Young Defensive Backs Ready For The Moment
South Carolina will need multiple players on both sides of the football to step up when they take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Friday afternoon. One unit, however, that will have little to no issue with putting new faces in the two-deep will be the Gamecocks' defensive secondary.
The secondary has already dealt with its fair share of hurdles this season. By week three, they had true freshmen Nick Emmanwori and DQ Smith inserted into the starting lineup.
Based on some of the comments made on Tuesday, alongside freshmen Anthony Rose, Kennan Nelson Jr., Peyton Williams, and Emory Floyd Jr., there seems to be a growing sense within the position group that the green defenders are ready for more responsibilities.
Smith, the freshman defensive back who started nine games in the regular season, believes the group's readiness comes from their collective willingness to seek out knowledge.
“All of us are willing to learn, we all listen," Smith stated after practice. "Coach Gray stays on us about our technique, whatever we’re doing on the field, watching film, everything... We learned from our veterans in Cam [Smith] and [Darius] Rush. So you know it’s definitely a challenge, but we can do this.”
Kajuan Banks, who could potentially see a significant uptick in playing time on Friday due to the departures of Darius Rush and Cam Smith, thinks that the cohesiveness of the freshmen group pays dividends when out on the field.
“I feel like we all got the same style of play, and we all click.”
O'Donnell Fortune, who's been in the program for three years now, conveyed the same message delivered by Smith and added how the group is already prepared physically to play on the field more often.
“They’re fast [and] physical. You can look at their bodies, they’ve already got DB bodies.”
When you combine this group of freshmen defensive backs with the group coming in for the 2023 season, defensive backs coach Torrian Gray will have an abundance of driven and talented defensive backs to work with over the coming seasons, and the Gamecocks could be getting a sneak peek into what that'll look like on Friday afternoon.
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