Everything offensive line coach Randy Clements said about South Carolina spring practice

South Carolina offensive line coach Randy Clements spoke on Monday during media availability, providing updates on spring practice.

Here’s everything he had to say.

When you come into a new place and you’re still trying to get familiar with the guys you have, is it kind of, you’re coaching a position-less line right now, or saying ‘We’ll figure it all out?’ How do you start dividing guys into slots?

“Well, that’s a good question. You want to get where you get guys moving the same way that you want them to coach, and you want to coach them and that’s different, especially guys in the portal, becuase they’re coming from all different systems. I mean, we were talking, let’s see, two days ago and Nolan Hay’s had seven O-Line coaches since he’s been to college, okay? So he’s seen it all, right? But, you know, you want to get them to do the things that, you know, the way you want them done. The movement patterns is really where you start. And then after that, you sort it out, what position, you try to cross-train guys right and left, so they won’t be pigeon-holed on one side or the other.”

I’m sure you weren’t expecting to see a ton of Twitter coaches coming after you about your offensive line drills and whatnot the other week. Can you just take us through how you figure out what works best to translate from the drills to the results on the field? How do you kind of figure out what you want to do as a coach?

“Well, yeah, I wasn’t expecting that. People told me I was trending or viral, and I had no idea. I didn’t even know what it could possibly be about. There’s a little story behind that, but that’s for another time. When you’re coaching these guys, this is my 24th year in college and I’ve been in various systems, but the run game has really been the same since I’ve been in college. And there’s certain things that I see show up over and over and over again in the run game as far as success and failure, and you just want to address that. And then you want to create a drill that will address that, and you never want to waste time in practice with a drill that’s not going to show up on the field in live action. So mine are a little bit unorthodox, and that’s what I ultimately got attacked for, but I don’t care.”

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Going back to what you said in the first questions, working on the movement skills, is that basically what you’re looking for in that particular drill that got all of that attention?

“Yeah, that’s change-of-direction pad-level drills, is all it is, you know. And then we do it over the, you know, you see that the ropes are about (a) half-inch off the ground, and that’s, we call that a clutter drill. We want our guys picking their whole foot up rather than playing off their toes. And if you play off your toes, it’s going to hang you up. You pick your whole foot up, it’s not going to bother you. And that’s part of the movement that I was talking about.”

I know it’s marginally so much to sort out, but you brought in a guy from the portal who played left tackle, and he’s hurt for a while. You brought back your starting left tackle from last year, or this program, he’s out for the year. What does that position look like right now for you? How do you address that in the spring and going into the season?

“Well, without getting into detail about injuries, you know, an injury is just an opportunity for somebody else. I mean, this opportunity for guys to get more reps there, create depth, great competition, and it’s football. Guys are, you know, they’re going to get hurt here and there and you have to plan for that and you have to foster that competition so that the next guy that’s called on, he’s ready.”

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I think from what we’ve seen in our limited viewings of practice, that Seth (Smith) has been one of those guys out at left tackle. How have you seen him come along these first 6-7 days?

“You know, Seth’s doing a great job. He’s coming from a smaller program, and there’s a little bit of a competition curve that he’s eating up right now, and, you know, that’s where we’re at with him, but he’s played ball. He’s got football savvy, he’s got athleticism. He’s done a good job in developing his strength, so it’s just him, like everybody else, is just work in progress, you know?”

Is there any advantage to being a new coach, getting a position group that has so many newcomers in, where I assume you’re probably coaching new things to a lot of new players?

“I guess, I mean, I’m just like they are. You know, I’m new to everything. So, they’re new, I’m new, it’s all a fresh start. I don’t have previous opinions or anything like that. Everybody was pretty much a blank slate coming in, and, I mean, that’s good things and is bad, I guess. But it’s the situation we’re in, and we’re making the best of it for sure.”

How have things been so far working with Coach (Jason) Smith and the rest of that offensive line?

“Yeah, J Smoove, that’s what we call him. He’s a fireball. He’s the most energetic 300-pound man you’ll probably ever be around. A lot of fun. Guys relate to him. He does my heavy lifting for me. It’d be a lot more challenging if I didn’t have him for sure.”

How much does Kendal (Briles) and, I guess, Shawn (Elliott) talk about the tight end as part of your line? How often do you guys work together?

“Well, we just addressed that this morning. That’s part of being a new….new in Coach Beamer’s system and everything. So, we’re trying to carve out more time to work with the tight ends and tackles, and kind of pod them up, centers and guards and stuff like that. So that’s something we haven’t done to this point, but we’re fixing to.”

Shed Sarratt is one of the handful of guys who’re back from last season. How have you seen him this spring?

“Yeah, Shed’s doing a great job. He’s improving daily. You know, he’s done a good job of taking ownership of things that he’s needed to work on and addressing those daily and calling himself out when he sees it not what it’s supposed to look like, so to speak. He’s doing a great job.”

With a guy like Josiah Thompson, who’s out for the year, I’m sure you’ve worked with offensive lines that have had guys who have had season-ending injuries before. What do you hope he takes from this year, as far as mental reps, what he can learn while he’s not going to be able to play?

“Well, Josiah is out. I always tell those guys who are hurt that they become coaches, and we always say the best way to know something is to be able to teach it. So if you can coach it and teach it, then you know it. So we’ll put him in that role as soon as they get a little further away from their recovery phase, other injuries, and more in that rehab phase. And then when they’re active more around us, we’ll definitely ramp that up a little bit.”

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