The four main components Greg Adkins wants USC’s offensive linemen to excel at
Greg Adkins has tried to keep things simple in his three decades as a coach.
The new South Carolina offensive line coach, a West Virginia native, arrived in Columbia last week.
During his first meetings with USC’s offensive linemen, he will share his four basic concepts to apply to the position: Get off on the snap count; getting hands on defenders as fast as they can; body positioning/footwork; and finishing blocks.
“In a philosophical standpoint, if we could do those four things … I think what you will see is a group of guys that can continue to get better,” Adkins said. “Sometimes you can complicate things and make it very unclear to a player. … We try to make things as simple as possible and try to get the best results possible in being simple.”
Adkins hopes his approach helps with the Gamecocks’ offensive line, which had its share of struggles last season. Adkins’ offensive line at Marshall last season ranked among the best in total sacks allowed (12) and allowed a per-game average of 3.5 tackles per loss.
Beamer called Adkins a “hellacious” recruiter and talked about him with Duke coach David Cuttcliffe and former Jacksonville Jaguars coach Doug Marrone. Beamer and offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield worked with Adkins in the early 2000s at Tennessee, so that’s a plus when putting in a new offensive system.
“It is important for that offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, they have to be aligned and mesh with each other,” Beamer said. “I have heard and seen too many horror stories where that play-caller and offensive line coach don’t mesh. I wasn’t going to force anyone on Marcus with line coaches and everything kept coming back to Greg.”
Adkins said his “jaw dropped” when he first walked through the USC football operations building He spent most of his first day last week with Satterfield and going over line calls and schemes.
Adkins said the two talked about protection schemes and things a couple weeks ago when Satterfield was driving down to USC. He said Satterfield’s offense is similar to schemes he has worked in the past and will do whatever he has to do to make it work with the Gamecocks.
“I will learn whatever we go to do to learn,” Adkins said. “I will learn whatever we need to do. If it is easier on the players, we will do that. If it is easier on the staff, we will do that. Whatever makes this thing work, we are going to do.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
