South Carolina Football: Ranking the top-10 defensive performances in Gamecock history
By Kevin Miller
South Carolina Football’s No. 9 Greatest Defensive Performance of All-Time:
Jasper Brinkley vs. Mississippi State
In a game at Mississippi State in which the South Carolina defense was only on the field for 52 plays, #52 was dominant. It was Jasper Brinkley’s first game in garnet and black, and the Georgia Military transfer was the best player on the field. Brinkley led the Gamecock defense to a shutout performance in which they held the Bulldogs to just 200 yards of total offense.
Brinkley made 12 tackles on the day, none bigger than on the first play of the game. Brinkley sacked State quarterback Mike Henig, crushing the Bulldog QB to set the tone for a physical game.
Jasper and his twin Casper were in the backfield all night as Henig was running for his life from the defensive brotherly duo. When one of the Brinkley boys wasn’t the man making the tackle, one or both of them were sure to be there to clean up the mess if the ball carrier wasn’t all the way down.
Later in the game, Brinkley had a big stop on 4th down in which he tackled big Anthony Dixon behind the line of scrimmage to get the ball back to his offense. In coverage, Brinkley also deflected a pass and forced a throwaway to complete one of the most well-rounded linebacker performances in program history.