South Carolina Gamecocks College Football Pregame Quote, 10/29/2019

You all ready? Thank you Steve. Got Vanderbilt here at 7:30. Williams-Brice, can’t wait to get back home in front of our fans. I know our guys are excited about it, and they’ve made a huge difference for us this year, and we appreciate that. Homecoming, so we appreciate all the alumni coming back. You know, Vanderbilt quarterback has been a little unsettled. Mo Hasan came in against Missouri and provided them a huge spark. He’s got legs, he can throw it, but certainly a different looking offense when he was in the game. Riley Neal is a transfer from Ball State, really throws it extremely well. Has played a lot of football for them. And also Deuce Wallace has played as well. But you know, looking forward to see who they go with there. As far as that’s concerned, I think Derek has said that Mo would be their guy moving forward if he’s certainly available. I think they’ve got one of the best running backs in the country. Ke’Shawn Vaughn is a guy that’s got a big lower body, he’s on his way to another 1000-yard season. But he really makes them go offensively. We’ve got a lot of respect for him. Kalija Lipscomb, a receiver, has been a difficult guy to cover. You know, the last, you know, three years we’ve played him he’s been there for a while, seems like. But really good football player. Jared Pinkney, at tight end from Norcross, Georgia is a guy that we recruited and we got to lot of respect for him. Defensively, you turn on the Missouri game and they played extremely hard, extremely well in that ball game. Really frustrated Missouri’s offense and got after them pretty well. And you know, when you turn that tape on, it certainly impresses, what you’re seeing. And Derek’s a defensive coach. But they got after Missouri really good in their last ball game. Injury-wise, Rico will be out but moved around really well today. So I think maybe next week. Not positive on that, but he moved around well. Dylan Wonnum worked out today, but he will be out for this weekend. A.J. Turner will be out with a hamstring. And Damani Staley with the turf toe. And hopefully we get the majority of those guys hopefully next week. And I’ll open it up for any questions.

Will first, how are Hutch and Ernest?

Yeah, they both practiced today. They’ll be ready to go.

And when you look at the Tennessee tape offensively, how much of the struggles were, you know, play-calling or scheme, and how much of it was execution? How much do you have to tweak?

Well, we’re not getting the production we need, you know, especially in the second half. And I don’t think that it’s one thing, I think it’s multiple things. You look at the second half, and we study this stuff, and you know, we’ve had 10 turnovers versus Power Five opponents this year. Seven of ’em have come in the second half. We had two against North Carolina, and I’m just thinking in terms of our first three games, two with North Carolina, two against Alabama, two against Missouri. We’ve had six possessions end on downs. We don’t convert a fourth down situation regardless of the situation it might’ve been. But that’s 13 possessions which right now, I want to say in the second half this year we’ve had anywhere from 46 to 48 possessions. I’m not very good at math, but I want to say that’s about 30% of your possessions are not ending with you giving yourself a chance to score points. You know, I think that you really look at it from a standpoint of, you know, why is that happening? I think that our, we’ve been ineffective consistently throwing the football. And I think that goes to multiple areas of protection, it goes to, you know, route running, precise routes, accuracy with the football. It’s not one thing, it’s multiple things. We’re trying to correct, we’re trying to get it right. Thought we got off on the right start on the first play of the game last week, and felt like there was some things that we did do positive as far as those things are concerned. You know, I’d point to some youth in some key areas. Just call it like it is. I mean, it’s hard what I’m asking some of these guys to do. I think that field position’s been an issue. You know, you look at the last second half and the third quarter against Tennessee, three possessions we self-inflict, you know, five-yard penalties, a delay of game, and two false starts. And right now when you’re not creating explosive plays, they’re hard to overcome those. And then obviously we can do a better job as coaches making some adjustments and helping our guys and putting them in better situations to execute better to get more production. So I think it’s multiple things. I go back and look at 2018 and thinking in terms of five of the nine games, we scored 17 points more in the second half. We know how to make adjustments. So you know, those are things we’ve just got to continue to iron out and find, you know, things that we can do better to improve offensively. ‘Cause we need to be more productive, bottom line.

