USC made a fundamental defensive shift last year. They’ll keep it going in 2020
When the football world zigged last season, the South Carolina football team started to zag.
On defense, playing five defensive backs to match offenses with three receivers has become nearly the standard defense. It was the Gamecocks’ base for most of Will Muschamp’s tenure leading the Gamecocks.
That started to shift last season. Linebacker Sherrod Greene showed enough promise to start earning a bigger role alongside Ernest Jones and T.J. Brunson. And the team had issues fielding five consistent defensive backs.
USC was rolling out three linebackers, once the standard defensive structure, nearly a third of the time. And that might be happening more going forward, not less.
“We played more ‘regular’ last year than we ever played,” USC defensive coordinator Travaris Robinson said. “With a Sam (strongside linebacker) on the field, I want to say it was almost 29 to 30% of the time we played regular, and that’s a lot different than what we had been in past and it’ll probably be a little more this year. So we just got to figure out who’s going to be the Sam, who’s going to be the wheel.”
That change speaks to the confidence the South Carolina staff has in its group at linebacker. Jones is locked in at the spot in the middle. Robinson said Greene and senior Damani Staley were flipping between the strong and weakside spots.
Staley has been a longtime rotation player aiming to move into a starting spot. Greene was a sophomore starter in 2018 but struggled. He spent more time on the strongside last season and showed better by the end of the year.
Greene made 35 tackles (6 1/2 for loss) last season, while Staley had 22 in nine games.
In the middle of those two, Jones is taking on the role as a leader of the defense.
“This is my defense,” Jones said. “I take pride in controlling things and making sure that every day I’m coming out and putting my best effort first so that they can follow and lead by example.”
In South Carolina’s defense, a weakside linebacker (Will) is almost an every-down player, someone who stands in the box but has more responsibilities in space. The strongside linebacker also plays in space, but has some role in setting the edge and sometimes pass rushing (Bryson Allen-Williams held the role before injuries forced him into a full-time role in the defensive front in 2018).
The batch of backup linebackers includes Rosendo Louis, who has slimmed down after not having a prominent role in two seasons; and Jahmar Brown, who flashed on the weakside last season. The team is also adding a pair of taller freshmen in Mohamed Kaba and Gilber Edmond.
The Gamecocks are still trying to figure out their depth in the secondary. Israel Mukuamu and Jaycee Horn were starting corners last season, while R.J Roderick was at safety and Jammie Robinson bounced between nickel and safety.
With those four plus the three linebackers, the Gamecocks have a standard back seven. The staff was looking for more from corners John Dixon and Cam Smith, plus safeties Shilo Sanders and Jaylin Dickerson, to add more depth to that secondary. (Each of the four returners can play at least two spots.)
The coronavirus outbreak ended spring practice early. Installing new schemes and plans will be done remotely in the short term.
But the Gamecocks defense will play a slightly different style than most, something more old-school and different than the way the sport is going.
“You look at Sherrod with a combination of Damani Staley playing at the Will,” Robinson said. “And then whoever is not at the Will playing at the Sam. Doing all those things like that to get those guys to be able to be versatile.”
