Clayton White Drawing Eyes

Defensive coordinator Clayton White continues to impress in his second season with the South Carolina Gamecocks.

Throw the Georgia game out. I promise that won't be the last time Georgia hangs forty points on an opponent this year. Excluding that performance, the South Carolina defense has quietly compiled some quality play this year.

Defensive coordinator Clayton White is at the forefront of these efforts. Granted, tackling has been poor through three weeks, but that can be attributed to injuries and a youthful lineup.

Those things will even out, but the defense has still played well. White has freshman starters playing at a high level, a rare development for someone in their second year as a coordinator.

The first three games might not reflect the outcome some fans want defensively. However, the process looks promising. They should steamroll Charlotte and South Carolina State, giving them chances to provide these young defenders live reps in stress-free situations.

South Carolina then enters their SEC schedule with some battle-tested defensive players, and their defense could win some games for them. They don't make critical mistakes like coverage busts or unnecessary penalties; they couldn't match the collective talent of Georgia or Arkansas.

Gamecocks Digest spoke to several defensive recruits in Columbia over the weekend. Each talked about White's vision and how he plans to implement new talent into this unit.

He may not have the personnel necessary to run his defense entirely, but he has this group playing hard. They rally to the ball and don't make big mistakes; there are some tackling concerns, but again, young players will make easy mistakes.

The offensive concerns far outweigh the defensive ones. This group's most significant need is reps together, which will come in time. They improved weekly and challenged Georgia on several critical downs early on.

White should have them playing better yearly, as they are recruiting at an extremely high level. They found several gems on the recruiting trail in 2022 that are already making an impact and are now after the big fish.

Again, box-score watching tells us they have been a liability this year. Even advanced analytics don't paint a pretty picture, but the eye test tells us they have something here. Players come to the microphone with confidence and poise because they believe in each other and White's game plan.

These next two contests will tell us much about this defense moving forward. It seems they can keep things competitive against high-scoring offenses, but only time will tell.

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