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South Carolina opened its fall camp Friday and defensive coordinator Travaris Robinson is already impressed with his team’s physicality, which he believes will be a crucial factor in the Gamecocks’ success in 2016.
“The SEC is a line of scrimmage league,” Robinson said. “Some teams are spread, some teams are fast tempo. In the end of the day you have to run the ball and you have to stop the run. We are going to do those things for our guys to make sure we are getting prepared for that. We are going to do the 2-on-1 blocks, we are going to do the 1-on-1 blocks, we are going to do the 9-on-7 run. We are going to be a physical outfit, offensively and defensively. That is what we are going to hang our hat on,” noted Robinson. “(Coach Muschamp) talks about it all the time – be a blue-collar football team. That’s what that means. Our guys are going to be tough and they will understand that we play one style of football and that is toughness.”
Robinson followed Will Muschamp to South Carolina after coaching alongside him at Florida and Auburn as a defensive backs coach. The new Gamecocks staff is trying to ease its players into a new scheme at a steady pace.
“Every day we are installing,” said Coach Robinson. “That is the one thing that we talk to our guys about. If you don’t get the install today, well tomorrow we are not going to (install something else). We are going to install (the same thing) again. You have to go and do your job, prepare off the field and study at night and do all the different things you have to do to be a good football player. The one thing I know about a football player is if you know what to do, you have a chance to play fast. If you don’t know what to do, you don’t have a chance to play fast. Our guys are doing that, but we are throwing a lot on them, every single day. We are not going to back off these guys,” continued Robinson. “We are going to stay on them, increase and put in our defense and offense to be successful for our season.”
Robinson also told reporters that he want his secondary to use more press coverage in 2016.
“We’re a bump football team,” noted Robinson. “That’s something that we’re going to improve upon. We’re going to bump. We’re going to be, I imagine, somewhere 60 to 70 percent bump man-to-man, doing different things like that with the ability to play zone and different things to change up the looks.”
Jason covers SEC football for Saturday Down South.
