The biggest challenge in assessing Ryan Hilinski‘s first season with South Carolina
A season before Ryan Hilinski joined South Carolina‘s football program, he said he relished adversity on the field. His high school team was hammered by injuries, but he saw the opportunity to learn from facing tough situations and lead players who might have a little less experience.
His first year in Columbia saw him get thrown into the fire is a true freshman starter, and again saw injuries surround him. He’s attacked the season with energy despite getting knocked around.
But the attrition of his receivers has made it somewhat difficult to assess him.
“That’s very fair to say,” Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp said. “The inconsistencies around him have created more issues for a very young player at the most important position on the field. And I think that’s a very fair assessment of a hard to evaluate thing. I think Ryan has done some really good things for us. We’ve got to play better around him.”
Ten of his top 11 pass catchers have missed some time, most of them at least one full game (not counting a likely starting tight end lost for the season). He spent nearly half the season with true freshmen at right tackle.
For the year, he has 2,252 yards, 11 TDs and four interceptions. He also dealt with injuries himself, first some elbow tendinitis and then a knee injury against Georgia that could’ve been much worse than it ended up being (he has played since).
He has an off week ahead before his first taste of the Clemson rivalry. His season has been up and down, injuries, inconsistent cast around him, good games against Alabama and Georgia, bad ones against Texas A&M and Missouri. And through it all, he’s seemed to retain that energy and outlook he had a year prior when facing on-field challenges.
“He’ll be the first person to tell you that he’d like to have made some better decisions and been more accurate with the football and some different things as well,” Muschamp said. “So we’ve got to continue to work and practice and that’s what’s gonna be good this week. To narrow things down that we feel good about.”
This story was originally published November 21, 2019 at 9:15 AM.
