How one Gamecock put in work with ‘guru’ at different position to improve for 2020
Kevin Pope’s specialty is defensive backs.
He played the position at an all-conference level at South Carolina State in the mid-1990s. He now trains players at the position professionally in Atlanta. One of his former players in his role as Hapeville Charter defensive coordinator referred to him as a “DB guru.”
Kingsley ‘J.J.’ Enagbare, the aforementioned former player, would be hard to mistake for a defensive back. They just don’t make many — really any — secondary players at 6-foot-4, 270 pounds. But that didn’t stop Pope from putting Enagbare, now a starter for South Carolina’s football team, through some defensive back work the past few years.
“We did a lot of explosion work,” Pope said. “A lot of flipping his hips, getting into the flat, getting into coverage. Getting into drops to the No. 2 receiver. Shuffling his feet and also drive to the ball. I kind of figured that would be a good aspect to his game, just to broaden him instead of just being a pass rusher on the inside and outside.”
Enagbare is being asked to do something a little different this season. He played on the interior of the defensive line as a freshman and moved to the team’s more burly end spot as a sophomore. Now he’s slid over to the Buck defensive end spot, a position that requires a lot in terms of versatility.
He did well in Game 1 against Tennessee, notching both of South Carolina’s sacks, forcing a fumble and finishing second on the team with nine tackles.
Bucks are traditionally the team’s top pass rusher, but they also move around the formation and, perhaps most notably in this context, drop into coverage in the flats and sometimes have to move out and jam receivers closer to the formation.
And it’s those kinds of skills Enagbare went to Pope to work on.
“With his type of ability, I just knew he’d be a more marketable player and more of an asset for his team, any team, when you have the ability to pass rush, play inside and you have the ability to play in coverage,” Pope said. “It makes you a well-rounded defensive player.”
Moving Enagbare outside solved a depth chart logjam as he had been playing behind veteran starter Aaron Sterling. The junior credited Pope’s training with helping him ease into the new spot.
“Dropping back into coverage, it isn’t completely new to me,” Enagbare said. “I have experience with it, so I have a little experience with it.”
They’ve been working on this as far back as the summer after he first enrolled at Carolina, but it became an emphasis during the past summer when he was home. The coach had the sense it was needed to elevate Enagbare’s game.
The coach didn’t even know Enagbare was destined to move over to Buck. He just felt it was a useful skill to have in the modern game. Enagbare could play inside (he did as a freshman), the edge and even as a de facto linebacker in some settings.
In high school, Pope, who has worked with DBs for more than a decade and a half, mostly used him as a pure pass rusher and edge setter against the run. The Hapeville back seven was so fast, they didn’t necessarily need their end dropping back.
Pope has enjoyed watching his former player grow with the Gamecocks. He was happy when Enagbare picked USC, owing to the strong academics, and liked the way the Muschamp staff worked with players.
Game 1 at the new position went well for Enagbare, part of a plan that accidentally came together. Now the aim of that work might be directed toward something longer term.
“Like I tell him, I tried to train him, when he was in high school, I trained him to be a college guy,” Pope said. “When he got to college, I wanted to train him as a pro.
“We want to give him an opportunity to get a good, good evaluation from the pros and I just feel like to make him more multi-dimensional.”
