Gamecocks getting key reinforcements to face Georgia running game

South Carolina’s football team played last week down to a third-stringer at one spot.

The strongside linebacker is really half a starting spot, a player who gets lifted for a nickel corner about half the time. USC could get away with having Antoine Wilder, 190-pound former defensive back against a Vanderbilt run game that had some power, but wasn’t that overwhelming.

That would not be the case with Georgia. That’s why the Gamecocks are thankful Sherrod Greene is back.

“I think it’s extremely important,” starting middle linebacker T.J. Brunson said. “He helped when he came in at first. And he had his injury, but if we can get him back this week, it will definitely help.”

Greene is the 223-pound true freshman linebacker who impressed the Gamecocks staff as soon as he arrived on campus and worked his way into the rotation. He’d been working in the middle, but when Bryson Allen-Williams was lost for the season, Greene went to the outside on a permanent basis. He missed the Vandy game with a quad injury.

He becomes important this week because the Bulldogs’ power run game likes to stretch outside and often gets its biggest plays when runners bounce to the perimeter.

“It’s really important to have a hard edge set,” USC coach Will Muschamp said. “I talked about earlier, as far as some of their explosive runs are bounce-out runs and not holding gaps on the outside and keeping the ball hemmed up inside. And certainly having a bigger body on the edge to set the edge of the defense is important.”

That 30-pound difference certainly helps.

Greene has been solid in his part-time starting duty, with 14 tackles in seven games.

USC will have a massive challenge overall in a UGA ground game that features four strong tailbacks and is averaging 6 yards a carry. That includes Nick Chubb and Sony Michel, who helped give Brunson a rude introduction in the 15 snaps he played against Georgia last year.

“It was definitely different playing against those caliber of backs,” Brunson said. “They were good.”

This story was originally published October 31, 2017 at 5:01 PM.