South Carolina Gamecocks College Football Pregame Quote, 09/10/2024

Opening statement

“Certainly want to thank our fans that made the trip to Lexington. That was an awesome crowd of garnet and black and we walked into the team meeting on Tuesday and we showed our players a picture of the stadium at Kentucky just so they understood what it looked like and where our tunnel was and locker room. I made the point of showing, right over here in this corner is where our fans will be. It will be a huge sea of garnet and black that you will see on Saturday and there was. The best part about it was is, they were there at the end and it was like a home game there at the end for us. Proud to be their coach and so appreciative for those guys making the trip up to Kentucky last weekend. It was no surprise.

“Offensively, really impressed with Nussmeier. He does not look like a first time starter. He looks very poised and confident. He can make all the throws. I know they have some injuries at running back but they have talented guys back there that compliment each other well. Really good tight end in Taylor. Talented group of receivers that have size or aren’t as big but have great quickness and speed. A multitude of skillsets at the receiver position. Then, arguably the best offensive line in the country. The two tackles are unbelievable. We do an advanced scouting report each week on every opponent and we rate every player on the opponent’s team. We give them a grade. The highest grade you can give a player is elite/rare. You might see that maybe once a year. Certainly, those tackles have those grades from our standpoint. There is a reason that they are going to be high draft picks. Like I told our players this morning, that is life in the SEC so get use to it fellas. There are going to be great players every single week that we face in this conference. There are great players on our team now that opponents get to face every single week when they play us. I think it will be a heck of a football game. I know it is going to be an amazing environment in Williams-Brice Stadium. We already had a bunch of recruits that wanted to come to this game before what happened in Kentucky and before GameDay announced they were coming. Now, we are having to turn people away. We have so many recruits that want to come to this game. That will be great. The environment with GameDay will be great.

“I will encourage everyone please, please, please get here early. We know traffic will be wild, to say the least with everybody coming in for GameDay and a noon kickoff. Leave in plenty of time because we need pregame, we need GameDay, we need the kickoff, 2001, all that. We don’t need people filtering in because of traffic. Get up here early and start tailgating at 6 a.m., whatever you have to do so you are in here and ready to go because this place needs to be rocking on Saturday. This will be their quarterback’s first true road start. He started a bowl game and neutral site game that was a basically a home game for LSU out in Las Vegas. He started a home game last week. He is a mature young man. He has been in big environments like that. First time as a starting quarterback, we need to make life really difficult for him. What an opportunity to showcase Gamecock Football, the University of South Carolina, the city of Columbia, the state of South Carolina with GameDay coming. It is a testament to our fans and this community that GameDay chose to come here. Like I told our players yesterday, this is going to be the first of many times that GameDay comes here for one of our football games. We need to get used to it.  We are excited about the opportunity on Saturday. Have a big challenge and had a good practice today and can’t wait to keep this thing rolling.”

On GameDay and his memories of the show

“I can remember watching it, for sure. Being at Virginia Tech in 1999, that was my senior year of college. That was the year we went undefeated and played for the national championship and GameDay came to Blacksburg I think twice that year for Syracuse and the Miami games, if I am not mistaken. I remember what a huge deal that was that GameDay is coming to Virginia Tech. Over the years getting to know Kirk Herbstreit on a personal level and getting to know Chris Fowler and Rece Davis now and Pat McAfee in the last couple of years. Getting to know those guys has been cool. Certianly, I am a fan whenever we are in the hotel of game days home or away. I am watching it if we are not in meetings or eating or whatever we do as a team because I am just a college football fan and enjoy watching it, without a doubt. I remember in 2010 when they were here when we played Alabama. I think we had an off week before because we had lost to Auburn, if I am not mistaken. I remember we were working on that Sunday and I ran into Subway here on Assembly Street to get lunch and I remember coming out of Subway and my wife telling me that it had just been announced that GameDay was coming to Columbia for the Alabama game six days later and how exciting that was and it is the same feeling now as well as the head coach. It is awesome for our community and great that they are coming here. Now, we need to make sure that they walk out of here saying, ‘That is a place that we need to come back to.’ We need to do our part to play well and make it a memorable day.”