Dakereon said that Vanderbilt’s kind of a cover zero team, a lot of it. And they send the house sometimes. How much pressure does that put on y’all’s offensive line given, I guess, the performance the last couple weeks.

Well, no doubt, I think that you got to be, you know, dialed in. You know, they’ve obviously had another week to prepare as well. So I’m sure there’ll be some new looks and wrinkles that they look at against us. But you’ve got to be dialed in protection-wise and where your hots are and run-game wise, the run-throughs, and different things you’ve got to be dialed in. Certainly heightened alert on run-throughs for linebackers and secondary defenders. So there’s no doubt you got to be focused and dialed into your job.

Hey, Will, what were some of the issues in the secondary in the Tennessee game? It seemed like maybe some of the same carryover, some of the same problems from the Florida game as well. What were some of the biggest issues in the secondary on Saturday?

You know, well, you know, against Florida our first touchdown we were in man coverage and they, you know, we had an opportunity to get the ball off the guy, the middle-field safety missed the reception area coming out of the middle of the field. We got beat in man coverage on the one scramble pass when they hit Swain in the endzone. You know, on that situation, and those are the two explosive passes that they had for touchdowns in that ball game. As far as the Tennessee game was concerned, you know, we could’ve rolled the post on the backside, with the backside safety on one of the posts to help Israel, to give more help down the field in that situation. They had two quarters beaters called. And what I quarters beaters, we’re in quarters coverage which are very hard to cover the route that they had called at the time, that we technique-wise fundamentally could’ve played it a little better, but it was a good call for what we were in. Just call it like it is. They had a really good call versus the defense that we were in in that situation. And on another situation. And we had some balls down the field that we got to get, find a way to get the ball on the ground in a situation. We got in a bad matchup in a man-to-man that we did not want to have happen goin’ to the game, that happened. In the heat of the moment, we didn’t get in the right matchup that we needed to get in the right matchup, that we had game planned going into the game. So there were several errors that were not all one thing. There were several things on different plays that we can certainly coach better in those situations.

How important is physical toughness for a quarterback?

Well, I think extremely important. I think that mental toughness is probably even more so, to be able to, you know, handle adversity, to be able to handle, you know, tough hits in the pocket, to be able to keep coming and keep battling, to be able to stand in the pocket knowing you’re going to get whacked again and throw the ball down the field, which is a lot easier said than done. So I think that those two, you know, qualities go hand in hand as far as physical and mental toughness at that position.

Not specifically about the elbow and the knee, but Ryan has taken, just taken some big shots that had to hurt. How has he done in that area in responding to that?

Well, I think he’s responded extremely well. I mean, as a guy that you don’t see in the pocket that fundamentally is drifting, fundamentally is not standing up in the pocket and stepping into some throws and taking some tough hits. And when you get in a, you know, three-score game, which we were in Saturday night, knowing we’re going to throw the football, knowing that their ends are loosening up and juicing the edge and getting some pressure, and to be able to stand in the pocket, and he delivered some nice throws in those situations. That takes a lot. Takes a lot for, especially for a true freshman.

How does that affect how his teammates feel about him?

Well I think–

When any quarterback does that.

I think that, you know obviously, he has great respect of his teammates before that ever happened, you know? And I think it just continues to carry on as we continue to move forward. And they understand that we got to keep the quarterback upright.

Kind of on that quarterback subject, how tough is it to have, sort of the situation you’ve had where Ryan’s obviously nursing the knee, and then also his backup is nursing something as well, especially in terms of both having practice when two guys are kind of dinged up and situations like maybe the end of the Tennessee game where you don’t have a Dakereon to relieve Ryan when he’s taking some of those hits.

