Preparing For The Season: Offensive Overview
Will Muschamp has maintained his team will prepare as though the season will start on time.
During spring practices he and new offensive coordinator Mike Bobo outlined what they want to see from their team offensively and seem to have a clear idea of the identity they want to form.
As we come to the end of the summer, Gamecock Digest will break down areas of improvement and key players and factors that will help the Gamecocks to make those improvements.
In terms of offensive identity, Bobo said he wants South Carolina to be a balanced team.
“You know, the base philosophy is we want to be balanced, we want to run the ball, we want to play with a tight end and have a tight end side running game and a play action game,” he said. “But at the same time we got to get the guys that we identify as play makers. We got to get them the ball in their hands and that's one possession, quite frankly, you lose two running backs, you lose two receivers, number 89, Edwards right?”
“[Brian] Edwards was a heck of a player. So, we're going to have some young guys playing at those positions but I do believe you can have young guys come in and play at the running back position and the receiver position and be successful early on.”
Bobo offenses have traditionally been tailored to suit the NFL bound running backs on the roster, but he said during his introductory press conference that his time at Colorado State forced him to become more creative with how he uses his personnel and he’ll bring that same mindset to South Carolina
He added he has been working on a number of things with quarterback Ryan Hilinski to make sure he can carry that balanced plan out.
He noted that his primary focus with Hilinski is to help him become more fundamentally sound and he feels the Gamecocks’ run game could help him with that.
“I'm excited about [Hilinksi]. I see a guy that's got some talent. I see a guy that went through some growing pains, being a freshman,” Bobo said. “And we got to do things to help him and some of that is the run game and some of that is protection but had a chance to sit down with him on three occasions already and he's going to be here.”
Muschamp appeared on SportsTalk Radio earlier this summer and said he liked what he feels there’s a lot of depth on the offensive line. Muschamp added that there are quite a few players that can become key contributors.
“We felt very good about our offensive line through five practices,” he said. “Jazston Turnetine came in at left tackle position and was really playing extremely well and progressing. We moved [Sadarius Hutcherson] back inside to his more natural position at guard. And obviously the snaps that Jaylen Nichols and Jakai Moore got as true freshmen, certainly they’re going to benefit from that moving forward.”