PowerPoints and ‘Florida Stick’: How this Gamecock broke out in spring practice
In coach Shane Beamer’s young tenure with South Carolina football, one thing has become clear: Never underestimate the power of a good presentation.
When Beamer himself was interviewing for the head coaching position, he handed athletic director Ray Tanner an iPad filled with his vision for the program. When Luke Day was interviewing with Beamer to become the new strength coach, he had a 44-page outline of how he’d run things at USC.
And when senior running back ZaQuandre White needed to prove to the coaching staff this spring that he could be trusted to hang onto the ball, he turned to Microsoft PowerPoint.
“We challenged him first couple of days with ball security. He did a presentation, a PowerPoint presentation to the offense. It was really, really good, well done. He’s really taken ownership and his ball security has done a really nice job,” offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield said at the end of this spring season.
“... He had a couple issues early on, and we were in a unit meeting, and he had no idea, I was like, ‘And Z White came up to me today, guys. And he said he wanted to do a PowerPoint presentation for you guys on Thursday about ball security and have video and all that stuff.’
And everybody was laughing. And then sure enough, before I could even go tell him, ‘Hey you really are going to do this,’ he had it done.
“I mean, it was professionally done. He used pictures of me yelling and screaming. He used pictures of (running backs coach Montario Hardesty) carrying the ball with good ball security at Tennessee, bad ball security at Tennessee. So he put some fun into it, but he put a lot of work into it.”
To date, slides from that presentation haven’t made their way into the public domain despite some intense interest from fans and media members. But what was on display for all to see was White’s dominant performance in the Garnet & Black spring game.
With top USC tailbacks Kevin Harris and MarShawn Lloyd out with injury, White took full advantage of the spotlight with 14 rushes for 95 yards and a touchdown in one half of play. He did have one brief moment of trouble when he and quarterback Luke Doty couldn’t connect on a handoff, leading to a fumble, but for the most part he looked every bit the top-150 prospect he once was.
It was a fitting end to a spring season in which White drew effusive praise from his coaches despite barely getting any touches in a 2020 season where he was passed by an emergent Harris. It got to the point where he was buried on the depth chart and moved over to defense to play safety, helping fill a need there.
“I’d say ball security played a great effect on how much I played last year, because I fumbled at least probably like three times last season. The new coaching staff knew that’s what I needed to work on, so that is what I have been working on all spring.”
White had previously been asked to switch positions when he started his career at Florida State, going from running back to linebacker. He transferred to junior college to get back to tailback before coming to Carolina. Even with Lloyd missing last season with an ACL injury, White still finished just sixth on the team in rushing yards.
Despite the setbacks, changes and challenges, White stuck around and showed not only the ability to run well, but a mindset that the Gamecock coaching staff loved.
“I will never, ever, ever overlook the fact that he has not missed one snap of spring ball,” Satterfield said. “And he’s carried it a ton and he’s got hit a ton and he always shows up and he’s always there. And he’s always dependable.
“I think just the mental toughness and the physical toughness of a kid like that, with that much talent, has a chance to showcase that on Saturday.”
How exactly he’ll showcase that talent come the fall remains to be seen. Harris and Lloyd are considered the prohibitive favorites to dominate carries out of the backfield, with Harris having the most rushing yards last season of any returning SEC player and Lloyd still being the Gamecocks’ top running back recruit since Marcus Lattimore.
But his performance this spring, especially in the Garnet and Black Game, served as notice that White won’t fade into the background quietly.
“I think today the way I approached it was great, just showing my coach,” White said after the spring game. “He has been praising me, so I had to show him like I show him everyday at practice that when the big crowd comes, spotlight comes, I can still do the same thing I do at practice.”
White’s position coach, Hardesty, had heaped compliments on him earlier in the spring.
“Z White been balling, man. And, you know, Z white has really good size. He has really good speed. I mean, his cutting ability is really good.” Hardesty said. “I always say he got that ‘Florida Stick.’ He from Florida, he got that stick, he got that dead leg stick right on him. But he has really good hands out of the backfield.”
Even if that doesn’t translate to a major role in the run game, White will likely still have plenty of opportunities to see the field. In addition to impressing Hardesty this spring, he also stood out to special teams coordinator Pete Lembo for his play in that phase.
“The thing I love about Z is, he’s very coachable. He takes pride in what he does. If he makes a mistake, he owns it. And that’s a guy that we could really use on three or four units,” Lembo said. “Still trying to evaluate where he can help us the most. But he’s a guy that can run. He’s a guy that’s willing to put his face on people. He’s a guy that blocks very well.”
This story was originally published May 5, 2021 at 7:42 AM.
