South Carolina focused on putting ‘best guy out there’ in ongoing kicker battle

There will probably be a time – or perhaps several times – throughout the season when the South Carolina will have to make a significant kick. It seems almost inevitable.

But the question for the Gamecocks is to know who will feed to kick when the game is at stake. This is something still unknown because they are now five training in the fall camp. And with the season at only 25 days, an answer will eventually arrive at whom their starting kicks will be.

The names involved are returneurs Mason love,, Peyton Silver And William Joyce. There is also Max KelleyA first year of Gallatin, Tennessee, who joined the team this summer as an ancient recruit three stars.

The only common factor that each of them shares? None has a game experience. So when this moment Probably come, it will be a situation of pressure for anyone winning the work that comes out of the camp.

“For me, the thing I focused on is that none of us here has played in a game,” said Kelley. “So, none of us has any gaming experience on each other. Come on the 31st of this month, it will be the first match for whom it starts. So, a little square for everyone.”

Kelley is in a way a disadvantage compared to other booters because he did not follow spring training earlier this year. He had to catch up with the “rapid” nature of university football, as he described. Its objective has only been on what it can control and not worry about external factors.

“One thing I really focused on is to try not to worry about what everyone does. Concentrate on myself and do not compare me because I am new here,” he said. “So it was an exhausting transition, but it was fun.”

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The three booters who were here in the spring had one step ahead of the competition, which special team coordinator Joe Decamillis said he would take into account during decision -making.

“I don’t think it could be a new start. I think it has the human total of everything they have done,” said Decamillis. “That’s why I say, I think Max is a bit of a drawback, but at the same time, he will come and rival the guys, just as he was.”

Each of the Kickers participated in a kick competition in the middle of the team’s spring match in April, almost simulating the atmosphere they will face in the season. Joyce and Love each kicked, while money did the right left and did not go.

“Going from the Missouri High School, where I don’t think I have played in front of more than 10,000 people, then come here to a dry school, and even during the spring match, playing in front of 30,000 people, it’s a huge difference,” said Love. “It does not change anything about my technique or my preparation in everything, but it was definitely a huge booster of trust.”

Joyce and Money have both been part of the program for several years and are very involved in the kicking battle. But love is considered the potential favorite not only for kicker but also for the bettor.

In the spring, head coach Raid Initially, mentioned the idea that love also draws a double duty and the outfit too. As the season approaches, it is something that South Carolina always explores as an option.

“I think we are going to put the best guy there, whatever it is,” said Decamillis. “Does that have problems for you? Of course. We want the guy who will have a chance to kick, and I think if Mason is this guy, then he’s going to be the guy.”

Love Redshirted in the first year in 2024 when he fell the longtime bettor Kai Kroeger. Although he considers himself a perfectionist and would be happy to kick and play, he will let the competition take place first and see what is happening.

“What I learned is that if I think so, if I think it too much and I think that if I miss a kick, I’m not going to be a starter, then I don’t have so much pleasure,” said Love. “I think that if I go right there and I don’t care what will happen if I miss it, if I don’t miss it, then it becomes more fun to go there and swing freely, instead of trying to be tight and more focused on everything.”