W
Wes Mitchell
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** As the days of preseason camp finally start to dwindle down and gameday vs. Tennessee is two weeks from Saturday, one thing that's becoming painfully obvious is that COVID positives and probably even more so contact tracing is going to be a major storyline this season that affects games.
The teams that handle it the best are going to win and make no mistake, there will be situations where players find out right before a game that they're out and teams will be forced to adjust.
After having four positives last week, South Carolina has two positives right now, but that means 11 players are out due to contact tracing. As Mike Bobo said, it affected the lineup from last week to this week in their scrimmages.
Taking into account what has happened at Tennessee as well, there's absolutely zero doubt that this is going to be a major factor in the season, whether any of us want it to be or not.
** The more info I pick up on the current status of the offense, the more it seems that the offensive line and tight ends are going to need to be the strengths of the offense.
Eric Wolford has, of course, made it very clear that he wants Jaz Turnetine to be more consistent if he's going to hold down the left tackle spot. But the competition there is just as much about the fact that South Carolina does have a lot of athletic options at tackle from what I've been told. I still think you're looking at Dylan Wonnum as the starter at LT and Jaylen Nichols at RT if Jaz isn't ready and, of course, Jaz at LT and Dylan at RT if Jaz is ready.
But from an all around standpoint, I hear the offensive line has looked good and as Bobo pointed out, they've been able to stay healthy for the most part which has been important for them to get a lot of reps. This is also an OL-friendly offensive scheme from what Wolford said this week. As we've said many times, that doesn't mean the offensive line will be dominant, because few in the SEC are, considering the talent they face on defensive fronts, but Carolina is going to need to lean on this group.
** Bobo stole my thunder on this a bit today when he was talking tight ends, but this is also a group that South Carolina is going to have to rely on to help carry the team.
There's a lot of talent in this bunch and, while they're going to need more consistency from the younger guys, there's a lot of ability with a lot of different skillsets in this group.
Nick Muse is the clear starter but Will Register is having the best camp of his career, KeShawn Toney is a two-way threat (blocker and pass-catcher) and Keveon Mullins is a passing game mismatch nightmare for defenses. Adam Prentice will also work in with this group.
I think all of those guys can help and then the true freshmen have a ton of talent too.
** I continue to lean towards Collin Hill in the QB battle but obviously it's an ongoing thing, so we'll see how it plays out.
** Bobo confirmed today what we've been hearing about the running back battle and put in our projected starters article, that Kevin Harris has been the most consistent player at that position, though it appears it's going to be a by-committed approach and they're going to need guys to continue to progress.
Deshaun Fenwick and Rashad Amos appear to be sort of battling it out for the second slot currently and ZaQuandre White will get to prove he can make some plays in Saturday's scrimmage if all goes to plan.
This is a position that will likely continue to shift as the season progresses and any order you could project right now would remain fluid.
Again, Amos has the ability to make things happen, make people miss, etc., so if he can continue to grow, he can get more snaps as the year goes on and we've been very high on White's ability on here, obviously, the injury has just held him back.
** On the defensive side of the ball, it appears that the starters are all but set when South Carolina is in its regular (4-3) package with no real surprises among that group if you've been paying attention to how things have been trending since the start of camp.
I'm always interested in seeing which guys have made a big jump from their previous season and it seems like, based on practice performance, that several guys would fall in that category when combining Travaris Robinson's public comments and what we hear privately.
JJ Enagbare has a chance to make a big jump at his new BUCK position and brings some pass-rush juice to the team. Brad Johnson has settled in at the SAM spot at his new weight and T Rob went as far as to say that he's a guy you want to make a concerted effort to keep on the field in choosing to play more regular instead of nickel.
RJ Roderick has always flashed as a player but has needed to be more consistent and has made an effort to do so and mentally put any bad plays behind him as opposed to letting them linger.
You can really feel the confidence these guys have in the defense as a whole starting to build and they have the belief that they're going to be a really good unit, which is certainly part of the battle.
** One of the last remaining questions with the starting defense remains what configuration Carolina will choose to use when it goes to its nickel look, which will always be determined by getting the best five guys on the field in the secondary.
If Jaycee Horn, Izzy Mukuamu, Jammie Robinson and RJ Roderick are your first four, then it seems that Cam Smith, Johnny Dixon and Shilo Sanders are the main three guys fighting out to be the next on the field.
Obviously, all three don't play the same exact position, but there's an available configuration that can get any of them on the field with those other four if it's deemed they're the next best.
I have continued to hear really good things about Cam Smith's progress at cornerback and my gut feeling is that it will end up being him, but clearly there are still two weeks for these guys to fight it out. If he's the guy, then you'd either play Jaycee at nickel or Izzy at safety with Jammie at nickel to get him on the field in that package.
Sanders is probably someone we frankly did not talk about enough in our projections this summer and he's worked his way into the mix as potentially being the third guy in line at safety. As T Rob pointed out, Sanders actually has not played a ton of football in his life, but always plays fast and the mental side of the game has started to catch up too. If he's the fifth best guy, then it's as easy as sliding Jammie to nickel and bringing Sanders in at safety.
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