On how GameDay can have an impact on recruiting

“Certainly, the way we played Saturday. We had a lot of people that were already interested in us but we were fortunate that Saturday in Lexington, that was really the only game on. There were a couple of other ones but it was the premiere game across all channels. There were a lot of us eyes that were watching our game on Saturday. A lot of recruits that were watching our game on Saturday and saw us playing freshmen. Monday nights, we work late but we take an hour from 6:30 to 7:30 as a staff and FaceTime recruits for an hour straight. We probably talked to 30 kids last night. That was what they were all saying, ‘Man, y’all were balling against Kentucky and whatever else. That defense and those freshmen and Dylan Stewart and all that stuff.’ That’s great. That already had excitement then GameDay announced they were coming. That just created even more excitement with fans, recruits, our players. NIL, it is a different time. Transfer portal, it is a different time. Having those players, they watched that show and know who those guys are. They know that Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso, Nick Saban, Pat McAfee and Desmond Howard are going to be hear this week, as well. They know who those guys are and even if they don’t, they know that when GameDay comes to town, that is a big deal. I told our players this morning, that is a testament to them and LSU that they want to come be a part of this thing and get used to it.”

on what the next step for the offense is

“Have to eliminate the negative plays. We have had way too many negative plays in the first two games. Especially this week. We are playing a defensive coordinator that was at Missouri the last three seasons and frankly, embarrassed us the last three seasons with the number of negative plays. I think in three games, we have had eight sacks and 24 tackles for loss in the last three years. The thing for us, we have had too many of those negative yardage plays on offense. We certainly can’t come out of this game having eight negative yardage plays. If so, it probably hasn’t gone well for us on Saturday. That is the big thing. They are going to make some plays. I am not saying that. They have really good players. There is probably going to be some negative yardage plays but we just can’t have them where it is every possession, we have negative yardage plays. Just efficiency. Efficient runs. Not every pass is going to be a 50-yard explosive down the field but just being able to have efficient passes and staying on schedule on offense will be key this week. To me, that is the next step that we have to get better at.”

On if the spotlight feels similar to GameDay last year and the end of the 2022 season

“I think in a lot of ways, the spotlight is back on us. We talked this morning that one of the keys for us this Saturday, we have to handle success the right way and handle, I don’t want to say distractions, but there is a lot going on this week that we didn’t get to deal with last week. It is a positive. We need to get use to it. We need to make sure that we are handling distractions the right way and handle success the right way and realize that the bandwagon, if you will, is getting full in a lot of ways. Understand that there are people that are on that bandwagon right now that may jump right off the next time that things don’t go well. Our guys understanding that the key for us is continuing to work and continue to get better. That is what we have talked to our players about. Just keep working, keep getting better. We know that there are a lot of things from that Kentucky game that we have to clean up, as good as the score was and it was. We played really, really well. We also know that we played with great effort and physicality and toughness and that didn’t just happen. We prepared last week to go play like we did on Saturday. That is going to be the key for us is not getting caught up in being in the national spotlight and having Ryan McGee right next door interviewing players and myself for ESPN right now. Instead, worrying about what we can control and go get better and get back to work which is what we did on Saturday night.”

