USC spring game gives sneak peek at 2018 Gamecocks

South Carolina’s football players and coaches have talked a lot this spring about their new, faster offense.

On Saturday, the Gamecocks unveiled it, or at least a preview of it, for their fans in the annual spring game. The result was 614 combined yards in a 34-20 victory by the Black team against the Garnet team. A Williams-Brice Stadium crowd of 25,500 watched the game.

“Very pleased with how our guys have received (the offense),” South Carolina coach Will Muschamp said. “We have always had the mechanism offensively to play at a faster pace. I’ve been very pleased with the progress that we’ve made.”

Starting quarterback Jake Bentley finished 15-of-25 for 174 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Bentley opened the game with four consecutive completions as the first-team offense went 78 yards on six plays for a touchdown. On the third play of the game, Bentley found wide receiver Bryan Edwards for a 27-yard gain that Muschamp said was set up because the defense lined up incorrectlyin response to the offense’s tempo.

“Jake plays better, he plays faster,” Muschamp said. “I knew exactly where he was going with it. We didn’t get aligned correctly defensively. That’s what happens when you create some tempo. We dictated the tempo well.”

Bentley agreed that he plays better at a quicker pace.

“The biggest thing is you are just playing,” he said. “It goes back to backyard football. It’s just, ‘Go play.’ There’s no thinking involved, really. You know what your assignments are and you roll with it. The defense can’t draw some elaborate blitz up or coverage so it kind of simplifies what they can do. They may be out of position and you get a guy open.”

The Gamecocks averaged 5.07 yards per play.

“Big plays, touchdowns, yards, money to be made,” said Edwards, who led all receivers with seven catches for 117 yards and one touchdown

Edwards (19-yard catch), Ty’Son Williams (27-yard run), Jacob August (8-yard catch), A.J. Turner (49-yard catch) and Deshaun Fenwick (1-yard run) had touchdowns. Williams led all rushers with 63 yards on four carries.

Safety Steven Montac and linebacker Rosendo Louis, an early enrollee freshman, each had five tackles. Senior backup quarterback Michael Scarnecchia finished 9-of-20 for 146 yards and one touchdown.

“I feel good about (the offense),” Edwards said. “The faster we go, the more points we score. We ran it pretty good today. There is always room for improvement. We can always go faster.”

This story was originally published March 31, 2018 at 2:11 PM with the headline "USC spring game gives sneak peek at 2018 Gamecocks."