Ellington to play both football, basketball next season Walking up to local media after Tuesday’s spring practice, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier was not happy.
“We had a sorry day for the offensive guys today,” Spurrier said. “They looked pretty pitiful, pretty sad. The quarterbacks looked lousy. The offensive line was pretty sad — they couldn’t block anybody. As Damario Jeffery said, the defensive ‘whooped up’ — they whooped the offense’s butt today in shorts today.”
While the offense was “sad,” it saw a member of last year’s 11-win squad return, as two-sport star Bruce Ellington participated in practice, just hours after men’s basketball coach Frank Martin was introduced.
Spurrier said Ellington will play both sports, which means he will miss most of the nonconference basketball games. Though he was unhappy with how the offense performed, Spurrier praised Ellington’s speed in practice.
“I certainly believe that’s what he wants to do,” Spurrier said. “He realizes he’s pretty good at football.”
In a conference call after his introductory press conference, Martin said he wanted to get to know Ellington better so he could guide him in his decision. The decision was solely up to Ellington, according to Martin.
Martin emphasized that he is excited to work with Spurrier, and after practice, Spurrier reciprocated the excitement.
“I think our basketball program is in excellent hands,” Spurrier said. “As he said, we’re going to pack Colonial (Life) Arena. I believe it, and I believe there’ll be 18,000 cheering for the Gamecocks. I was hoping he would come out and watch practice today — I wanted him to talk to the football team. I’ve got the feeling we’re going to need to watch the basketball team compete at the effort level this team’s going to play with. Some of our guys don’t know how to compete right now, but hopefully we can get there soon.”
While Spurrier was alluding to his “sad” offense not competing, defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward credited the defense’s fast play, as Spurrier had to take defensive linemen Jadeveon Clowney and Devin Taylor out so the offense could “get some balls off.”
Ward said Clowney and Taylor are hard to block, and he hopes their speed will make the offence better, a common factor in SEC defenses.
Taylor returned to the team for his senior season, which he said gives him an opportunity to lead by example. After the senior season of defensive end Melvin Ingram, who is a projected first-round pick, Taylor sees his senior season as an opportunity to break out like Ingram did.
“It was me and him both going back and forth every day trying to get each other better,” Taylor said. “It was like one of those, ‘Well, if he can do that, then I can do that,’ kind of things.”
Taylor finished last season with 31 unassisted tackles, an interception, six sacks and two recovered fumbles. When he has to be pulled out of practice because he and Clowney cause too much havoc for the offense, he calls it a “feel good kind of thing.” He does not mind being pulled out if it means the offense has an opportunity to get better.
Taylor’s still looking for the defense to get better, even if it’s on days when the offense causes Spurrier to be frustrated.
“It’s just us trying to get better every day,” Taylor said. “It’s just one of those push each other and focus in on the next play. Like coach says, the whole point of practice is to get better every day.”