How Gamecocks plan to turn 2018’s defensive growing pains into positives in 2019

South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp didn’t go around SEC Media Days in Alabama sugarcoating his team’s performance on defense.

That’s his specialty — the side of the ball he played, came up on and has coached throughout his career. It’s the area of the game his time as an assistant and his first head coaching stint have been most closely associated with.

And it wasn’t great in 2018.

“Defensively, we flat-out struggled,” Muschamp said. “We weren’t very good. Call it like it is.”

The Gamecocks were rough around the edges in the opener against Coastal Carolina from the Sun Belt, then got gashed by Georgia. The team then rallied for a solid outing against Vanderbilt, got pushed around in the first half against Kentucky and gave up big plays in waves against Missouri.

And that was when the attrition set in, as bodies started falling up front and in the secondary. Teams like Texas A&M, Florida and Virginia ended up leaning on the Gamecocks, wearing them out, while Ole Miss and Clemson struck for a slew of big plays.

At year’s end, USC ranked 57th in yards allowed per play and struggled to get opponents off the field (116th in opponents plays per game).

Against FBS opponents, they were 85th in points allowed per drive.

So what might be different this year? The first and most important thing?

“The players are the answer,” Muschamp said. “We lost Dante Sawyer, Taylor Stallworth and Skai Moore, three really good football players. Ulric Jones was a really good football player as well.

“We got exposed in week 2 (against Georgia). We had two freshmen backing up inside. Now those guys are a year older, and some of those growing pains that we went through last year should be positives for us.”

In theory, the Gamecocks should have some pieces up front. They’ve got five seniors on the line, plus four blue-chip underclassmen and a few junior college options to throw in. The secondary is thin and will likely play some freshmen, but Muschamp has sounded confident in his top-end trio of sophomores — Jaycee Horn, Israel Mukuamu and R.J. Roderick.

One of the biggest questions might come down to the linebacker position, where the team didn’t get the production it hoped for last season.

Without Moore, T.J. Brunson stepped in as the top tackler. He battled injuries much of the season, while Sherrod Greene had ups and downs in his first year as a starter. Behind them, the depth was a question.

On an individual level, Brunson hopes one thing will lead to change.

“Being healthy makes a huge difference, I think,” Brunson said, “and just understanding angles and everything. Just the preparation that we put in for it, I think that will all come into play.

“I think that will be the biggest improvement from last year.”

The linebackers will get Eldridge Thompson back in the fold after an injury knocked him out early. The group added a pair of freshmen and returns Damani Staley and Ernest Jones, who was injured most of the start of last year and drew praise from coaches in the offseason.

South Carolina’s defense made a jump in the 2017 season, pairing one of the best bend-don’t-break pass schemes with a run defense that proved to be stout. The 2018 season saw the pass defense not slip too much, but with few healthy safeties and a thin line, the run defense came apart.

If USC can get back to the kind of play from 2017, with a raised talent level, it could go a long way against the Gamecocks’ brutal schedule.

Brunson is now a senior leader, and he identified a few root areas he and his teammates aim to shore up to avoid “flat-out” struggling again.

“The biggest thing that we have to improve on was just execution,” Brunson said. “That’s in all phases and all fronts. There were a couple times where we all had mental lapses and things like that. Just understanding how a defense works and guys that we have, execution will help us win those games that we haven’t been winning.

“Against those good teams, Georgia, Clemson, whoever, you can’t allow them to keep making things happen and you don’t stop them because they’re too good for you to come from behind.”