… but Kirby’s channeling every ounce of his inner Vince Dooley when it comes to Deebo Samuel.
“He’s probably the most underrated player in all of college football,” Smart said of Samuel. “I dont think that everybody in the country knows what the SEC knows about Deebo Samuel.”
Samuel is expected to be a guy that will touch the football 15-20 times a game, Smart said. The Gamecocks will find different ways to get him the ball, whether its through screen passes, the kick return game or just catching passes at wide receiver.
“He’s an electric football player that’s extremely powerful, confident, hard to tackle and he’ll be a key guy for us,” Smart said.”You gotta get him on the ground when he gets the ball, because you’ll never know when it’s going to him.”
With regard to kickoffs, you can’t return what you can’t catch, so let’s hope Rodrigo’s leg can nullify Samuel’s legs. As far as catching the ball goes, you have to figure he’s gonna get his to some extent; it’s a matter of limiting the damage. At least Georgia has guys in the secondary that Deebo can’t outrun.
Get The Picture 
Safe to say that he is also going to get hit like he has never been hit before. We’ll see how all that stands up.
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I mosey’d over to the sahkerlina board last night and the chickens were talking about this. They actually feel like Kirby was disrespecting him, called it a “backhanded compliment” because Deebo in their estimation is widely regarded as one of the best players in the country.
They really are a sad bunch of hens.
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Well, Kirby’s not wrong about Deebo. Like you said, Hot Rod is the key to their returns, though we still need to cover even the deep kick offs. I can see Deebo running one out 4-5 yards deep.
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yep….just put it in the end zone, 1 less worry. So glad we are doing that directional kicking anymore.
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It wasn’t always an option, the first year Kirby was here Hot Rod couldn’t reach the end zone all the time. Kid added some major leg leg speed with improved technique last year to become the weapon he is today (and was last season). I am going to credit KS for dangling that scholarship carrot out there until he stepped it up. 🙂
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gonna be a tough matchup…for anybody.
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You can gameplan around one guy. Even the best player in football can be negated if he’s the only guy on the field you have to worry about. South Carolina has a weapon. We’ve got an arsenal.
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Unless that one guy is the Goal Line Stalker 😉
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Here’s hoping he gets a lot of opportunities to watch kickoffs sail over his head.
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Anybody else notice Rodrigo doing the “Mad Hungarian” thing on kickoffs Saturday? Whatever it was it worked.
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