshirt freshman Cody Gibson and true freshman Mike Matulis. But that doesn’t mean they thought any less of Shell. Far from it.
Now, line coach Shawn Elliott has Shell penciled in as the starting left tackle heading into preseason practices, though that could change. Matulis is ahead of Gibson at the right tackle spot, in terms of the depth chart listing, but Elliott considers them basically equal. Matulis missed spring practices because of shoulder surgery.
The other three linemen are no surprise: A.J. Cann at left guard, T.J. Johnson at center and Ronald Patrick at right guard, with Patrick being the only new starter among those three, because USC lost just two lineman after last season – right guard Terrence Campbell and left tackle Rokevious Watkins.
The bottom line for Shell is game action. He needs it. And Elliott seems intent on putting him in there and letting him develop as he goes.
“Sometimes you play a little bit hesitant because of the speed and you’re not really sure about what you’re doing,” Elliott said. “I think the more you play and the more reps you get, the more comfortable you become. Then your footwork and technique and physical ability come back into play. We’ve got to put him in game-type situations and make him feel comfortable.”
What did Elliott think of Shell’s spring?
“It was just an average spring,” he said. “When you go up against a great player like Jadeveon Clowney, you can’t really have a great spring. He’s got to get strong, and I think he’s done that this summer. This fall is going to be for real. This isn’t a Saturday scrimmage.”
The biggest snag point for Shell at this time?
“He hasn’t played,” Elliott said. “That’s it. Here’s a guy that’s going to walk out there that first game and it’s going to be in a sold-out stadium in Nashville, Tenn., against Vanderbilt, and we’re going to see exactly how he does. There’s not a hang-up with Brandon. I think he just needs to get some reps in a big-time college football setting.
“I have no idea who will be the starting tackles. So we’ll find out. (Shell) may be best at right tackle. Matulis may be best at left tackle. Cody Gibson may come into the mix. I think it’s going to be a battle for those tackle positions.”
Elliott has three tackles for two spots, so might he rotate them to keep them fresh during games?
“I want to play the best five guys,” he said. “If that means interchanging some guys at some point when they get tired, maybe so. However it shakes out, we’ll see.”
** Quarterbacks coach G.A. Mangus enjoyed seeing Shaw’s development in the season’s final three games, in which Shaw threw 18, 20 and 17 passes and completed 88.9, 70 and 64.7 percent. Granted, the first game was against The Citadel. Shaw’s yardage totals in those games: 217, 210 and 230. He combined to throw eight touchdowns and one pick in those games. His yards per attempt were 12.1, 10.5 and 13.5. His previous best yards per attempt: eight.
“He takes care of the football,” Mangus said. “If you take care of the ball and throw for a high percentage, no matter how many times you throw it, if you’ve got a good defense, you’ve got a chance to win.”
Footwork in the pocket continues to be something Shaw works on. It was the main thing he focused on in the spring.
“He’s got such great feet,” Mangus said. “The spring is so condensed now and so short and you’re not allowed to hit a whole bunch. You try to take a couple things and get better at that in spring, and then in the summertime go get better at a lot. You’ve got more time.
“That (footwork stuff) was a big focal point of ours, coming out of the season. While, granted, he was 8-1 and he helped us a lot, you can always get better. I thought that was something he really could work on. He’s got such great feet and he can make the right decisions, the quick decisions, for when to use his feet, but sometimes if he could hang just a hair longer and use his feet to stay in the pocket and find that throwing lane, which he has to do because he’s not the tallest guy.
“So he can use his feet to find some throwing lanes and I thought he did a good job of working on that in the spring. Hopefully, we’ll see some of that result this August and as the season progresses.”
** Defensively, you won’t see a major alignment change with Lorenzo Ward as the coordinator. He took over for Ellis Johnson after Johnson became Southern Mississippi’s head coach.
USC’s alignment will remain the same, but Ward favors a more aggressive approach. Johnson didn’t like to blitz with more than his front four – the defensive line – because he didn’t want to leave the back end of his defense too vulnerable in pass coverage. Ward has said he will blitz more with his linebackers – and he has a bigger spur linebacker now, DeVonte Holloman, who will help in those efforts.
“We definitely want to be in attack mode,” Ward said. “That’s the message that we’re preaching to the players, so that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to make them aggressive and I feel like we’ve got a bunch of young men that they’re better players when you tell them where they’re going.”
Why does he think this aggressive blitzing approach is best for this group?
“I just think that unless you’ve got a total group that has been together for a long period of time, then you can play a lot more technique and fundamentals (with a group that has played together for a while),” he said. “But I think we’re built on speed. We’ve got Clowney, who has never started a down, but he’s played some, so it’s not a group that – even though they’re good enough, I think – can just sit there and play technique and beat people.
“We’re going to play them aggressive, and when you do that, I think two things happen. You make the opponent understand that you’re not going to sit on your heels, you can’t get us on our heels. And you’re putting the pressure on them to make sure that they’re putting the right play calls in at the time.”
In short, as this group learns to play together, and eventually rely on technique and fundamentals, Ward wants to take advantage of a strength that the players don’t need to learn – athleticism.
** Finally, Ward had to replace corners Stephon Gilmore and C.C. Whitlock, and he did that with Victor Hampton and Akeem Auguste, who returns for his second senior season after missing last year with a foot injury. Auguste started in 2009 and 2010. Hampton has never started. This much you know.
One guy to keep an eye on, in terms of his role in the nickel package, is redshirt freshman cornerback Ahmad Christian. He is listed third at Auguste’s spot, behind Jimmy Legree, but Ward really likes the progress Christian has made.
“We feel like Ahmad made enough progress in the spring that he could help us,” Ward said.
link: http://www.postandco...mentId=blogDest
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