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Gamecocks Spring Practice: Five Questions

Spring is here and with it comes spring football practice. I'm a little late getting in on the discussion here, mostly because I've been busy with basketball and that sueño known as the real world. However, better now than never, so what follows are the five questions I'm most interested in hearing about over the next few weeks, beginning with least important and moving to most.

5. How will we use Tori Gurley and Alshon Jeffery together?

We've already heard one bit of good news out of practice: the coaching staff is working on getting the twin towers on the field at the same time, with Gurley moving to slot receiver. Along with Jason Barnes and a talented group of backups, this could be one of the--if not the--best receiving corps in the conference. It will be exciting to see how they look on the field together.

4. Will special teams play improve?

There are a couple of questions here. First of all, we need to see our kickoff return coverage unit play much better. This needs to be a top priority in 2010; it's very possible to argue that our coverage unit cost us at least one big game last year--Georgia--and hurt us in others. Second of all, I'd like to see an improved return game. We have two of the faster players in the league in Chris Culliver and Bryce Sherman. It's time for us to see these guys take a couple to the house.

3. Who will end spring as the top runningback?

We were crowded at runningback last year and will be more so this year. Candidates for top spot will be Kenny Miles, who started most of last year, Brian Maddox, who started some and played a lot in short yardage situations throughout, Jarvis Giles, who was highly recruited but never broke into the rotation consistently, and Bryce Sherman, a dimunitive speedster. I think the big issue here is probably how much Giles has improved; he's probably the most explosive player of the group, but his decision making and small frame cost him last year. If he is ready to be more of a downhill runner and has put on a few more pounds, he could challenge Miles. There's been talk of moving Maddox to fullback (and last year's fullback Patrick DiMarco to tight end), which I think is a great idea, both for the team and Maddox's NFL prospects. Sherman will likely continue to play in specialty packages. Finally, of course, regardless of what happens in the spring, Marcus Lattimore will get his chance when he gets on campus in the summer.

2. How will the new faces on defense fare?

We return a good bit of talent on D, but a few longtime starters are gone, particularly Eric Norwood, Darian Stewart, and Nathan Pepper. What is more, a few of next year's projected starters, such as Chris Culliver, will be taking it easy this spring as they nurse recovering injuries. This will give us a chance to see how some of the new faces on the depth chart look. I'm especially interested in DeMario Jeffery, D.J. Swearinger, Tony Straughter, Josh Dickerson, Toquavius Gilchrist, and Melvin Ingram.

1. Can we expect improvement from the offensive line?

Despite hitting some road bumps at times, the performance of the offensive line improved last year under Eric Wolford. Can Shawn Elliott complete the job? If so, our offense has the tools and experience in place at the other positions to be one of the best in the league.

This post is intended to be a general conversation starter; please sound off with your own questions / concerns in the comments section.

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Comments

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Jarvis Giles

should get more playing time this year. i think Lattimore will get the majority of the snaps, and if he is as good as his five star rating suggests, that will be good for us. but Giles would be a great compliment to him much like Spiller was a change of pace for James Davis at Clemson for so long.
I think we do have the best recieving corps in the conference, and if Garcia continues to improve as much as he did from year 1 to year 2, this year might be the Gamecock’s best chance to win the SEC. Tebow monster is gone at florida, Bama’s defense lost 8 starters, Tennessee is going to struggle from the mess that was Lane Kiffin, and LSU cant win consistently with Jefferson at QB, and the loss of Trindan Holliday and the other back(cant remember his name) will hurt

by Jedelman11 on Mar 28, 2025 1:18 AM EDT reply actions  

Jarvis Giles

I agree with you. I also think that putting maddox in at fullback with compliment to whoever the starting back is. I love using the fullback as a reciever and to have someone with a little more speed than a normal fullback that we know can get a few hard yards will be great. When you come out on like a 2nd and 4 and you have for example Jarvis Giles and Brian Maddox in the back feild teams really have to think about who is getting the ball and also the threat of putting it into the air

by tnichols178987 on Mar 28, 2025 1:25 AM EDT up reply actions  

special teams

I agree with the comment that our special teams cost us the georgia game and if it was better definitely would have helped out with some other games. When your defense comes onto the feild and the other team only has 30 to 50 yards to go and they are pumped up caused we couldn’t stop them on the return it gets the defense down in which just puts the whole team down. It just not easy to win football games when you morale gets down early. So we definitely need to work on the special teams to have a better chance of going somewhere this year, cause we have the talent and experince to go far this year the question is can we put it all together and do it?

by tnichols178987 on Mar 28, 2025 1:21 AM EDT reply actions  

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