Well again, we’re going to do what’s for the football team and what’s best for the young man. And I think Dakereon probably as healthy as he’s been in the last two or three weeks, going into this game. And certainly can, you know, help our football team in some form or fashion. And, but again, we’re going to put the best guy out there that gives us an opportunity to win the game.

Ryan hasn’t run much, hasn’t run effectively. Is it because of what Ben was just talking about? I mean, are you concerned about the backup? Is he hurt, or is he just not a good runner?

No, he’s not hurt. Lets make sure we’re very clear of that, he’s not hurt. I think that we’re going to accentuate what each player does best. And right now, he’s throwing the ball well at times. And we got to continue to improve around him for us to throw the football better. And that’s what he does best. We certainly have opportunities, excuse me, for him to run, in situations where he could be in a zone-read situation. Maybe the defense sometimes dictates that on who carries the ball and who doesn’t.

Do you want to see him run more?

I just want us to be more effective offensively and more productive.

But–

And if it means he’s running the footballs, I’m all for it.

I know you might not be, or maybe you are a big analytics guy, but his offensive efficiency is really, really dragged down by the fact that he’s not an effective runner. Any thoughts on that?

We need to throw the football better. That has nothing to do with running.

Will, from the outside I know sometimes it’s easy just to look at wins and losses, but obviously there’s much more that goes into it. Your players today, very vocal in the support in terms of where this program is heading. How important is it when things aren’t going well to know that the players have that support and still trust the process of where it’s heading?

You know, our guys, we got a really good locker room, we have a great culture here. We have really good leadership on our football team. That’s why you recruit the right kind of character and the right kind of young men to be in your locker room. And when you go through adversity, you know, you handle those things. And our guys will handle it in a first-class manner, and that’s part of it.

I guess, I don’t know how much input you have on adjustments that get made on the offensive side of the ball. But are you privy to those conversations after those scripted plays on the first two drives? And what are those conversations like on the sidelines when players come off and start telling you what they’re seeing, to make adjustments offensively?

Well, no. Depending on what side of the ball’s on the field is generally the side of the headsets that I’m on as far as those things are concerned. And then at halftime, we’re able to kind of go through some things that I might be able to see, that I’ll look at from a defense perspective, that I just tell Bryan, these are the things I’m seeing. Middle-field coverage, this is what they’re doing, this is the matchup they’re trying to get. I’ve just been in this league for a long, long time and knowing a lot of the coaches in this league, just as far as those things are concerned. But when the defense is on the field, I’m on the defensive headset.

How often do you say, do your job, in a day? To your team.

Quite a bit. I say it to myself a lot too.

What’s the background of that being one of your real fundamental beliefs?

Well, I mean obviously, when I was working for Coach Saban, Coach Belichick came to LSU a lot and visited us in the off-season. Whether it was working out a player for the draft or it was visiting with our staff to exchange ideas. You know, that was one of the things that I think’s very simple to understand. You know, do simple better, is one of our other things we talk about all the time. And that’s a very simple description for you and your job and what you’re doing. And sometimes in life, we all want to get concerned about what somebody else is doing or they’re not doing their job good enough, or we need to do this job, this is what, no, just do your job. How about let’s handle that first and then we’ll handle the others. And that’s something that’s easy for our, anyone to understand as far as those things are concerned.

When a team is not getting the results it wants, do you have to preach that harder because people tend to want to reach outside of themselves to try to change some outcome?

No, I think that, you know, again, I think you try and be very technical in the things that we need to do to improve. I mean, one of the things I had to remind our team, we had the lead at halftime. We just took the ball down the field 75 yards and scored to take the momentum going into halftime. We need to capture that into the second half, and we didn’t do that, you know? And we’ve got to, you know, put ourselves in a position, number one as coaches, and then number two as players, to put yourself in a position to go win the game, and we didn’t do that well enough on either side of the ball or special teams.

