USC Camp Insider: Gamecocks preparing for up-tempo UNC offense

You’ll read today about how South Carolina is getting close to ending camp and starting season preparation in earnest. The coaches have a good idea of what works and what doesn’t, who will play and who won’t.

Defensively, the prep already has begun. North Carolina awaits on Sept. 3, and that’s not the only team that will try to exploit the Gamecocks’ fresh-faced defense.

“We’re working on tempo right now,” linebacker Skai Moore said. “We just did a full two-minute period working on it.”

Lorenzo Ward is wary of the Tar Heels’ offense, designed to hit gains and get back on the ball too fast for the defense to recover. He mentioned them in the same breath as Oregon.

The Gamecocks’ defense has depth if not experience, so Monday’s practice was spent pushing each player to keep moving. Ward and the other defensive coaches were shuttling players in and out, trying to find the right balance between the freshest legs and the best players.

“We’ll be ready for it. We know they’re going to go up-tempo,” Moore said. “So, we’re getting guys in and out and giving them a break if they need it.”

This story was originally published August 19, 2015 at 12:28 PM with the headline "USC Camp Insider: Gamecocks preparing for up-tempo UNC offense."