Gamecocks specialists a work in progress
August 24, 2022Gamecocks entering the preseason with 15 returning starters between its offense and defense. Position battles have been limited during the portions of practice open to reporters. More focus has been paid to transfer quarterback Spencer Rattler and the rest of the Gamecocks’ varying imports than much anything else to this point. There have been some injuries here and there, questions about the offensive line’s development, and queries as to how the defense can mitigate losing both starting defensive ends. The rest? Business as usual for the most part.
Here the specialists have been where the Gamecocks have had their most obvious and unexpected upheaval.
Special teams coordinator Pete Lembo said of his unsettled punting situation earlier last week “We have a lot of options from a planning standpoint, “And I kind of like that going into the first game. A little bit of mystery, a little bit of international intrigue is not a bad thing going into the first game.” Rewind to last year’s fall camp, Beamer’s first in charge in Columbia. The Gamecocks were as settled as could be on special teams. Parker White was entering his sixth year with the program. He was just a few months shy of breaking the school’s all-time scoring record, hitting 16 of 17 kicks and all 30 of his extra points on the year.Kai Kroeger, albeit just a sophomore at the time, was heading into his second season as a starter after earning SEC coaches’ All-
All Photos From 247/sports
Freshman honors. Fast forward to now and the Gamecock's special teams unit is as unsettled as any position group on the roster. The fight to replace White has been an ongoing battle between Mitch Jeter and Alex Herrera. Lembo said Thursday that Jeter jumped out to a quick lead in the contest, but Herrera closed the gap in recent days with a few clutch kicks.
Neither Jeter nor Herrera has had much if any, game experience as a place-kicker. The two have combined for all of zero field goal attempts and two extra-point tries both of which belong to Jeter. Lembo said South Carolina’s staff will continue to chart both players into the coming days, and that he’s not rushing to a decision. What that decision actually hinges on is also a bit more complex than just the guy with the most makes. “The statistics and the data are part of it,” Lembo explained. “And then the other part of it is when and where were those kicks made, and were they the ones that you could envision being made when we need them to win games in this league?”
The punter and the holder are in unforeseen issues into a previously settled situation. When Beamer disclosed Kroeger suffered a foot injury shortly before fall camp began. That’s led the Gamecocks to turn to Herrera Kroeger’s backup last year to handle punting duties, while William Joyce has largely held on extra point and field goal attempts in the viewing windows open to reporters. South Carolina has remained optimistic Kroeger’s injury won’t linger into the season.
Last Thursday though, he was on the sidelines in street clothes during practice without any noticeable brace or bandaging. Lembo wouldn’t put a timetable on Kroeger’s return, but the hope is sooner than later. “Certainly when you lose your starting punter a week before you start preseason practice, that’s concerning,” Beamer said following the team’s first scrimmage. “But those guys have really done a great job of stepping up and showing what they can do in Kai’s absence right now.” Effervescent as ever during his press conference on Thursday afternoon, Lembo ran through his offseason adventures including finishing a book on the sinking of the RMS Lusitania by a German U-boat shortly before World War I. The Gamecocks aren’t in anywhere near that kind of dire strait, but the specialist unit has suddenly started taking on a smidge of water. Who said fall camp wouldn’t be compelling?
