Two early enrollee freshmen switch defensive roles early in spring practice
South Carolina defensive coordinator Travaris Robinson is not a man afraid to tinker.
When the spring started, he had O’Donnell Fortune playing safety, plugging in at spot the team needed help. Dominick Hill was supposed to start out at safety. But things have changed a bit for the two early enrollee freshmen.
“Dominick, he came in, I thought he will be a corner,” Robinson said. “We moved to safety and he’s been doing really good with it. He has to gain weight obviously. He’s a little guy. But he’s smart and he’s very instinctive, and he’s got a chance to be a good football player at some point.”
The coach added that he’s been very impressed with Hill, especially the way he’s coming in for extra meetings and work.
Fortune, meanwhile, has also changed spots early in camp.
“He started off slow,” Robinson said, “but the last couple of days he’s been a lot better. He’s playing outside at corner. He has some good guys in front of him to actually see how they do things, how they go about their business, and he’s doing a good job of following those guys.”
That would have him working behind Jaycee Horn and Israel Mukuamu, plus returning players such as Cam Smith and John Dixon.
Fortune is a 6-foot-1, 172-pounder from Sumter who was rated a three-star prospect (No. 751 in the country). Hill, from Orlando, was rated only a few spots higher, and came in an inch shorter and 16 pounds heavier.
The Gamecocks have four returning starting defensive backs in Horn, Mukuamu, R.J. Roderick and Jammie Robinson. They’ve had issues at the safety position the past two seasons, and they likely need to find one or two more options at least to fill out the 2020 rotation.
Perhaps the young players could help there, but it’s a hard transition.
“It’s difficult when, anytime you come from high school and you come into college, and you have good players in front of you, and you thought you were gonna come in and you were gonna do this and that,” Robinson said of Fortune. “You say, ‘Hey man,’ this guy’s gonna be pretty good, and he’s got to do a good job of just continuing to work on his craft and work on one thing one day at a time.”
