New South Carolina assistant feeding off veteran group led by ‘sharp, smart’ leader
When Rod Wilson was a senior linebacker with the University of South Carolina’s football team, he was named team captain and ended up leading the team in tackles.
As he stepped into the role of linebackers coach at his alma mater this spring, he inherited a player who led the team in tackles as only a sophomore in Ernest Jones.
And based on what Wilson saw in an abbreviated spring, Jones could well be on the way to captaincy like he new coach.
“Ernest is an intelligent individual,” Wilson said. “He’s sharp, smart. He’s all ball. He wants to be good. He wants be great, and I appreciate that in him.”
Jones put up 97 tackles and seven pass breakups in his first season as a starter. He broke into the starting lineup by playing well enough last offseason that the staff moved two-year starter T.J. Brunson to the weak side to make room for him.
The 6-foot-2, 230-pound Jones battled a back injury as a true freshman, but he came on late in the season. He notably chose to play in the bowl game that year despite it burning his redshirt.
The linebacker group also included veterans Sherrod Greene and Damani Staley, plus a couple other players with rotation experience. Greene has 21 starts under his belt, bouncing back from getting benched (for Jones) to carve out a role as the team’s third linebacker. Staley has been a rotation player who has 53 tackles across the past three years. “Sherrod has been working hard,” Wilson said. “I can’t would he know him, continue to develop whenever we get back on the field and through the weight rooms and workouts when we get back. Damani and those other guys they are working really hard, continue to get better.”
The Gamecocks had based their defense out of a five-defensive back look, common for most teams, but they moved more toward playing three linebackers last season and could this coming season as well.
One unusual dynamic for Wilson was having to pick things up on the fly this spring. His hire was only in place a few days before practices started, which meant having Will Muschamp alongside him as he picked up the scheme.
“I’m learning from them,” Wilson said. “Those guys know the defense better than I did when I first got there. And those guys have been doing a good job of just kind of relaying what they know and I’m feeding off of them and they’re feeding off me.”
One thing that’s advantageous for Wilson is his three-year experience as a special team assistant with the Kansas City Chiefs, which included a Super Bowl title this winter. With only a 53-man roster, NFL teams have to cobble together special teams groups from a more limited selection of players.
That means working with whoever and adapting quickly to a diverse group.
“I dealt with a ton of different personalities,” Wilson said. “You got a DB, then you got a wide receiver, then you got a linebacker. Those personalities are different. You’ve got an O-lineman’s personality that’s different. Now now I’m coming back to just a room full of linebackers, being able to relate to them a little differently.”
