How USC’s defensive turnaround started in the moments after Missouri loss

The shift in scheme didn’t change everything for the South Carolina defense.

But it was part of it, one prong in several changes that have altered the fortunes of the Gamecocks.

Just playing a third linebacker isn’t revolutionary, but it was a break from Will Muschamp’s standard operating procedure. He’d stuck to the plan of matching three receivers with five defensive backs, something most every team in college football does.

Yet at a moment, Muschamp decided to go against that.

“Sitting by myself in the Missouri locker room figuring out what we needed to do to get better, and that was just in my mind,” Muschamp said. “Knowing that Sherrod Greene has played better than the other guys we were putting in the game at the time. And we need to adapt some things defensively and make some adjustments.”

That adjustment, more of the burly linebacker and less of a fifth defensive back, was a symbolic choice that came along with a subtler adjustment and a return to fundamentals. The Gamecocks were coming off their best defensive performance of the season, and they bettered it in each of the next two games.

Three of the shifts that helped change the fortunes of the Gamecocks:

The 4-3

In modern football, nickel personnel, five defensive backs, six linebackers and linemen, is standard. It’s been the base for the Gamecocks basically since Muschamp arrived and well before that.

So what was the message when the staff decided Greene should see more time as a third linebacker?

“Basically they said, ‘Learn what to do so we can get you on the field,’” Greene said. “That’s what I did. I focused on it all week.”

Greene had gone through a trying 2018 season, starting throughout but being plagued by inconsistent play. He suffered a concussion in August and was consigned to a backup role with T.J. Brunson and Ernest Jones at the two nickel linebacker spots.

Then the Gamecocks struggled against UNC and Alabama. Muschamp liked what he saw in that Missouri loss (when USC allowed only 4.8 yards per play).

That’s not to say the Gamecocks have exclusively gone 4-3. They were about two thirds in that against Kentucky, a team that plays heavier looks anyway, and half 4-3 against Georgia, with nickel/safety Jammie Robinson delivering a strong performance.

That three-linebacker look gets more beef on the field and stands up better against the run. It asks more of Greene in space and more of the secondary to back him up.

But across two games, the Gamecocks held Kentucky to 3.4 yards per play and a talented Georgia offense to 4.9.

“The coaches felt like that was the best way to get the best guys or the better guys on the field at the same time,” Brunson said. “So I think that it’s working out in our favor.”

Keep it simple ...

Another element of South Carolina’s defensive resurgence was a paring down of what’s been asked of players.

Usually those outside a program ask, what different things can a team do with scheme? Coaches ask, what works?

“We have narrowed some things down that we feel like our players do extremely well, and when our players feel comfort,” Muschamp said. “And I think sometimes as a coach, you need to be able to take input from your players, and I think that myself, number one, and our staff, number two, have done a really good job of identifying what our players feel comfortable playing.

“With a comfort level, you’re going to play faster, and instead of thinking, you’re reacting. And you’ve got to do that on defense. You start thinking on defense with the speed that we face week-to-week, week in and week out, you’ll get burned.”

That might mean zeroing in on certain coverages or certain pass rushes the players really like.

In that arrangement, the defensive line, which was already playing well took yet another step forward. Between Javon Kinlaw and Kobe Smith wrecking pockets and D.J. Wonnum or Aaron Sterling swooping in from the edges, that group has been crucial in shutting down offenses across the past 120 minutes of play.

They’ll get another challenge in a Florida offense built around focusing on the simpler concepts that can be executed to perfection.

At the start of this year, this was projected to be Will Muschamp’s best defense. Even after the inauspicious first few games, the advanced numbers, which adjust for schedule, have South Carolina as a top-15 defense.

“We’ve gained confidence in our in ourselves and our defense more,” Jones said. “And that is allowing us to move faster, trusting what we’re seeing now instead of try to do too much. I believe that was the main problem for us at the beginning of the season, just overall trying to do too much. Just do your job.”

Tackle, tackle, tackle

It’s simple, for better or for worse.

Good tackling means guys who get hit stay stuck. They don’t bounce off into open space. They don’t run through defenders. They don’t even get that forward fall for 2-3 extra yards.

Those little plays add up, and after tackling and correct angles being an issue early in the year, the Gamecocks seem to have stabilized.

Not that Muschamp has a great explanation for what’s different.

“I wish I could tell you there’s some fancy drill that we’ve done that’s helped us tackle better,” Muschamp said. “But we work on tackling every single day, every single practice. I think some guys have willed themselves to improve a little bit, to want to stick their face in the fan, so to speak, and like it, and wrap up, and have the proper technique.”

Sometimes, it’s that simple. They’ve been working on those things since the start of the season.

Tackling and getting to the right spots to make those tackles isn’t sexy or dramatic. It’s one of the simplest acts in the game. But delivering those hits with force and standing up runners can change everything for a defense.

In this case, tackling issues made a talented defense look not all that good. At least until it got fixed, even if it’s hard to explain.

“It’s very relieving because I knew we could do it,” Jones said. “It was there, there’s no question in the beginning of the season that whether we could tackle or not or whether we could hold these good offenses to minimum points. It was no question about that. We just had to find it. Somehow we had to get to it.”