Ryan Hilinski’s debut was almost storybook, but it’s only a beginning

It was a rare moment when the energy surrounding South Carolina quarterback Ryan Hilinski seemed to outpace his own.

He was coming down a line of fans across the north end zone, shaking hands. Usually, he’s a bundle of energy, throwing fist pumps and shouting support. But in the face of a crowd chanting his name, the replies were thank-yous and see-you-next-weeks, polite and friendly but perhaps a little more muted than he often is.

Usually he’s trying to bring people up, but in this moment, the fans were almost more buoyed than he was.

His day was near as perfect as one could write it. He hit his first 12 passes. When it looked as if he was only feasting on short throws, he hit a 60-yard bomb for a touchdown. The team scored 70-plus points and posted its most yards ever.

It wasn’t against Alabama, to be sure, but you only play whoever is in front of you.

“I thought Ryan played extremely well in the game,” Muschamp said. “He started 12 for 12 in the game. Very accurate with the football, quick with his decisions, decisively where he was taking the football. We played well around him, obviously. There’s no pressure all day,

“But he played well, first start.”

Instead, next week is against Alabama, which leaves the meaning of Saturday’s performance in a sort of no-man’s land for seven days, and more likely 14 or 21.

It was a good showing, no doubt, but it’s only a step. Hilinski, probably more unfairly than fairly, has been loaded with promise and expectations from the outside world.

People were mad at Jake Bentley. They wanted Hilinski sight unseen, and the sight they got Saturday was pretty good, but in the context where pretty good is expected. (Muschamp directly said as much).

Now Hilinski heads into the week after the promising start, a path many a QB has trod. And after next week, unless he’s extremely special and then some, he’ll have another performance most likely low on context. Alabama makes some greats look extremely ragged.

It’s big to remember: This is the beginning, and it’s a beginning. Bentley’s first afternoon was a big day against UMass. Brandon McIlwain’s and Lorenzo Nunez’s first starts felt like they had promise. Syvelle Newton threw for 324 yards. Steve Taneyhill threw 14 times total.

This is probably different from all those, as no two are truly the same. Muschamp even admitted Hilinski might be built a little differently, forced to grow up faster because of the tragedy that befell his family with his brother’s suicide.

But in the afterglow, it’s worth holding fast to the fact Ryan’s Hilinski’s USC story wasn’t written Saturday and won’t be written next Saturday. If Bentley’s path is any indication, Hilinski’s story won’t fully be written and judged for years down the line.

Yet for the first go, he left a sweltering Williams-Brice Stadium awash in adulation with fans and teammates singing his praises.

“He was going through his reads,” receiver Bryan Edwards said. “He wasn’t staring one guy down or anything like that, just doing what he was coached to do and going out there and executing.”

Corner Jaycee Horn added: “He has great arm talent. He can throw it from any angle, and it gets there as y’all have seen today. Just happy for him.”