ESPN’s one burning question for Gamecocks football

South Carolina’s offense looks ready to roll in 2017. Its defense has at least shown the ability to not give up big plays.

But there are plenty of unknowns, and one large one looms, at least according to ESPN’s Edward Aschoff.

He wrote up burning questions for each team in the SEC East, and the one he settled for with the Gamecocks: pass rush.

“Will Muschamp knows defense,” Aschoff said. “But he has to figure out how to get his defense to get to opposing quarterbacks a lot better than it did in 2016. Last year, the Gamecocks had just 21 sacks in 13 games. One of the biggest problems is that the Gamecocks must replace their top sack artist from last season, Darius English (nine sacks). The only returning players who had at least two sacks last year were linebacker Bryson Allen-Williams and defensive lineman Keir Thomas. All eyes will be on senior Dante Sawyer, a former top recruit who has just 3.5 career sacks.”

The team also returned starting tackles Taylor Stallworth and Ulric Jones, plus D.J. Wonnum, a sophomore who figures to start at Buck.

The Gamecocks haven’t ranked higher than 94th in sacks per game the past three years. They were 66th in 2013, and had two top-10 seasons in three years from 2010-12.

This story was originally published July 6, 2017 at 1:33 PM with the headline "ESPN’s one burning question for Gamecocks football."