Final Defensive Position Grades: Furman

South Carolina's Football team started of slow in the first half, but figured things out, holding Furman to just seven points in the final 42 minutes of action.

On the offensive side of the football, Gamecock fans witnessed both present stars and future ones make spectacular plays against the Furman Paladins on Saturday night. Defensively, it wasn't quite the start that Clayton White and his staff would've liked, but his unit made the proper adjustments and held the Paladins to just seven points on their final eleven possessions of the game. How did each position group perform in South Carolina's first home game of the 2023 season?

Defensive Line: B

The line play took a decent step forward this week against Furman, racking up 1.5 sacks, and creating much more disruption at the line of scrimmage. Furman did a really good job of getting the ball out quickly early on to prevent South Carolina's defense from getting to Huff, or it could have possibly been more. I still would like to see them blow up a few more plays in the run game, with the unit only recording 3.5 tackles for loss in 39 plays defending the run.

Linebackers: C+

I found myself jumping back and forth from "He didn't fall for the bait; he stayed home and made the play" to "He bit hard and took himself off the play from that motion or play action." This is another group I'd like to see more consistency from, but after the slow start, they did much better. Note to keep in mind: they were getting too far up on tunnel screens and almost taking themselves out of the play, something Georgia liked to run under former offensive coordinator Todd Monken.

Secondary: B-

Outside of the big play on the second drive for Furman, this group continues to gain some much-needed experience. With a decent amount of the Paladins' yardage coming off of screens, you can't complain too much about their performance; just need to see some fight getting off those blocks from the opposing wideouts when the opponent runs plays to the perimeter.

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