Why the Gamecocks football team sends five QBs on road trips

The South Carolina football team has been taking the unusual step this season of taking five quarterbacks on the road for gameday.

The first two, Brandon McIlwain and Perry Orth, make sense, as both are playing. The next two are freshman Jake Bentley and walk-on Danny Gordon, one being the emergency quarterback. And then there’s Michael Scarnecchia, who Muschamp has said is out for the year with a shoulder injury.

So why all the arms?

“Signals,” Muschamp said. “We’ve got several guys that signal (in plays) on the sideline. We follow the rules here. We don’t have our quality control signaling and coaching on the sidelines like a lot of schools do. ... See, student-athletes are the only ones that are allowed to really sort of do those sort of things.”

Effort issue

The USC offensive line was a problem area against Mississippi State, something neither players nor coaches shied away from.

They pointed to different problems – some scheme things, technique or not being attentive enough about which lineman they were matched up with. But Park said one other factor might be at the core of it.

“I believe probably the biggest thing was just effort,” Park said. “As everybody could see, effort was probably the biggest thing.”

The fourth-year junior said the advantage was it’s arguably the most correctable of issues.

“We just need a kick in the pants,” Park said.

This story was originally published September 13, 2016 at 5:11 PM with the headline "Why the Gamecocks football team sends five QBs on road trips."