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Continuing the tradition
A young Gamecocks secondary has a legacy to uphold as the season approaches
USC's Walker Inabinet, left, tries to tackle Akeem Auguste during practice.
C. Aluka Berry/caberry@thestate.com
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‘Defensive Back U’ does not rebuild, it reloads. At least, that’s what it hopes.
Over the years, South Carolina has supplied a number of NFL secondaries: Dunta Robinson with Houston, Sheldon Brown in Philadelphia, Jonathan Joseph in Cincinnati and Ko Simpson in Buffalo.
This year’s draft sent Captain Munnerlyn to the Carolina Panthers and Stoney Woodson to the New York Giants. Then, Emanuel Cook and Carlos Thomas sign free-agent deals with the New York Jets and San Francisco, respectively.
Good for the team’s media guide. Bad for depth on this year’s team.
But will a young secondary be a problem for the Gamecocks? Akeem Auguste — who as a sophomore refers to himself as one of the “veterans” —was philosophical.
“We’ve got to make a new name for ourselves,” Auguste said. “It’s great to live in those guys’ shadows. They made it to the league and stuff. But we’ve gotta make our own legacy here.”
What can that be?
“One of the best,” Auguste said, smiling.
Bravado, perhaps. But they might not get much of an argument from their coaches.
Stephon Gilmore has already been labeled by coach Steve Spurrier as potentially one of the best players to ever come to USC. Gilmore, a true freshman, locked down a starting cornerback spot in the spring.
Auguste, who played in 11 games as a freshman, will either start at the other cornerback spot or at free safety. He was highly-rated coming out of high school and prep school.
Chris Culliver, a junior who started last season at free safety, is being touted as an All-SEC candidate.
And Darian Stewart, slated to be the strong safety, has started 23 games in his career and has been the secondary’s unsung hero the past couple years.
Still, three big issues remain: Youth, depth and who will play where.
Auguste and Culliver might flip-flop positions by the time they take the field for Thursday’s opener at North Carolina State. And Stewart could still move back to the spur position — a hybrid of safety and linebacker — if projected starter Alonzo Winfield gets hurt or struggles.
The man in charge of most of this is assistant coach Lorenzo Ward, hired in the offseason to replace Ron Cooper, who left for LSU.
Ward came over from Arkansas and was given the title of defensive coordinator. Ward coaches the corners and free safeties, while Shane Beamer has the strong safeties and Spur-position.
Ward granted that no one will know for sure how the youngsters will play until they are out there. But he sounded confident in the starters, at least, saying they need to play as relaxed in the game as they do in practice.
“We have the potential to have a lot of really good players for the long term here, because they’re all really young,” Ward said. “They have great talent, it’s just up to me to have great coaching to get it out of them.”
Culliver and Auguste’s positions bear watching. It appears to come down to Culliver’s comfort level at cornerback; Ward believes if Culliver can make the transition he can be an even better NFL prospect.
“Chris is a conscientious kid and wants to be good,” Ward said. “He knows that if he can show that at corner, I told him in two years I think it’ll raise his stock to help him play in the league. It’ll definitely be a lot higher. If he can show that he can be a cover corner, and play safety, both, then the sky’s the limit for him.”
And obviously, talking up a current Gamecock member as a future NFL player is no stretch.
Reach Emerson at (803) 771-8676.
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