Three Takeaways: The freshman OL convo, Resume talk, Kilgore’s emergence

South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer met with the media Tuesday to preview Georgia and then Gamecocks offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains and defensive coordinator Clayton White did the same on Wednesday.

As is always the case, Three Takeaways will look to provide some context to press conferences, and today we’re extending it to the coordinators.

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The freshman OL convo

South Carolina offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains had plenty to say about Tree Babalade and Tro Baugh — South Carolina’s two true freshman offensive linemen who debuted this past week against Furman.

For a Gamecocks offensive line that has lost two starters at tackle since the spring, and was left searching for answers after surrendering nine sacks in Week 1, the potential emergence of these two — as well as highly touted freshman Markee Anderson who will soon debut — could be a godsend.

Loggains talked about how both prospects are built the right way, that the Gamecocks are recruiting the right body types in terms of size, strength, and length, and that he likes the way both guys have competed in practice so far. Loggains tacked on plenty of praise to what Shane Beamer said earlier this week — while throwing in the usual caveat that they’ve also got a long way to go as true freshmen.

But when parsing Loggains’ quote, one part stands out in particular.

“When you play freshmen you’re gonna live with some mistakes. They’re gonna make mistakes,” Loggains said. “They don’t have the experience like older guys have but at some point it becomes about talent. You say, ‘Hey, these young talented players are gonna learn and get thrown into the fire.’”

Based on what we saw against Furman — when Carolina opted to start its older players and then subbed Baugh in for the third drive and Babalade for the fourth — they may not necessarily opt to go ahead and throw them both in the fire as starters against UGA.

But make no mistake it is trending for those guys to see their snaps continue to go up in the likely near future, potentially as early as this weekend.

Resumes matter

Loggains had just completed an over two-minute monologue about how special Xavier Legette‘s start to the 2023 season has been. So, in no way was he trying to take anything away from that — but he did seem to want to remind the media and fans that the Gamecocks still have a pretty dang talented other receiver as well in Juice Wells.

“Make no mistake about it, the last two weeks we’ve missed the presence of a really good player who’s working hard to get back into it. (No.) 17 has been the talk right now,” Loggains said. “But never forget about resumes. Never forget about what people have done. He’s impacted this program when they needed it the most last year. We need that competitive spirit from here on out.”

Wells, who emerged as South Carolina’s top receiver last season, should continue to get back to old form in the coming weeks. Add in Ahmarean Brown when he’s back healthy and Eddie Lewis who looked great this past week as well as Luke Doty and the freshmen… we may be talking about this receiving group as one of the best in school history by the end of the season.

What’s next for South Carolina at nickel?

Once South Carolina gets Nick Emmanwori back — which could be as early as this week — the staff is going to have a decision to make.

Jalon Kilgore looks like a stud, as Beamer called him earlier this week, and the Gamecocks will likely look to get Emmanwori, Kilgore and DQ Smith all on the field at the same time.

The obvious move would be to slide Smith to nickelback, where he played a ton of snaps last season, starting out UGA week, actually.

But it was interesting to hear Clayton White also point out that Emmanwori could play multiple spots too.

Could be a red herring, for sure, but it’s still worth noting.

On another related note, it seems like Emmanwori, one of the best athletes on the team, might be the best option to try and match up with tight end Brock Bowers this week, if the sophomore from Irmo is healthy.

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