Lorenzo Ward spent one season coaching with the Oakland Raiders in 2006, so he is familiar to a certain extent how they do things in the National Football League.

How does a coach teach his defense to play more aggressively? By making practices crisp, ruthlessly efficient and fast-paced. In short, when players practice fast, they'll play fast in games.

Most NFL teams have adopted that philosophy, and Ward is 'all in' after visiting multiple NFL teams over the course of the summer and watching hours of practice videotape.

"When you watch those guys, every loose ball on the ground, they say we're going to pick it up and we're going to score with it," Ward said Friday night. "When the running back's running the football, we're going to take it from them. When they catch it, we're going to take it from them. We're going to create turnovers for our offense.

"You have to practice good habits if you're going to be good at them."

On several occasions in the first two practices of preseason camp, defensive players ripped the ball away from ball carriers, someone scooped it up and raced in unison with his teammates towards the other end of the field for a touchdown.

Following in the footsteps of Ellis Johnson, Ward has wasted little time conveying a clear message to his players - we're going to play defense hard, fast and aggressively.

"I hope we'll be a lot more exciting," Ward said. "Not that Coach Johnson's defense was dull and not exciting, but we want to play more up-tempo. We want to be more in attack-mode. When you do that, you train your guys in a mentality to be aggressive all the time."

Johnson rarely had the linebackers blitz because he preferred to generate pressure from the front four. Ward, though, intends to utilize the second level of the Gamecock defense to a greater extent in trying to penetrate the backfield and force mistakes from the opposing offense.

"When you put pressure on the quarterback and he doesn't have time to throw the football, the secondary doesn't have to be as good in coverage than when you rush four and they stand back and protect with seven guys," Ward said. "Then you have to cover for a long period of time. You help the secondary when you bring pressure."

As a way to motivate his players, Ward presented the Gamecock defensive players with a video he picked up during his summer travels showing how NFL teams practice on a daily basis.

"We have three meetings a day and in the third meeting (Friday), I showed the entire defense how they practiced in the league," Ward said. "We're going to practice the exact same way. When there is a loose ball on the ground, we're going to pick it up and score.

Senior Spur DeVonte Holloman finds Ward's approach to be refreshing.

"Everybody aspires to be at the next level," Holloman said. "So once you see it, you want to imitate it, because that's what they're doing. So, why not do it here? If you couldn't see, we're going after the ball."

Ward spent three days with the Jacksonville Jaguars defensive staff and came away so impressed that he recently told his players that he's going to coach them exactly the same way.

"He (the defensive coordinator) said he never coached anything on technique and fundamentals because that's what he paid the position coaches to do," Ward says. "But he coaches the effort, so that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to be an effort coach. We're going to get to the football, we're going to run to the football, and if we can get them lined up and get them to run to the football, then we've got half the battle there."

A byproduct of Ward's NFL-style approach is he doesn't spend the entire practice session with the same group of players. Instead, he roams the field moving from position to position, offering encouragement and providing pointers when he needs to.

"I love to coach, and being the coordinator, I'm still going to have some involvement in all three phases," Ward said. "I want all the guys to understand that. I want the defensive line to understand it all starts up front with them. The linebackers, I want them to know we're going to attack. They have more confidence when I spend time with all of them."

Ward, who also spent two days with Virginia Tech (another 4-2-5 team) defensive coordinator Bud Foster (Ward was a Hokies assistant from 1999-2005), recognizes another benefit of adopting a more aggressive approach - the opportunity for this year's defense to carve out its own identity in the wake of last year's unit placing third nationally in total defense behind Alabama and LSU and having four players drafted by the NFL, two in the first round.

"This team understands that last year is over," Ward said. "They're trying to develop their own identity. We have good leadership on this team. We had good summer workouts for the most part. I think we developed some leaders over the summer. They set the rules. D.J. (Swearinger) has done that for us. We have good senior leadership."

SATURDAY'S PRACTICE REPORT: USC held the second practice of preseason camp on Saturday night at the Proving Grounds. It was another spirited affair with plenty of 'conversation' between the offense and defense throughout the two-hour workout. However, the session was tarnished by a knee injury suffered by true freshman cornerback Rico McWilliams during the 7-on-7 pass skel drill.

McWilliams was covering a Gamecock receiver about 25 yards down the field when he fell to the ground and stayed there for several minutes until he was helped off the field by USC's training staff. Afterwards, athletics media relations director Steve Fink told a small group of reporters that McWilliams had suffered a left knee injury, but that the extent of the damage would not be known until Sunday at the earliest.

Three plays from the full team drill stand out: 1) Connor Shaw fired a perfectly thrown pass on the first snap to Ace Sanders, who made a sensational over-the-shoulder catch before stepping out of bounds; 2) Five snaps later, Dylan Thompson completed a pass to redshirt junior DeAngelo Smith, who appears to be enjoying the benefits of a solid summer improving his craft; and 3) Free safety D.J. Swearinger intercepted a Tanner McEvoy pass on the next-to-last snap. He returned the pick to the end zone and proceeded to celebrate joyfully with his defensive mates on the opposite field.

CLOWNEY'S CHOICE: Sophomore defensive end Jadeveon Clowney has often been asked this question by Ward and defensive line coach Brad Lawing during his first 13 months on campus: Do you want to be the No. 1 pick in the draft or just a first-rounder?

"He asked me, 'What's the difference?," Ward told Gamecock Central. "I said if you buy into the techniques and fundamentals Coach Lawing will teach you, you'll be the first player picked in the draft. If not, you'll continue to make plays off your athletic ability, but eventually you're going to run into some players that are good at their craft and your job isn't going to be as easy. That message hit home this spring. We're excited to see whether he keeps the same pace up that he was learning this spring."

Even though he was merely a part-time player in 2011, Clowney still compiled some impressive statistics, such as eight sacks and five forced fumbles. What kind of numbers will he put up being a full-time player? We're about to find out.

"Jadeveon played well for us in the short period of time that he played," Ward said Friday night. "He had eight sacks. If he can continue to grow fundamentally and with his technique, the sky is the limit for him."

NOTES:

-- Ward said freshmen Jordan Diggs "looked good" in the opening practice. "We have a good group of freshmen that we signed on defense," Ward said.

-- Backup center Kyle Harris suffered a sprained ankle on Friday night and wore a walking boot when he arrived at Saturday night's practice.

-- Ward said some of his objectives on defense included: 1) Developing the young defensive tackles; 2) Building depth at linebacker; 3) Determine backups for D.J. Swearinger (free) and Brison Williams (strong) at safety. "We have a long way to go, but hopefully we have the talent here to get it done," Ward said.

-- Ward explained why Williams holds an edge over Kadetrix Marcus and others at strong safety: "Brison understands what we're doing on defense. Brison didn't play very well in a game or two last season, but I think he played a little tentatively because he broke his arm. He's 100 confident in his arm now and he's shown that in his play."

-- Justice Cunningham on QB Connor Shaw: "Connor is a lot more confident. He knows this is his team and that we're going as far as he takes us. Everybody on the field knows he can get the job done, so they play a lot harder for him."

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D. McCallum