Shane Beamer Expects Continued Progression From Nick Emmanwori

South Carolina Football coach Shane Beamer discussed what he expects from freshman all-american Nick Emmanwori heading into his sophomore season.

Whenever a true freshman in college football, especially one in the SEC is forced to start for their respective team for even just one game, much less an entire season, everyone from the player's teammates to his coaches and even the fans of the respective team worry about how the player will handle being thrown into the proverbial fire pit. For Nick Emmanwori, despite being thrusted in at the safety position for the Gamecocks' defense from week one all the way through the Gator Bowl, he handled the situation as well as freshman could've possibly done so.

Emmanwori didn't just barely make it by in his freshman campaign, he became a real factor in South Carolina's defensive secondary, leading the team with 85 total tackles en route to multiple freshman all-american honors in the postseason. In terms of how he could possibly top expectations from this past fall, South Carolina head football coach Shane Beamer said at his press conference last Thursday that Nick needed to just focus on progressing in the mental aspect of the game.

“Nick’s just gotta continue to progress as a player," Beamer stated. "He obviously did some really good things as a freshman that I don’t think anybody anticipated, so for him it’s continuing to take the next step, getting more and more comfortable back there, mentally being able to do more and more with what we’re doing from a defensive standpoint schematically, the knowledge of the defense, making calls, getting guys lined up."

There's a big reason why Emmanwori's advancement in terms of understanding Clayton White's defense would be of great help for his side of the ball, as the Gamecocks' defense lost 8 defenders who started seven games or more last fall, which means even though he's only a rising sophomore, Nick will now inherently be viewed as a leader for his unit.

"We’ve got a lot of new faces on defense, so if you look at the returning production, Nick’s right up there in regards to experience from all the games started," Shane explained. "So you don’t want to necessarily say he’s one of the leaders of this team, but in a lot of ways he is just because of what he did last season, and he’s played a lot of football for us.”

Nick Emmanwori will have a golden opportunity to help South Carolina's defensive newcomers when Spring practice begins this coming Tuesday.

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