Improving pass-rush prowess a priority for Gamecocks’ defense

South Carolina’s football coaches mixed and matched defensive personnel in the spring in an attempt to identify who can contribute for the Gamecocks in 2016.

The takeaways, coaches said, include a solid front seven that includes a deep and experienced linebacker corps, and a secondary that remains a work in progress.

Among the top items on the summer to-do list is to make strides in finding players who can disrupt the other team’s quarterback, defensive coordinator Travaris Robinson said.

“To play good defense, especially pass defense, we’ve got to have some pass rush,” Robinson said this month as part of the Atlanta Gamecock Club spring meeting. “We’re going to develop somebody that can get to the quarterback or it’s not going to look good.”

The Gamecocks have been in search of a consistent pass rush presence since Jadeveon Clowney turned pro after the 2013 season. USC’s 20 team sacks last season ranked 94th in country and 11th in the SEC (tied with Arkansas, ahead of Auburn and Kentucky).

Seven of the defense’s 10 newcomers are on the defensive line. Freshman defensive end Keir Thomas enrolled in January and made strides in the spring, Robinson said, while incoming end D.J. Wonnum has a chance to contribute early.

South Carolina’s defense uses a Buck, a hybrid linebacker-defensive end whose primary strength is to be a pass-rushing specialist. Daniel Fennell, Darius English and Boosie Whitlow manned the spot in the spring, but there could be some formations in the fall that don’t utilize a true Buck, Robinson said.

Robinson called linebacker “our best position on defense” and said someone among Skai Moore, Bryson Allen-Williams, T.J. Holloman and Jonathan Walton will need to be utilized as a pass-rusher. Allen-Williams cross-trained at the Buck in the spring.

“We’ve got some decent candidates,” Robinson said. “Obviously we’ve got to get more. That’s going to be very important in our recruiting efforts moving forward. For this year we’re going to have to have some kind of guy that can generate and do both things for us, whether he puts his hand in the dirt or plays stand-up backer and then moves to that on third down.”

A strength of the line right now is on the interior with guys such as Kelsey Griffin, Taylor Stallworth and Dante Sawyer, Robinson said.

“We’ve got some guys that can help us stop the run,” he said. “Lance Thompson is doing an exceptional job with the defensive line. We’ve got guys that can really help us.”

The road to restoring USC to pass-rush prominence continues with future recruiting classes.

“Defensive linemen and offensive linemen, those guys are hard to find,” Robinson said. “We’re not worried about what we don’t have. We’re worried about what we do have. We have enough that we can win with. Obviously we’ve got to get better with those things, but we’re going to focus on what we can win with.”

This story was originally published May 23, 2016 at 6:38 PM.