While South Carolina's season opener is just one week away, competition is still ongoing for the starting kicker and punter positions, special teams coordinator Coleman Hutzler said Saturday.
Redshirt freshman walk-on Parker White has emerged as a contender and is battling with Alexander Woznick for the starting kicking job.
“I think it’s great. I think it brings out the best in both of them. They’ve done a good job,” Hutzler said. “It’s been good. I think competition any time is a good thing.”
White went to Wando High School in Mount Pleasant, where he was a two-time Special Teams Player of the Year. He walked onto the squad in January after not participating in football during his freshman year.
“It’s neat, man,” Hutzler said. “You hear great stories about walk-ons all the time across the country. To have a guy come in, you know, a South Carolina kid, a Carolina-made kid that comes in and steps into a role and takes advantage of it and competes and does a lot of things for you is exciting at any position. He’s done a good job.”
During spring and fall camp, head coach Will Muschamp recreated high-pressure situations for the kickers in effort to simulate the loud atmosphere of 80,000 fans at Williams-Brice Stadium.
“I could go back to one time that he did during the spring,” Woznick said. “He basically said ‘Hey, if you miss this, the whole team has to [run].’ I wasn’t having a good day in the beginning and ended up missing it. Hopefully, I’ll get more chances like that. He’ll put more pressure situations on as the fall goes on.”
As for the punter position, Michael Almond is still in a tight race with Joseph Charlton for the starting spot. Hutzler said both had good fall camps and went “shot for shot.”
Almond, a redshirt sophomore who walked onto the team in 2015, made his first career punt in the Birmingham Bowl against South Florida on Dec. 29. He said he was initially very nervous to make the start, but his performance proved otherwise. In two punts, he averaged 44 yards, with his longest traveling 48 yards. South Florida, which averaged over 9 return yards per punt in 2016, was held to two total yards against USC.
“I found out that Monday as soon as I got to the hotel,” Almond said of his Birmingham Bowl experience. “My initial reaction was I really nervous, but over the next few days it kind of wore off and you know, of course I got a little nervous when it was third down and that kind of stuff but I kind of got over it throughout the week.”
Hutzler said the Gamecocks will narrow down the starting positions at the beginning of the week as the season opener against NC State nears.