No Jalon Kilgore, DQ Smith and more? Here’s how USC is replacing production

When South Carolina took a break from spring practices last week to make room for its 2026 Pro Day, the day of drills and measurements was a bittersweet reminder for Gamecock defensive coordinator Clayton White.

White watched a handful of his biggest producers on defense last season — including Jalon Kilgore, Brandon Cisse, DQ Smith, Nick Barrett and Bryan Thomas Jr. — participate in Pro Day, ending their time with the Gamecocks and propelling them towards the beginnings of their professional careers.

No doubt White is happy for his players and hopeful they fulfill their NFL dreams. But it’s not easy knowing he and USC will take the field without them this season, he told the media at a March 16 press conference.

“Those guys are hard to compare to,” White said. “When you go to a store and there’s different shelves, they’re on a different shelf.”

Overall, USC isn’t dealing with very much roster turnover. On Monday, ESPN released its annual rankings for returning production, which is calculated using the amount of snaps and counting stats from last season that players on the upcoming season’s roster accounted for. South Carolina ranked fifth in the nation, but the overall ranking is boosted by a No. 2 returning offense compared to the 30th ranked defense.

The 61% of production returned on defense for USC is a lot better than nothing, but that other 40% came from some key players. How do the Gamecocks plan on replacing their defensive leaders from a year ago?

Consistency matters

Perhaps no USC coach this spring is being tasked with replacing more production than defensive ends and outside linebackers coach Deion Barnes. A 10-year assistant at Penn State, Barnes is new to Columbia himself. He won’t be able to spend much time getting himself acclimated as he looks to replace Thomas’ production on the edge.

Thomas played all four seasons at USC and capped his career with his best year yet. He led the team with seven sacks and was voted to the All-SEC coaches third team. He was voted the team’s co-MVP at the end of the season.

Barnes will also spend at least some of the spring without star edge rusher Dylan Stewart, who’s been limited in practice with a lingering injury from last season. The new USC assistant said finding players to fill these holes will have more to do with consistency than raw talent.

“It all goes into consistency. Those guys that ... it’s going to pop out on tape, how consistent they can be,” Barnes said. “It’s hard to replace snaps, but at the same time, when you get consistent, you do things right over and over again, that’s the guys that’s going to be able to help us on the football field Saturdays.”

Off the field qualities

USC defensive line coach Travian Robertson, who returns to the team after a year away due to injuries sustained from a car accident last August, said off the field qualities are just as important to replace as on-field production. He said in the SEC, where everyone can attract the best physical talent, leadership qualities are what set players apart.

“Everybody’s chasing the same size, everybody’s chasing the same speed and same twitchiness. So for me, I wanted someone who loves the game. I wanted someone that came in to be a leader. When you have a season you have, and you’re trying to come back and do a better season, you need leadership. So we wanted guys with experience and understood that we wanted to win. We hand-picked our D-Line that we got.”

White, who also coaches the USC secondary, probably has the biggest leadership gaps to replace with the loss of Smith and Kilgore, but he has high hopes for rising Gamecock veterans like Peyton Williams.

“DQ, definitely one of my favorites of all time ... the coaches have been here with him all four years,” White said. “Peyton is definitely the new voice back there. Peyton is not as vocal as DQ, but he’s smart just like DQ. I feel like Peyton will have to raise his voice a little bit more, which I kind of put him in those situations, and make sure that he does. Anytime that a player behind him makes a mistake or doesn’t make the right check. I look at Peyton saying ‘That’s on you.’”

This story was originally published March 28, 2026 at 8:00 AM with the headline "No Jalon Kilgore, DQ Smith and more? Here’s how USC is replacing production."