Gamecock secondary is garnet and ‘green.’ There’s a lot to prove in spring football
Perhaps no single position group for South Carolina football was hammered harder this offseason by departures than the secondary. And that means the new position coach, Torrian Gray, has plenty to work on this spring.
Israel Mukuamu and Jaycee Horn, both All-SEC corners, left for the NFL. Safety Jammie Robinson, who played in every game his first two seasons and emerged as a starter, transferred. So did safety Shilo Sanders and corner John Dixon, who were regular members of the rotation in 2020.
Without those five, the Gamecock defensive backs are “green,” Gray said repeatedly when speaking with reporters Wednesday. Just about the only returning depth is redshirt sophomore cornerback Cam Smith, senior safety RJ Roderick and redshirt senior safety Jaylan Foster.
“We’re very green as a group, very green,” Gray said. “Cam’s the only guy that’s really played corner, RJ and Foster played at the safety spot. Other than that, guys are green and just everything we do, they’re green. They’re still learning the game.
“Every practice is a new adventure, everything is something new that those guys haven’t seen. And that’s OK. We got nine more practices to see ourselves and get better and then we got the spring game, so it’s exciting as long as everybody makes progress in these practice, which I believe we’re going to do that.”
USC’s new wide receivers coach Justin Stepp is familiar with Gray from their days going head-to-head at their previous jobs — Stepp at Arkansas and Gray at Florida. In those days, Stepp said Wednesday, Gray’s units had a “swag and a confidence” to them.
“I feel like in this league at my position and his position, you got to have a little something about you,” Stepp said of that attitude. “Because you’ll get eaten up quick.”
Gray agreed that having confidence is important at defensive back. The issue is, the Gamecocks are so young and inexperienced that they don’t have it yet.
“We need to have a certain swagger, which we don’t have just because we’re so green to have a swagger as a group right now,” Gray said. “So we’re still learning how to be ... a lot of guys are learning how to play football on this level, what it takes in meeting rooms, what it takes in the individual period, what it takes doing a specific technique. We still got a lot to gain from those deals, so if we can finish spring ball and have a toughness about ourselves, have a swagger about ourselves, I’d say we come from something.”
“Plays with a lot of energy, plays with a lot of passion. Got to reel him in a little bit every now and then, but he has great big-time potential and has been great for us,” Gray said of Smith.
Still, even with Smith, Gray is dealing with a depleted unit — the Gamecocks have just 10 scholarship players at defensive back, and coach Shane Beamer has even said that a lack of depth on defense has limited some of the things USC can do in spring practices.
What’s more, two of those secondary players have only been on campus for a few months. JUCO product Marcellas Dial and Georgia Southern transfer David Spaulding are still adjusting to a new program, and Spaulding in particular has dealt with injuries that have limited his development even more, Gray said.
“We see that they have length, they have size, they got potential. But right now, each practice we get, each individual period we get is a chance for those guys to get better,” Gray said. “This is only Spaulding’s second practice. So he’s a guy who in meetings seems like he knows it pretty good, but once you get out there and start playing and things start moving, there’s a lot of mistakes we got to correct, and he’s got to get better because it’s important to him.
“Marcellas Dial is the same way — very green, but he’s going to get better each practice because it’s important to him.”
This story was originally published April 7, 2021 at 1:54 PM.
