Dec. 18, 2014

The University of South Carolina football practiced Thursday afternoon at the Bluff Road “Proving Grounds.” The Gamecocks (6-6, 3-5 SEC) are preparing for the Saturday, December 27, Duck Commander Independence Bowl against the Miami Hurricanes (6-6, 3-5 ACC). Game time is set for 3:30 p.m. ET and the contest will be televised nationally on ABC.

Following practice, defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward knows the Gamecocks will have their hands full trying to stop Miami running back Duke Johnson. “It’s hard to do,” said Ward. “Anytime you’ve got a guy that’s the leading rusher in Miami history, he’s got to be a really, really good running back. They do a great job of running the stretch zone, they do a great job of cutting on the back side and he does a great job of cutting back. We’ve got our work cut out. Hopefully we’ll be up for it. He’s the second-leading receiver out of the backfield,” continued Ward. “Not only can he run the football, he does a great job of catching out of the backfield.”

Ward believes most of the Gamecocks’ problems on defense this season can be pinpointed to personnel. “You look at the numbers,” said Ward. “It has to be personnel. The scheme hasn’t changed. We tried to go a little 3-4 to create more pass rush, which didn’t happen, so towards the end of the season we went back to our 4-2-5 and stayed consistent with it. The bottom line is if you don’t affect the quarterback, you don’t have a chance to win a lot of ball games. We didn’t affect the quarterback. You’re not going to do it all the time by pressure. So it goes back to us recruiting. We’ve just got to make sure we recruit some players that can affect the quarterback.”

Coach Ward knew early on that this year’s defense would not be as good as the previous years’. “First game. When they put us in spread and we didn’t react. You realize that a team that spreads you out and throws the football, you can run zone pressure, but you’re running it just to run it because they’re going to get rid of the football before you get there. That part of the game, that we were thinking the 3-4 would be good for, has changed. If we would have been playing running teams, the 3-4 would have worked better because you could zone pressure teams. But with teams that spread you out, you’ve got to play four down linemen and try to match their personnel. We had no pass rush and a young secondary,” continued Ward. “That’s a bad combination.”

The Gamecocks will return to the practice fields on Friday at 3:30 p.m. All practices in Columbia are closed.