What new faces could mean to South Carolina’s quarterback room
A player who could well factor into South Carolina’s quarterback battle won’t take the field this spring.
This was known when Collin Hill signed as a graduate transfer out of Colorado State. His new coach, Will Mushcamp, confirmed it last week as the team went through the second signing day.
“They think he’s ahead of where he should be right now as far as his strength is concerned, as far as his quad is concerned,” Muschamp said. “And that’s the biggest thing is the strength levels. And they think he’s ahead of where he’s supposed to be.”
That still puts him on track to start taking snaps in May, a few months ahead of fall camp and his first practice since a torn ACL ended his 2019 season.
But he’ll be around practices, in film sessions and that could help boost returning starter Ryan Hilinski, incoming freshman Luke Doty and everyone else trying to pick up a new offense. Hill has been in Mike Bobo’s scheme for four seasons since going across the country from Dorman High School. Despite being a newcomer, he knows what Bobo looks for better than anyone else there.
“I think that as much as anything there’s going to be some new terminology that Collin’s familiar with and maybe Ryan and Luke, and Jay (Urich) are not at this point,” Muschamp said. “They will be. And those guys are working extra on their own every single day to come up here and learn. So when we do start with the coaches that they’ve got a pretty good grasp of what we’re trying to do.”
Muschamp went on to praise the group’s work ethic, intelligence and maturity when it came to the off-field prep work.
At this point in the offseason, the players get a pretty limited amount of time with their position coaches, but there’s no limit to how long they can pick Hill’s brain about their new offense.
Hill threw for 3,323 yards, 23 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in parts of three seasons in Fort Collins.
Hilinski is coming off throwing for 2,357 yards with 11 scores as a true freshman. He had some issues with efficiency as he played on an injured knee most of the season and saw injuries reduce his receiver group to playing multiple walk-ons by year’s end. Doty was a dynamic dual-threat passer in high school the past two seasons, putting up 1,876 passing yards, 25 touchdowns and running for 408 yards and four scores in 10 games (often not playing much past halftime).
Urich bounced between wide receiver and quarterback last season and his future likely remains in catching passes rather than throwing them. But him getting mentioned could point to an emergency role.
And beyond having Hill’s presence, Bobo’s offers a good bit as well. At Georgia, he oversaw the development of David Greene, D.J. Shockley, Matthew Stafford, Aaron Murray and Hutson Mason, three of whom started as freshmen.
“Mike’s also got a lot of experience in coaching young quarterbacks,” Muschamp said. “And, so he understands what a guy can handle, what he can’t handle, what we feel like we can do, and what we feel like we can’t do. And, I think that his experience certainly will help us with that.”
