Why South Carolina’s defensive tackle depth is a point of pride going into new season
It only takes a quick scan of South Carolina’s practice fields to spot the defensive linemen. After all, they’re not exactly subtle.
They’re some of the biggest bodies and freakiest athletes on the field at a time. They move sleds with a quick twitch and a step or two off the line of scrimmage.
You know the headliners — former five-star recruit Zacch Pickens and ex-top four-star prospect Alex “Boogie” Huntley.
It’s the pieces behind that pairing, though, that have the defensive tackle room poised to be the Gamecocks’ deepest position on the roster nearing the end of fall camp.
“I’m very appreciative as a coach from the buy-in and the trust that they have in what we’re trying to instill,” defensive line coach Jimmy Lindsey said of Pickens, Huntley and the older contingent under his watch. “And I think that permeates to the younger guys in our group. They see the techniques and the things that we’re doing from those guys being successful and having success on the field. I think it just helps your overall room from from a buy-in standpoint.”
Take sixth-year senior M.J. Webb. He’ll be 24 in October and one of oldest guys on the defense. He’s played offensive and defensive line since arriving at South Carolina in the 2017 class. Now? He figures to be an integral part of the rotation.
Head coach Shane Beamer lauded Webb’s work down the stretch last fall. He recorded at least two tackles in eight of South Carolina’s final nine games. Webb also notched four stops in back-to-back weeks against Troy and Tennessee.
“I would just say knowing what I’m good at, what’s my best attribute to the team — and that was stopping the run,” Webb said of why he thinks he’s made such marked improvement. “Every time I got in I felt like I was doing what I could to stop the run and just be a contributor to the team. I’m trying to do the same thing this season.”
Added Lindsey: “M.J. was a really big surprise for us. (He’s) a guy that has been here a long time. I don’t know how much he had played or not played — that’s not anything that I really look at. I look at the guys that are executing what we’re asking them to do, playing with great technique and fundamentals. Very pleased to where he’s at.”
Webb is far from the only defensive tackle to earn the staff’s or his teammates’ praise this fall. Second-year interior defensive linemen T.J. Sanders and Nick Barrett’s names have been brought up consistently the last six months.
The duo came to South Carolina together in the 2021 class, albeit their relationship started well before that. Barrett joked on Wednesday he and Sanders played NBA 2K online on their PlayStations before getting to Columbia.
Those games — and their physical development — have continued over the last year-plus together.
“Ever since I got here, that’s been my guy,” Sanders said of Barrett. “I feel like I’m closest with him in the D-tackle room. That’s just a guy that I can look at and see his his progression. That’s someone I can talk to about my progression, as well. And I feel like that’s just another guy in my ear telling me what I’m doing right and wrong, and it’s vice versa for him with me.”
That South Carolina should be deep at defensive tackle figures to help its woes against the run last fall. The Gamecocks finished 11th in the Southeastern Conference in rush defense, surrendering 175 yards per game. They also allowed 230 or more yards in five of 10 games against Power Five opponents.
Pickens and Huntley both project as disruptive forces along the front line. Webb, too, can eat plenty of space at 6-foot-3, 313 pounds.
How much Barrett, Sanders and junior Tonka Hemingway factor in depends some on those in front of them, but they should see the field in some capacity.
Barrett noted there’s more ease among the group working in defensive coordinator Clayton White’s defense a second year in a row. That, he said, has led to more communication and on-the-fly adjustments in the trenches during practice.
And while Huntley and Pickens should still anchor the group, that comfort behind the leading pair gives Lindsey, White and Beamer plenty to work with on the interior.
