A few months following one of its worst seasons defensively in recent memory, South Carolina has finally made plans to improve its defense in anticipation of the 2015 season.
Gamecock head coach Steve Spurrier formally introduced Jon Hoke as one of South Carolina’s new co-defensive coordinators at a press conference on Monday, also noting that Lorenzo Ward, the Gamecocks’ defensive coordinator since 2009, will also work under the same title as Hoke .
The University of South Carolina Board of Trustees approved the hire of Hoke Monday morning.
Hoke, who served as Spurrier’s defensive coordinator at Florida from 1999 to 2001, will be in charge of South Carolina’s pass defense while Ward will spend the bulk of his time concentrating on the Gamecocks’ run defense, Spurrier said.
Spurrier mentioned that Hoke will be in charge of calling plays during games, but that he will continuously communicate with Ward on game days.
In order to make room for Hoke on the staff, South Carolina secondary coach Grady Brown will move to a defensive quality control position.
“I’m really happy and excited to return to college football and especially at the University of South Carolina with coach Spurrier again,” Hoke said. “I’m looking forward to working with coach Ward and the defensive staff and our plan is to return our defense to one of the best in the SEC.”
While South Carolina’s defenses ranked high nationally for several years under Ward, the Gamecocks took a big step back in 2014, ranking 92nd nationally in total yards allowed per game.
On three different occasions, the Gamecock defense allowed opponents to score 14 points or more in the fourth quarter while surrendering two-score leads during the 2014 season.
After the tough year on the defensive side of the ball, Spurrier said that he felt the urge to bring something new to the defense.
“As everyone knows, we had a difficult year on defense and we needed to instill a little something different and that’s my job as the head coach to do something different and I think we’ve added, hopefully, something that will really help us.”
Hoke, who hasn’t coached in the college ranks in over 14 years, has spent the past six seasons as the defensive backs coach for the Chicago Bears and held the same position with the Houston Texans beforehand.
His move to Columbia reunites him with Spurrier for the first time in well over a decade.
“The timing was such that Jon was able to come and we were together 13 years ago at the University of Florida,” Spurrier said. “The three seasons Jon was defensive coordinator we actually won two divisions [SEC East] and one SEC [SEC championship].”
Reports of Hoke’s hiring began to surface last week and Spurrier hinted at an addition to his staff during his Signing Day press conference on February 4.
Now with Hoke on board, Spurrier believes that his defense is in a better state, which will allow him to focus more on the Gamecock offense.
"Our defensive staff is in excellent shape, I can spend most all my time with the quarterback, wide receivers and offense like I've done in my whole coaching career and away we'll go," Spurrier said.