How Jon Hoke plans to remedy Gamecocks’ tackling problem

Mondays were no fun for the South Carolina defense last season.

That’s the day the Gamecocks players reviewed the film from the previous game with the coaching staff. There were plenty of mistakes that piled up along the way to ranking No. 94 in the nation in total defense, but nothing was worse than watching the missed tackles again and again and again, linebacker Skai Moore said.

“It was pretty rough,” said Moore, a junior who has led the team in tackles each of the past two seasons.

Co-defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward didn’t keep track of exactly how many missed tackles there were through 13 games last year, he said.

“It was a lot,” he conceded.

It added up to one of the worst defenses in school history – last in the SEC in sacks (14), last in tackles-for-loss (52), 13^th in yards allowed (432.7) and 12^th in points allowed (30.4 per game).

“I think we will fly around, get our hits in, be a better tackling team, be in position,” head coach Steve Spurrier said.

Jon Hoke was hired to help make that happen. Hoke is the Gamecocks’ new co-defensive coordinator. He spent the past 13 seasons as a defensive backs coach in the NFL, but he did not bring a super-secret, known-only-in-professional-football tackling technique with him to South Carolina.

It doesn’t exist, he said.

“Don’t over think it,” Hoke said. “Somebody is going to make a lot of money on a manual talking about tackling, and it’s really about leverage on a tackle.”

A defensive player’s leverage is simply the side from which he approaches the ball carrier.

“There is always going to be somebody inside-out, there is always going to be somebody outside-in,” Hoke said. “If you leverage, you will tackle with the proper shoulder.”

Hoke has spent no more – or less – time working on tackling with South Carolina’s players than he did during a typical NFL practice, he said.

“I just know that when they came to rookie camp, you always had to start all over again with fundamentals,” Hoke said. “I think college football players, they are just trying to develop fundamentals like everyone else. I don’t see it any different than when I had rookie mini-camp.”

Moore, who finished 11^th in the SEC in tackles last year with 93, believes it breaks down even more simply than that.

“Just, honestly, effort,” he said. “It’s really effort every play.”

That effort has been much better during the 2015 preseason, Moore said.

“We are out here every day in full pads. We don’t really do shorts anymore,” Moore said. “We are focused on being physical and getting those tackles this year.”

Spurrier believes he’s seen a difference in the past month and hopes his defense can transfer it to the game field better than it did a year ago. It will have to, Hoke said.

“If you can’t tackle,” Hoke said, “it’s hard to play defense.”

This story was originally published September 2, 2015 at 7:50 PM.