Five lessons from South Carolina-Texas A&M: Yes, the offense can get worse
South Carolina football was officially eliminated from bowl game eligibility on Saturday, dropping a 30-6 game to Texas A&M on the road to fall to 4-7 on the season.
Afterward, coach Will Muschamp struck a hopeful, defiant tone, saying he still hoped to lead the Gamecock program “where it hasn’t ever been before,” despite growing fan dissatisfaction with his job performance. Now, USC must play in-state rival Clemson with no shot at a bowl, only the third time since 2005 that Carolina will miss the postseason.
With all of that swirling around South Carolina, let’s take a look at what we learned on the field Saturday.
Yes, the offense can get worse
Offensive production has been a consistent area of concern this year, but Saturday’s performance was, by most metrics, the worst of the season. The Gamecocks gained 260 yards and six points, both the fewest in a game this year. The run game produced just 3.1 yards per rush for 45 total rushing yards, and the pass game completed just 41% of passes and had fewer than 150 yards through three quarters.
All told, it was tied for South Carolina’s lowest scoring output in an SEC game since the Gamecocks were shut out in 2006 by Georgia.
Without Bryan Edwards, Ryan Hilinski struggles mightily
Senior receiver Bryan Edwards was ruled out shortly before the game with a knee injury that bothered him against App State — Muschamp said afterward that his knee swelled up on Thursday after he practiced as normal.
Edwards is far and away USC’s top receiving threat, and he has been a steady, safe reliable option for freshman Ryan Hilinski. Without him, the passing game was led by Shi Smith, who did put up an impressive 41-yard catch at one point.
But for the most part, that pass game was just plain ineffective. Hilinski completed fewer than 40 percent of his passes and averaged under five yards per attempt for an efficiency rating of just 74.9. But you didn’t need to see the stats to know there were problems — on more than one occasion, there seemed to be miscommunications between Hilinski and his receivers that ended with him throwing the ball seemingly to nowhere.
Whatever run game wrinkles Muschamp threw in didn’t work
Simply put, whatever USC tried didn’t work. Carolina finished the game with 45 yards rushing on 17 attempts, an average of 2.6 yards per attempt. Even adjusted for the one sack Hilinski took, the numbers were grim.
And yet even those stats don’t account for the fact that for much of the game, punter Joseph Charlton was tied for the team lead in rushing thanks to a 10-yard scramble to avoid a blocked kick. Also, senior Rico Dowdle rushed for 13 yards on the first play of the game — and finished with 12 total on the day. USC’s true running backs had only 21 yards on 10 attempts.
Possession imbalance hits hard
On several occasions after Saturday’s game, Muschamp made the same point — Texas A&M isn’t known as an up-tempo offensive team, but the Aggies still ran 79 plays. All told, the Aggies won the time of possession battle 41:39 to 18:21, as South Carolina went 2-for-15 on third downs and had no drive that took more than two minutes before garbage time.
On multiple occasions this season, South Carolina’s defense has started strong but gradually been worn down when asked to stay on the field and keep playing. Saturday was simply more of the same, as the score was only 13-3 entering the fourth quarter, before the Aggies exploded against a fatigued Gamecock defense to turn things into a rout.
Some hope for the future on defense
Freshman defensive back Jammie Robinson and sophomore linebacker Ernest Jones highlighted strong defensive performances from South Carolina. Robinson finished with 15 tackles and a pass breakup, while Jones tallied 13 stops and forced a fumble. Looking ahead to next year, the defensive line will lose a lot of experience, and the back end of the unit will have to step into leadership roles, especially guys like Robinson and Jones.
