Restocked USC defensive line ready for ‘healthy rotation’

South Carolina brought in 24 freshmen on scholarship for the 2016 season. It’s no accident that a third of the enrollees signed to play defensive line.

USC now has 19 defensive linemen on its roster, with 10 being either true freshmen or redshirt freshmen.

“You can never have enough guys up front,” Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp said.

That mindset comes from Muschamp’s belief that defensive linemen have to stay fresh in order to be effective. He doesn’t want anyone at the position playing more than six to eight plays at a time.

Coaches want to rotate at least 10 among the four-man defensive front, Muschamp said on his call-in show Tuesday night.

“If a big guy runs out of gas he’s done,” Muschamp said. “Unfortunately with tempo nowadays, you can’t always sub to get guys out of the game, but you’ve always got to have a good plan to have a healthy rotation, especially early in the year as hot as it gets. You never can have enough.”

Getting consistently strong play at defensive tackle and defensive end has been an issue for South Carolina over the past couple of years.

USC’s decline as a program was due to several factors, but one noticeable drop off was with tackles for loss and sacks.

From 2005 to 2013 the Gamecocks averaged 86 tackles for loss and 31 sacks. Over the past two years USC averaged 59 tackles for loss and 17 sacks.

Senior defensive tackle Kelsey Griffin expects USC to be much-improved up front in 2016.

“We try not to look back. It’s all about looking forward. We have new opportunities with the coaches and coaching staff,” he said. “They’re teaching us a lot more, and I feel like it is a lot better. We’ve bought into Muschamp’s program and we’re looking forward to the season.”

Junior Taylor Stallworth added that he has noticed a difference this year.

“We’re more demanding of each other. We hold each other accountable,” he said. “If you’ve got to do something you’re going to do it. We don’t have to have the coaches to tell you to do it. We’re stepping it up.”

In addition to Griffin and Stallworth, returnees Marquavius Lewis, Dante Sawyer, Ulric Jones, Darius English, Daniel Fennell and Shameik Blackshear are expected to contribute on the defensive front this season. Newcomers Keir Thomas, D.J. Wonnum and Kobe Smith should receive playing time as well.

Lewis believes having quality depth at defensive line is important for USC to have a strong season and said the Gamecocks have plenty of solid players ready to make a difference in 2016.

“We have a lot of talent and a lot of youth as well,” he said. “If we have a platoon of guys who can go without skipping a beat I think that’s very important because we would like to sub knowing that we don’t have to worry about this guy because he can be as good as the guy who just came out.”

This story was originally published August 31, 2016 at 12:00 PM.