On how the team is prepared to handle the distractions this week

“I think we are prepared to handle it. We will find out. I feel like we have a very mature team in a lot of ways. Now, we are young in a lot of spots, particularly on offense. We have a lot of veterans that have been around here a while on defense and veterans like Kai Kroeger and Hunter Rogers and Alex Herrera that have been around here for a long time. Veteran on offense like Luke Doty and Vershon and Jakai that have been around here for a long time. We are going to lean on them to really set the tone for our guys this week. What we told our players is, yeah, that Kentucky game was huge. But, we are either going to look back here at the end of the season and say, man, that Kentucky game was really huge because of what it propelled this team to and they took that win and continued to get better and use that momentum. Or, we are going to look back to that Kentucky game and say, what an opportunity that we wasted and that we played like that and then we sat around all week and drank the Kool-Aid all week and listened to all the pats on the backs that we are getting instead of getting ready to play a really physical, well-coached football team against LSU. I feel like we are prepared. Practice today showed me that we are preparing the right way. The key for us is just continuing to improve Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and then go turn it loose on Saturday.”

On how the older players are speaking to the younger players on handling pressure this week

“I think continue to get better and continue to work. Our challenge this week is, one, not to listen to the pats on the back but prepare to go play well. Dylan and Kyle Kennard’s instance and our defensive tackles, they are listening to everybody tell them how dominant we are on defense. That is wrong because they are getting ready to play arguably the best offensive line in the nation on Saturday. They better be ready to play. Mazeo Bennett, young player. Had a really good game on Saturday. He is getting ready to play a team on Saturday against LSU that, they don’t really try to disguise stuff. They are going to line up in your face and they are going to press you and play man coverage and say, beat us. We need to be preparing to go do that. I think we have, one, mature guys. Older guys that have been around here. One thing I like about this freshman class, particularly the ones that are playing, Josiah, Michael Smith, Mazeo, Dylan. A lot of freshmen that are playing, Fred Johnson. Those guys, they are very steady and consistent and mature to be young guys. I think they will be fine.”

On how LSU’s defense this year is different than last year

“Haven’t watched, other than just personnel, haven’t watched a ton of last years. I watched more of 2023 Missouri defense than 2023 LSU defense just because schematically, we are going to see more Missouri. Certainly, I watch if for personnel because they have a lot of the same players. I think the thing that jumps off the tape is the effort that they play with. They have brought in, not just coach Baker from Missouri, but brought in Texas’ defensive line coach and brought in some other people. Those guys are playing with great effort. There is a play against Southern Cal where Southern Cal double teams one of the defensive tackles for LSU. Takes him to the ground and then the defensive tackle gets up and he is the guy that makes the tackle for a two-yard gain. It is just the effort they are playing with. You can tell they have confidence in what they are doing.They have good players.  They are out there playing with great confidence and playing fast and getting lined up and going and playing and utilizing their abilities.”

On his thoughts on the run game

“It is a work in progress. It is nowhere near as good as it needs to be. We need to be more efficient, for sure. We have had some negative runs and negative plays and we have to have positive yardage. In my mind, we are too good on the offensive line to have negative plays. It is everybody. It is receivers. It is running backs. It is tight ends. It is quarterbacks reads.  It is everybody. We have to be more efficient. There is no question about it. I like schematically what we are doing. I thought there were some runs on Saturday that really could hav been even more explosive than what they were. Rocket had one coming out, I think it was the second play of the second half. We threw a little pass to Mike Smith. Then, we went tempo and handed it to Rocket. He almost came out of that and that could have been a long run. Robby had one where he kind of stumbled for positive yardage. That was close to popping. The touchdown that Rocket scored at the end of the game, that was great individual effort and physicality running through people. We need to be better. Not every play is going to be a 20, 30-yard run. We need to make sure we are constantly running that thing for better than whatever we were yards per carry the other day.I think we were less than three. We have to be better.”

