JACKSONVILLE—The Gamecocks completed their first week of football camp with a practice in full pads on their grass practice field Saturday morning.
 
"The week was good, but today was kind of up and down at times," summarized Coach Rich Rodriguez. "With 60 new players, I think they're still learning how we practice. There's a different level of intensity we have to have, but they'll learn."
 
Defensive Coordinator Luke Olson wrapped up his first week of fall camp on staff.
 
"I'm excited about the way the guys are flying around but we still have a lot of things to correct," said Olson of the defense.
 
Versitility seems to be a key theme among the defensive line and linebacker groups.
 
"Even from sping, we look different up front," said Olson. "We got some new bodies in that we're excited about and I think we can do some different things with them. I like our linebackers; we got most of those guys back from the spring and added one or two pieces and they've stepped in and picked it up pretty quick."
 
In the defensive backfield, Olson is getting a lot of new players acclimated to the Jax State way of doing things.
 
"We have a lot of new faces in the secondary and we've tried to keep it simple for them as we started and really make sure they're understanding the techniques of how we do things," said Olson.
 
As for next week, Rodriguez had a checklist of things that he hopes to see some improvments on.
 
"I hope our intensity isn't hit and miss like it was today," said Rodriguez. "I think our tackling has to get better, I think our perimeter blocking needs to get a whole lot better, and our quarterback play; I see improvements every day but I also see moments where we're making the same mistake. We're going to put some pressure on them because I think we could have really good play out of our quarterbacks."