Missed reps hurt Hilinski at Mizzou, Muschamp says. His health is now ‘outstanding’
South Carolina freshman quarterback Ryan Hilinski’s health has been “outstanding” ahead of Saturday’s game against Kentucky.
That’s the word coach Will Muschamp used on his Carolina Calls radio show Thursday night.
For Gamecocks fans, that’s welcome news after Hilinski missed practices last week in the run-up to the game at Missouri with elbow soreness. Hilinski still wound up starting for USC in the 34-14 loss, but he had the worst game of his young career, completing just 13 of 30 attempts for 166 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
Hilinski’s struggles raised a few questions about his health moving forward, but Muschamp repeated throughout the week that he was fine and said Thursday that he took every rep in preparation for the Wildcats.
Muschamp also said he thought Hilinski’s poor performance against Mizzou was the result more of his missed practice time than his elbow.
“Last week, he didn’t throw Wednesday and Thursday. We knew he was going to play in the game, but we felt like we needed to shut him down,” Muschamp told Carolina Calls host and former South Carolina QB Todd Ellis. “He had some tendinitis in his elbow, so when you take a freshman and you’ve played the position and you know better than I do, as far as the progressions and the different reads you gotta go through, you gotta be so accurate, especially in tight coverage. They played a lot of man coverage.
“And to take two days off and not throw at all and not even really go through the mental progressions — he threw on Friday, we knew he was fine going into the game ... but that does affect you. It’s about the preparation through the week and it certainly affected him.”
Muschamp also reiterated that the rest of the Gamecocks didn’t play well enough to support Hilinski against the Tigers. Against the Wildcats, who have won five in a row in the series, Carolina must do a better job of establishing the run, Muschamp said.
With Hilinski healthy, the only injury Muschamp reported Thursday was to quarterback/wide receiver Dakereon Joyner, who will miss Saturday’s game with a pulled hamstring.
Kentucky is also playing a backup quarterback — after starter Terry Wilson was injured for the rest of the year in the second game of the season, Troy transfer Sawyer Smith stepped in under center. And like Hilinski, Smith has battled some injury issues of his own, dealing with a troublesome wrist and shoulder. But just like the Gamecocks’ QB, he has been a full-go in practice this week and is expected to play Saturday.
“He’s got a lot of experience, he has legs, he can extend plays. He’s been effective throwing it,” Muschamp said of Smith. “They don’t change, regardless of who’s at that position as far as they’re concerned. They’re going to run the ball 40-plus times in this game and throw it 20 to 25 times. That’s their formula, that’s who they are.”
Who: Kentucky at South Carolina
When: 7:30 pm Saturday, Sept. 28
Where: Williams-Brice Stadium, Columbia
TV: SEC Network
Line: South Carolina by 3
This story was originally published September 26, 2019 at 7:58 PM.
