Can Wednesday’s class provide instant help for South Carolina’s secondary?

South Carolina’s football team closed Wednesday with the second big haul of defensive backs in as many seasons.

The early signing day list had four defensive backs, plus one receiver who said the staff talked to him about defense, and two more commits projected to play in the secondary. And they’re not going to be held back if they can help.

“We don’t sign them unless we think they can play,” Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp said. “How much they’ll contribute, I don’t know. We don’t know until they get on campus. We’ll evaluate those guys. Are they going to have the opportunity? Absolutely. Sheer numbers will tell you that.”

The Gamecocks were thin in the secondary a season ago and are losing stalwart defensive backs in corner JaMarcus King and safeties Chris Lammons and D.J. Smith.

Injuries robbed the Gamecocks of two potential freshman contributors all season (Jaylin Dickerson, Tavyn Jackson), and other players such as Steven Montac, Smith and Jamyest Williams were banged up at various points through the season.

“We had a lot of situations last year where we couldn’t go to dime because we didn’t have six guys that we felt confident enough to get the job done,” Muschamp said. “They’ll have every opportunity in the world, and I don’t know if there’s anyone in the country, when (Travaris Robinson) and I have been together, that has played more defensive backs as freshmen and have started as many defensive backs as freshman.”

The incoming group is led by consensus four-star corner Jaycee Horn, along with 6-foot-4 Berkeley product Israel Mukuamu, who Muschamp said could play corner, and a taller versatile option in Jonathan Gipson. R.J. Roderick played mostly offense in high school, but Muschamp raved about his ability and mentioned his history converting quarterbacks (notable example: NFL all-pro Earl Thomas).

This is the second year in a row the Gamecocks will throw a big batch of defensive backs at the problem. Will Muschamp’s first secondary in Columbia was constantly stretched to the limit, sometimes only playing five guys total. The staff brought in six defensive backs last cycle, and that produced one start (Williams), two injured players (Dickerson, Jackson), a junior college player who came in late and never caught up (Keisean Nixon), a junior college player who is already transferring out (Kaleb Chalmers) and a true redshirt (Zay Brown).

Going into next season, assuming no more attrition, USC will have one senior DB and 10 or 11 players from the past two classes in the secondary.

So there are snaps there to be earned, and some of these newcomers could take them.

“We do have an ability to get them ready to play,” Muschamp said. “But I’m not able to sit here on December 20 and tell you who’s going to play against Coastal Carolina in game one.”

This story was originally published December 22, 2017 at 11:24 AM with the headline "Can Wednesday’s class provide instant help for South Carolina’s secondary?."