South Carolina practice report: What Gamecocks’ new practice style looks like
South Carolina football held its seventh of 15 spring practices on Wednesday. Once again, it was clear the Gamecocks have made dramatic shifts to how practices are structured.
In the offseason, strength coaches Luke Day and Chip Morton made the suggestion to Gamecocks coach Shane Beamer that USC switch to a model where it focuses on individual drills early in the week before doing offense vs. defense work later in the week.
In the past, the Gamecocks would have full, all-encompassing practices Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday then spend the other days watching through film of the pratices and holding walk-throughs.
“All we’re doing is we’re just saying each week is a three-day block, and we’re going to do the same thing schematically, emphasis, over and over again,” Beamer said. “It’s literally just technique, fundamentals, scheme, but not against one another.”
In other words: With so many newcomers in the program, South Carolina is spending more time on emphasizing fundamentals, which gives more players reps to work on their technique.
During Wednesday’s practice, the change was clear. The defensive backs spent an entire period focusing on stripping the ball, jumping onto a padded mat while trying to jar the ball loose as they fell. In another period, they took rep after rep working through form tackling, going low to high on a medicine ball a coach rolled.
On the other field, the offensive line was able to spend numerous periods working on footwork and technique under the watchful eyes of O-line coach Randy Clements and assistant Jason Smith.
“It’s been good from a teaching standpoint,” Beamer said. “I think our coaches really like how we’re building things up. And from the players I’ve talked to, the returns have been positive.”
Here are some other observations from Wednesday’s practice:
- The players who were limited and off to the side with trainers were: RB Sam Dixon, WR Jayden Gibson, WR Malik Clark, edge George Wilson, edge Kobby Sakyi-Prah, LB Andrew Harris, DB Peyton Williams, DB Jackson Burger, DB Zahbari Sandy and DT Caleb Williams.
- QB LaNorris Sellers was throwing some magnificent back-shoulder fades to his tight ends.
- We did not see edge Dylan Stewart at pratice, but Beamer said Tuesday that the best way for Stewart to recover from the back injury that bothered him last season is “literally doing nothing.”
This story was originally published March 25, 2026 at 10:46 AM with the headline "South Carolina practice report: What Gamecocks’ new practice style looks like."
