What does South Carolina’s defense do best? ‘Don’t know that yet’

South Carolina’s football team comes into the 2018 season knowing a lot about itself. That’s almost natural given an offseason of weights, spring practice, meetings and all the rest.

But starting preseason practice means confronting some of the things a staff doesn’t know. Gamecocks defensive coordinator Travaris Robinson admitted as much, especially when it comes to the finer points of the identity of his unit.

“We’re just worrying about us right now, trying to figure out what we do best, because I don’t know that yet,” Robinson said. “That’s one of the things that I need to find out and find out fast.”

He has a defense that lost five starters, moved at least one returner to a new position, and has to integrate plenty of young players, some themselves making position changes, and add back a veteran who was lost to injury.

It can be a lot, especially in the hustle and bustle of early camp life. Both Robinson and offensive coordinator Bryan McClendon sounded like men corralling players in the early going after the first two days of practice.

“We’re not where we need to be, coming in,” Robinson said. “Getting acclimated, all the stuff, the helmets, going out there, playing 11-on-11 stuff that you just can’t prepare for in the summer. They’re in shape, but it’s different than football shape.

“We’re going to get what we’re looking for.”

He noted his biggest concern is safety, where USC has a good deal of potential, but only one player who’s taken snaps at the position on the college level. Robinson said development there will come down to figuring out what everyone can do and simplifying things around that.

In the past two seasons, USC has built several defenses that sometimes give ground against the pass, but stand tall on their own side of the field. It also took a notable jump against the run from Year 1 to Year 2.

Asked about the next step from that, Robinson said the aim was to simply “dominate,” something that might be aided by fixing things on third down.

“If we’re in a position to play bump man-to-man and do that more than we did last year, and we feel good about that, then we’ll do it,” Robinson said. “If we’re not, then we’ll play off and we’ll do what we do best.”

This story was originally published August 4, 2018 at 2:00 PM.