What changed in the second half for Gamecocks? Not playing ‘desperate’ enough
Just before halftime Saturday in Neyland Stadium, South Carolina wide receiver Bryan Edwards made a play by sheer desperation.
He got a bad release off the line and was well-covered. But he fought through that, got one big mitt up and snatched the ball out of the air on a play that should make SportsCenter with ease. His only lament was that he didn’t score, so the rest of the offense had to work a little bit more.
That drive, that force, that will to do the little things and win the small battles got his Gamecocks a lead, and then after halftime of the 41-21 loss, it all seemed to dissipate.
“We weren’t desperate to make the plays,” tailback Tavien Feaster said. “We kind of relaxed a little bit because we had the lead. But we got to be desperate to make the plays that are there and make the plays that aren’t there. We just got to come out with attitude we just gotta just gotta go get it.”
Center Donell Stanley felt a little of that letup too — something that wasn’t there as the Vols stormed to scoring chances on four of the first drives in the second half.
The Gamecocks were in a spot where they needed to be desperate, being favored in a game they all but needed in their quest to go bowling. Instead, the offense delivered three three-and-outs for negative-7 yards as the Gamecocks went down by 10 points.
What it means to be desperate: That’s about small things, and extra effort on those little things.
“Diving to make plays, yards after contact,” Feaster said. “Small things that can lead to bigger plays. It’s just everybody going out and giving 110%.”
Asked what went wrong on the ground, he said the team just shot itself in the foot.
His coach, Will Muschamp, took blame for not putting his players in the best situations. He rattled off the momentum issues, giving up big plays and not producing any such plays, plus not staying on the field.
And like an on-message Muschamp player, he looked ahead to a Tuesday on the practice field, the little building blocks for what his team didn’t seem to have when it was required.
“We practice hard,” Feaster said. “Each week, I think we have a great practices. We just got to finish, strain to finish and I think we’ll get the job done when we find deep down inside what we need.”
