Will Muschamp's Takeaways From Scrimmage Two
Will Muschamp was once again pleased with the effort his team gave during their second scrimmage of fall camp.
His exact words were “our guys competed their a-- off.”
The Gamecocks took about 140 live snaps with about 20 of them going to special teams, including live kickoffs.
The scrimmage took place at 7:30 p.m. and the team treated it like an actual game and included the entire pregame routine on down to the pregame meal at 3:30.
Here are some observations made by Muschamp shared in Sunday's press conference.
OFFENSE
-The offense had 160 scrimmage snaps and one fumble on the day, which obviously is seen as one too many still.
-The Gamecocks fared better in the red zone, but this week struggled on first downs.
“We were better in the red zone, we were better in some end of game situations than we’ve been,” Muschamp said. “But too many negative plays on 1st and 10. I believe five different times we started 1st and 15 because of a procedure issue.”
-In terms of the quarterback battle, Collin Hill was the player of the day Saturday, after Ryan Hilinski earned the distinction last week.
-Running back Zaquandre White has been dealing with some slight leg injuries and is expected to be back to practice Tuesday.
-A few sacks happened and Muschamp said there is slight concern with the protection from the offensive line that they’re looking to correct.
DEFENSE
-One of the main goals for the Gamecock defense is forcing more turnovers. Muschamp said they still have work to do in that area.
“Defensively things that strikes you as no turnovers we had one ball in the ground with two young d-lineman loaf and not running to the ball,” he said. “They could have had the opportunity to have a recovered fumble. Another great teaching for them to understand you bust your to a-- to the football all the time. We had two balls tipped in the air, had opportunities on both of them to get them and we didn't get them so we gotta make sure we take care of those opportunities. In the first two scrimmages we've tackled extremely well.”
SPECIAL TEAMS
-Muschamp said the special teams unit is progressing.
“We covered about 10 punts live. I thought Kai [Kroeger] punted the ball extremely well. We did miss a pooch opportunity, which he’s gotta understand that. He put it about eight deep and we need to be able to pin our opponent inside the ten-yard line and we missed that opportunity. But I thought our protection was good and our coverage can be better.”
The Gamecocks will be treating this week as a game week as well with a third scrimmage taking place Saturday at noon.