Went back and watched our game last year and compared our play to this year and it's night and day difference...
Also watched the gamecocks and unfortunately for them, they have regressed in certain aspects, but gained in others.
1st - and most obvious - their defense lost a LOT of talent last year. (5) guys drafted in first 4 rounds of the draft, including (2) DT's, DE, LB, and Safety - thats a lot for a mid-tier coach/program like Beamer's.
2nd - they are smaller (slightly), but much faster on offense - all those missed tackles where our small bodies bounced off their big bodies should not be a factor this year, but speed plugging holes will be. They love to run those A gap and B gap explosive runs. If we mis-align like last year, we give them easy TD's running the ball. We have to play more sound gap control with this group.
3rd - Sellers continues to be a running threat - he has 3rd step speed - so takes him a second to get up to speed, but if we don't get him down by his third step, it's going to be a long run. The fact that our team is thicker this year should help with this.
4th - Dylan Stewart (pass rush), and Harbor (WR) both have elite speed for their positions - but I do think we've adjusted quite a bit to this.
5th - They like to go for 4th downs a lot vs punting... teams that had better success shut those down. We must follow suit.
Also - they did not have any fear from us last year with Thomas, Allen, Barber trying to stretch the field or yards after catch. In 2025, that is vastly different with KC, Craver, etc - so not only will we be able to stretch a youthful defense, but it should open up run lanes against a weaker defense than we faced.
Overall - this is still a good team, with budding talent, and we cannot beat ourselves. We have to keep the game in front of us, dictate what we want to do like we have been, and not turn the ball over. Sellers has been out of sync with his skill positions of late so hopeful we can have success with both - shutting down the run and the pass a bit.
One big note from last year's game - we essentially gave them (3) turnovers - 2 on 4th down misses and one big Int at a key time. This year's team must be better.
Also watched the gamecocks and unfortunately for them, they have regressed in certain aspects, but gained in others.
1st - and most obvious - their defense lost a LOT of talent last year. (5) guys drafted in first 4 rounds of the draft, including (2) DT's, DE, LB, and Safety - thats a lot for a mid-tier coach/program like Beamer's.
2nd - they are smaller (slightly), but much faster on offense - all those missed tackles where our small bodies bounced off their big bodies should not be a factor this year, but speed plugging holes will be. They love to run those A gap and B gap explosive runs. If we mis-align like last year, we give them easy TD's running the ball. We have to play more sound gap control with this group.
3rd - Sellers continues to be a running threat - he has 3rd step speed - so takes him a second to get up to speed, but if we don't get him down by his third step, it's going to be a long run. The fact that our team is thicker this year should help with this.
4th - Dylan Stewart (pass rush), and Harbor (WR) both have elite speed for their positions - but I do think we've adjusted quite a bit to this.
5th - They like to go for 4th downs a lot vs punting... teams that had better success shut those down. We must follow suit.
Also - they did not have any fear from us last year with Thomas, Allen, Barber trying to stretch the field or yards after catch. In 2025, that is vastly different with KC, Craver, etc - so not only will we be able to stretch a youthful defense, but it should open up run lanes against a weaker defense than we faced.
Overall - this is still a good team, with budding talent, and we cannot beat ourselves. We have to keep the game in front of us, dictate what we want to do like we have been, and not turn the ball over. Sellers has been out of sync with his skill positions of late so hopeful we can have success with both - shutting down the run and the pass a bit.
One big note from last year's game - we essentially gave them (3) turnovers - 2 on 4th down misses and one big Int at a key time. This year's team must be better.