Muschamp wants to go deep with Gamecocks’ defensive front

During the open portions of South Carolina’s spring football practice, the Gamecocks were not shy about rotating defensive tackles. It seemed each time the first team rolled out, the pairing was switched.

As it turns out, this isn’t just about seeing who works well, but also ties to a central tenet coach Will Muschamp and his staff have for the position.

“Big guys in the Southeast, especially early in the year, I don’t ever want those guys playing more than eight snaps in a row,” Muschamp said. “Once a big guy runs out of gas, he’s done. You’re not going to get him back. The most exerting thing you do in football is pass rush. So if you play a team that’s throwing it a lot and you rush the passer a lot, then you get no pass rush.”

The staff looks at how many total tackles they’ll need for a given game and then subs from there, Muchamp said. It comes down to managing snap counts, something this staff believes in.

Rush up front

South Carolina’s ability to get to the quarterback been a constant topic of conversation since Jadeveon Clowney and Kelcy Quarles departed the team two years ago. Muschamp brings with him a new scheme, but he’ll still have to squeeze something more from what’s largely the same group of players (give or take a true freshman).

The coach aims to look beyond something as raw as sack totals.

“Right now, with the game of football, the ball is out so quick, it’s not really about sacks,” Muschamp said. “It’s about affecting the quarterback and pushing the pocket and resetting the quarterback. Those are things, to me, it’s very difficult to get sacks nowadays because the ball is out so quick in the space game we’re playing now. To be able to push the pocket inside, I thought we did a much better job of that [in last weekend’s scrimmage]. That to me is as much as anything, to be effective in affecting the quarterback.”

The team managed to get decent pressure on the quarterback in the most recent scrimmage, he said, but that only meant his offensive staff was more concerned about pass protection (playing against one’s self is a zero-sum game like that).

For Muschamp, the goal is simple: Find a way to create more space on the field.

“We’re not a fast-twitch group up front,” Muschamp said. “We have some bigger, longer guys that can push the pocket, and I was very pleased with our inside push.”

Secondary concerns

Muschamp was speaking at a Gamecock Club meeting recently when someone posed the question: Will the cornerbacks play more up in the faces of receivers and not so far off?

The issue is, playing tight isn’t so much about deciding to, but can the players do it?

“The way we’re playing, we’re going to play way off,” Muschamp said.

He made no excuses, simply saying those players have a long way to go, and it’s needed in multiple areas. He’s taken over secondaries with those issues before and in his words “battled out of it,” and said there’s enough there to work with.

“We’ve got to become tougher on the perimeter,” Muschamp said. “We’re not very tough and some of us don’t like to tackle. That’s an issue in football, especially if you’re playing on defense. ... We need more playmakers back there. We’ve got to get guys a little more attitude back there. That’s just part of what we have to do.”

Backing the line

South Carolina has options at linebacker. When the questions come, Muschamp will praise them all the way down to Sherrod Pittman, who spent last fall rehabbing from a broken leg.

That can’t hurt, especially with the way the Gamecocks aim to play.

“Really the way we play, you need five inside ’backers to feel good about where you are going into a season,” Muschamp said. “That’s really what you need. We play so much nickel nowadays, you’re playing with two linebackers on the field. Now, when you start talking about multiple personnel groupings and rushers and think like, that, getting into some pass rush situations. ... Now you’re talking about multiple guys on the field.”

He mentioned a rabbit’s package, where all four linemen are defensive ends, or a spinner package, where a top outside lineman (the Buck) stands up and menaces inside gaps. Bryson Allen-Williams has already moved into that Buck role, but Muschamp also mentioned Jonathan Walton as possessing some pass rushing chops.

This story was originally published April 7, 2016 at 10:02 AM with the headline "Muschamp wants to go deep with Gamecocks’ defensive front."