When Clayton White first took over at South Carolina, he inherited a linebacker room with some pieces struggling for consistency.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was going to be up to him and the rest of the staff to not only coach up the guys in that room but inject it with the talent to compete at an SEC level.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Entering year three, and after a few key recruiting wins, White is pleased with the progress the Gamecocks have made in that department.\u00a0<\/p>\n
[LIMITED TIME: Fall Camp Sale: $1 for 1 month!]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first got here we were starting to figure out linebacker\u2026It was like, \u2018Who\u2019s going to be at linebacker?\u2019 Now to sit here today we have Stone, Pup, Debo, Bam. First of all, those are some great linebacker names. And (we have) Kaba,\u201d White told GamecockCentral.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe guys we have now are downhill, plug gaps, shoot gaps. Not great in coverage yet but they\u2019re tacklers and diagnose guys. I call them GPS linebackers. I like those guys. It\u2019s different. I\u2019m excited.\u201d<\/p>\n The Gamecocks used Brad Johnson and Sherrod Greene heavily the last two seasons, two veteran backers now out of eligibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n Johnson, White said, was a \u201csurvey, find it then go tackle\u201d guy while Greene was a \u201crun-and-hit guy.\u201d Both served their purpose as starters while White started to restock his room.<\/p>\n [VIP Tickets now available: Gamecock Central Kickoff Party 2023!]<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n First was adding Debo Williams out of the portal and JUCO prospect Bam Scott before the 2021 season then four-star Stone Blanton out of Mississippi.<\/p>\n Both Williams and Blanton were thrown into the fire last season, gaining experience White hopes will help them heading into 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n South Carolina lists Williams at 6-foot-1, 232 pounds heading into the season while Blanton is 6-foot-2, 224 pounds. That\u2019s 11 pounds lighter than Blanton\u2019s listed weight last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s night and day on everything they\u2019re doing in football. The most important thing is they\u2019re trying to take hold of the defense, take charge of the football team. That\u2019s a work in progress, but watching those guys work every day in how they\u2019re changing their bodies and mindset,\u201d White said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDebo is always ready. Stone is a guy who has changed some things with how he wants to move around and play and look and feel with his emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n [Get news from GamecockCentral via email]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The Gamecocks also work in Mo Kaba coming off an ACL injury. South Carolina will likely limit him to start preseason camp but White said once he\u2019s ready to go\u2013mentally and physically\u2013Kaba will play a good amount.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMo is going to have a role. Most importantly, it\u2019s that I don\u2019t want to be part of a rush back from a second ACL (injury),\u201d White said. \u201cI want him to be mentally ready. Whenever his time is correct, he\u2019s going to play early. He\u2019ll play early in camp. But we\u2019re trying to make sure we\u2019re doing the right thing for him too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n White is also excited for Pup Howard, the four-star linebacker the Gamecocks landed over every other school in the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n Howard\u2013at 6-foot-4, 241 pounds\u2013looks the part of an SEC linebacker. Now is just about getting him up to speed on college football.<\/p>\n [Subscribe to GamecockCentral\u2019s YouTube page]<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPup is a grown man who\u2019s still 18. He\u2019ll still crack corny jokes but he\u2019s still a dog on the field,\u201d White said. \u201cHe\u2019s going to play a lot of football for us and I can\u2019t wait.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Clayton White excited about revamped group of linebackers<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Clayton White first took over at South Carolina, he inherited a linebacker room with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Discuss South Carolina football on The Insiders Forum!<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n