On how they have been able to get after the quarterback

“We are better in that room than what we were last year. We added some players and the players that returned are a year older. That has been a huge part of it, obviously. When you look back to last season, we didn’t do a good enough job of generating pressure and creating our own negative plays and getting teams behind the chains. We looked at some things certainly schematically about how to continue to generate pressure in the backfield on the quarterback or to create negative runs. Schematically, we have done some things. A lot of it is new personnel and they have come in and done a great job of it, for sure. Need to continue to. It is two games. We have a lot of football left. Dylan and Kyle and the rest of our EDGE guys are not going to sneak up on anybody. That is for sure. We have to make sure that teams are going to continue to do things to try and take those guys away. That’s great because I feel like we are better at the defensive tackle position and linebacker position and secondary position. We brought Vicari on a pressure one time and Jalon Kilgore and Kelvin Hunter are making some plays in the backfield on perimeter runs. I like that group all together in general. It is personnel but some schematic tweaks, too.”

On how much 1-on-1 blocking there has been on the EDGEs, how LSU will handle those players

“Back to the first question, Kentucky was going to help their tackles some and then they were going to leave those tackles alone at times. There was one play that Kentucky tried to block Dylan Stewart with three different players. He went through all three of them and made a play on the quarterback on the throw away. We are prepared for that. We knew that going into last week and that is fine. There are other ways to generate pressure. We have some pretty good defensive tackles, too. If they want to use four guys blocking our EDGEs. that is great for Boogie and Tonka and T.J. and those guys. As far as LSU, they do a good job of mixing things up. They use multiple tight end sets and they shift and motion and give you different looks and they will roll the pocket out a little bit to move the quarterback and get him on the edge. They will keep tight ends and chip and then get out. Then, certainly, I am sure they are going to feel extremely confident with their two offensive tackles of not giving them any help. If I am not mistaken, 66, the tackle, he has played 1,700 career snaps and he has given up three sacks. I am not great at math, what is that? Almost once every 600 snaps he gives up a sack. I am sure he feels pretty good going into Saturday The sacks that he gave up were to Jared Verse from Florida State who is in the NFL right now, Will Anderson from Alabama who is in the NFL right now and a quarterback scramble. They are extremely confident and it is a big challenge for our guys and I am excited to watch Kyle and Dylan and the rest of our defensive ends as well as our defensive tackles how they combat LSU’s offensive line. Told them this morning in our team meeting, what an opportunity for our guys to go compete against what many say is the offensive line in the country.”

On how things have slowed down for Sellers

“I thought he had a better week of practice last week throwing the football than what he did the week before going into the Old Dominion game. In my mind, last week in practice, things continue to get more and more comfortable for him. Certainly, that carries over to the game. You would hope it would be the same week in practice this week. Every week, we have a specific game plan. The way that Kentucky plays defense is different than the way LSU plays defense. We also try not to have brand new offenses every week as far as scheme goes. The play that we scored on with Mazeo, the first touchdown was literally the first play of the game against Old Dominion. We just went the other way. We rolled to the right and LaNorris kept it. Saturday, we rolled to the left and he threw it. It is the same play. I think as we continue to try and change how the play look, formations and motions and things like that. Conceptually, you are doing the same things. Every week is different. There are going to be new things that we do this week because it fits LSU better than it did Kentucky. We try to keep the bulk of our offense the same week to week, run game and pass game. So there is a lot of carry over and continuity. The more you do something, the more comfortable and confident you are going to get at it.”

On how Sellers handled pressure against Kentucky

“I thought he did a good job. One, we need to protect it better because on a couple of those, we should have been protected and he didn’t expect to get hit. We have to protect it better. I thought the play he made on the play over on Kentucky’s sideline over to Mazeo was a big time play. We should have been protected. We got beat and there is a guy that he is not expecting to be there and is in his vision and he has the athleticism to evade that guy. I love Spencer. I would tell Spencer this. Last year, that is probably a sack with Spencer. LaNorris is able to make that guy miss, evade the rush, keep his eyes down field and find Mazeo for a big play. I think that was third down over there on their sideline. I think he will just get more and more comfortable with those things. He showed what he can do. Begin comfortable, being confident in what we are doing where he knows where his answers are. He knows where to go with the ball. I thought he did a much better job Saturday of relaxing and going and making plays and just go play ball. That is what he will need to do on Saturday, for sure.”