There’s a video that’s been around forever of you expressing your do your job mantra at Texas. Do you ever get any feedback from that on players? Do people bring that up to you? Do you ever… Do you think that that has kind of become attached to you, that mantra has become attached to you because of that video, you think?

I dunno. That’s for you to write about. I’ll read it.

Hey, Will, when you say that you guys have to be better in the passing game, how do you balance, you know, making sort of these wholesale changes? Do you install anything new now, sort of now that more than half the season is over, do you install something new? How do you balance that?

It’s hard to install a whole new concept, especially with some youth we have in some very important areas on the offensive line and the skill positions. So just continue to try and narrow down things that we feel comfortable with as far as what the quarterback feels comfortable with and what we can do to be successful. And again, I thought we did some good things the other night. I thought we’ve made some improvements. It’s not what we want, exactly where we’re getting, but we have made some strides, and we got to continue to do so. Just one thing the other night, and really the only two games this year, Missouri and Tennessee, we didn’t effectively run the football, and we need to be able to do that. You know, our formula’s not going to be very successful throwing the ball 50 times right now. Right now with our football team, that’s not a real successful formula for us.

What do you think is Vanderbilt’s biggest strength, and how do you plan to combat that?

Well, Ke’Shawn Vaughn is an outstanding player. They do a really good job of tying in the play actions. And the boots and nakeds with a very mobile quarterback that we saw against Missouri. They’ve got some talented guys outside, Lipscomb and Pinkney and some guys that we think are extremely talented players offensively. Defensively, you know, I think the thing you turn the tape on is they extremely hard. And they’re very disciplined in what they do and their techniques. They’re not going to be out of position, they’re not going to bust a coverage. They’re a team that plays extremely hard. And when you turn the tape on, that’s easy to see, especially in the last ball game against Missouri.

You’ve mentioned at times that positions like receiver or running back, the week of practice kind of sets who goes, who does what. With quarterback, how much of when a quarterback plays, or if multiple quarterbacks were to play, how much of that is stuff you see in practice that week, and how much of it is sort of what you know about a quarterback as a leader, as a guy going all the way back through, you know, off season, that kind of stuff.

Well, I don’t think there’s any question that leading into the week on how they perform on the practice field is extremely important. I also think it’s important of who you’re playing and what kind of scheme do they play, and what is our best matchups, and what are the best, you know, situations that give us an opportunity to win the game and be productive. So I think those two work more hand-in-hand than the other.

I know Ryan played in a very difficult high school league. I would imagine he took some shots there. As you were watching recruiting film, did you see any of that? And how did it influence, how did the way he reacted to it influence your thought process about him?

That’s a huge part of it, to be able to see a guy take a shot, and what is he going to do on the next snap. Is he able to move to the next snap, is he going to sit in the pocket, is he going to step into the throw? And there was no question that we saw that on tape. That’s a huge part of the evaluation process at that position, mhm.

Talk to Keir anymore about, I guess, what his plan is for the rest of the season?

Yeah, you know, right now I don’t know. He’s working out. And I think, Collyn, the frustrating part for all of us, starting with him, is just, because of the infection, the amount of time we had to shut him down. We’re talking about over two months. So that takes a while to get back in cardio shape, get back in football shape, get back in lifting shape. He’s working hard. He did put the pads on last week, and we moved him around a little bit. He didn’t necessarily practice, per se, with us, but we need to, he needs to get used to carrying the weight, carrying the pads. And again, I think it’s at least two weeks out at this time right now.

If Keir were to end up redshirting and returning for next season based on that kind of timeline, how valuable of a player would he be for this defensive line kind of next season, with some of the veterans you guys are set to lose?

Sure. Well, I think you lose two really quality leaders and seniors inside, Javon and Kobe, two guys that have been having fantastic senior years. Obviously, Dennis Wonnum is a guy that, you know, he’s another guy that’s been elected team captain in previous years. So there’s no question, his leadership ability will be very valuable for us if that’s what ends up happening. Mhm. You pump faked ’em, huh?