This South Carolina freshman ‘continues to improve every single week’
For a few weeks, the hot topic for South Carolina’s defense was the 4-3.
That scheme was a departure from the standard nickel, which most college teams use these days. But lost in that was a key thing: South Carolina’s nickel back Jammie Robinson has been playing pretty darn well.
“He works at it hard at practice,” Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp said. “And that’s where it starts. But he continues to improve every single week. I’ve been real proud of it.”
And that’s a true freshman being asked to play a couple positions.
Against Florida, he posted four tackles, a forced fumble and his first career interception, hauling in an overthrow and setting up a touchdown. He played more than 85% of the snaps a week after nearly 70% of the snaps against Georgia.
It wasn’t a perfect day, as he was picked on some and targeted on Florida’s first touchdown. Robinson was in position to contest the ball but could not finish the play.
“He’s got the opportunity on the 50-50 ball in the seam,” Muschamp said. “Got to get ball down there, but I thought he covered well in the game. He was physical in the game. He came up and tackled well in the game.”
Robinson also delivered a couple key plays in the upset of his home-state Georgia Bulldogs.
That he carved out his role might seem a bit of a surprise based on his recruiting ranking, but less so based on the way he came into the program. He anchored a top-flight high school defense, and despite not necessarily being the biggest guy, he was simply a good, productive football player.
He overcame not enrolling early to become the top Year 1 player in a four-man freshman defensive back class. He’s in a secondary now down to eight scholarship defensive backs who didn’t start their careers on offense after Jamel Cook was dismissed.
The tackling ability Muschamp mentioned allows Robinson to be a presence against the run in the box, and even when USC was relying more on a third linebacker, he was still playing a healthy amount of the game.
Overall, he has 18 tackles and three pass breakups.
Unless some of the other defensive backs step up, the Gamecocks’ rotation seems mostly down to five players — four veterans and Robinson. And his coach has confidence there’s more to come.
