Ryan Hilinski’s outlook after last season: ‘It won’t happen again’
South Carolina starting quarterback Ryan Hilinski was not scheduled for his first media interview as a newly minted sophomore until Tuesday afternoon.
But then Monday morning, the 6-foot-4 passer walked into South Carolina’s indoor facility ready to start a next step in his career.
Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp keeps his freshmen from speaking publicly, so Monday’s moment was a first for the QB.
Hilinski is a young person who usually has something positive to say. As he looked back on a wild season when he was thrust into a starting job, he was both frank and upbeat.
“I gotta play better,” Hilinski said. “Absolutely I have to play better. I had a couple of moments that I felt that were good. A couple opportunities that I said hey, ‘I’ll go out there and throw some touchdowns.’ But other than that, I got to play better and I put that on myself.”
He made a promise about how things would change following a 4-8 season.
“It won’t happen again,” Hilinski said. “I got left with a bad taste in my mouth last season. I’ve never had a four-win season in my career, and I just, personally, I will never, never let it happen again. And I can tell you that all these team players that we have right now, all the players on our team are confident in our season going forward.”
Hilinski’s year featured some ups and downs. He won his first game, threw for 300 yards in the loss to Alabama and played a big part in South Carolina’s upset of Georgia. But he also battled injuries and struggled with his passing and taking hits in multiple games down the stretch.
He admitted there were some low points, a few moments in the grind of the season, but said he always bounced back.
He also said he doesn’t look at himself as a starter at this point, but rather that he and his fellow QBs — Luke Doty, Jay Urich and eventually Collin Hill — are just out there competing.
And now, after the full headlining rush of the 2019 season, he’s been able to slow down a little. He’ll have spring ball to adapt and put the skills he gained last year to use.
“Moving from the West Coast the East Coast, it was definitely a rush,” Hilinski said. “You could say that, but it feels good to just get my feet underneath me and just understand you know what coach [Mike] Bobo is trying to teach, with coach Muschamp and them are trying to instill into our guys. It feels pretty good to just have that composure to have that confidence going into it.”
This story was originally published March 2, 2020 at 11:58 AM.
