When South Carolina’s spring was cut short, this unit was leading the way on offense
There are questions about quarterbacks for South Carolina football, with a starter cleaning up his footwork, an absent and injured transfer and a freshman.
When it comes to the receivers, coordinator Mike Bobo was already talking about needing more.
At running back, every scholarship back combined had fewer than four carries for each of last year’s 12 games, while the only experienced tight end was also sidelined after surgery.
But for a unit looking to retool after a disastrous 2019, one spot was a bright one.
“I think our best position group right now offensively is our offensive line.” Bobo said in the final interview any Gamecocks coach gave before the coronavirus outbreak ended spring practice. “Because we got the most competition there. ‘Cause those guys are competing everyday to stay, you know, with the first team and you’re going to have guys going out there know that you have to execute at a high level.”
The Gamecocks boast a good bit of experience with that group, which only loses one starter in center Donell Stanley. The group overall has eight players who have started at least one game with coach Eric Wolford.
That front has been a bit of question mark through Will Muschamp’s tenure and dating back all the way to the final year of the Steve Spurrier era.
The line made a jump up in the current staff’s second season, but there were some run game struggles in 2018 (though the team did drive down its total of negative plays) and 2019 saw a range of issues. The pass protection numbers did get better as the offense shifted to more run-pass option concepts.
Through the early part of spring, returning starter Jovaughn Gwyn had been starting at one guard spot, with former guard-turned-tackle Sadarius Hutcherson sliding inside to fill the other spot. Projected starting tackle Dylan Wonnum missed the spring after a hip procedure, which left junior college transfer Jazston Turnetine battling second-year players in Jakai Moore and Jaylen Nichols for those spots.
“There’s different guys going in there,” Bobo said. “They’re all 6-6 and huge so, I mean, Jazz has played some tackle, the junior college kid from Kansas. Moore, from Virginia. The left tackle, those two have been playing the left tackle. Nichols, from Charlotte at right tackle. It’s mainly been those three with the ones.”
If Turnetine, a former junior college All-American, was able to earn the spot, he’d follow in the footsteps of Dennis Daley, who broke into the lineup early in his first year and held down the left tackle spots for two season before getting drafted in the fifth round.
With those three players likely fighting over the spot across from Wonnum, the center spot vacated by Stanley becomes the highest-profile question mark in the group.
Bobo said the main players manning the spot were Hank Manos, who as a young player struggled in starts in the 2018 bowl game and 2019 season opener, and a bit of a surprise in utility lineman Eric Douglas, who could play anywhere along the front and was working with the starters early in spring.
Both Douglas and Manos started against North Carolina in September, part of a disastrous start for the front that saw a shakeup days after the game. Manos was a former high school wrestler and appeared to have some issues with strength in his two games. Douglas has been in the program for three full seasons and evolved into a jack of all trades. Both Vincent Murphy and freshman Trai Jones were also getting work at center.
Muschamp said the staff had also planned to try out Gwyn at center before spring practice was shut down for good.
That role will be shifting a bit in a new scheme, in part because of more work under center, but also in another key way,
“The center is a guy that’s got to be very, very smart,” Bobo said. “He’s got to understand what we’re doing. He sets the communication for the line of scrimmage in the run game and the pass game. And both of those guys have done a nice job. We’re probably asking them to do more communication than they’ve done in the past. We’re probably getting it done a little slower than I would like, right now, but we’ll figure it out.”
He said more practice would be the antidote, but for now, everything is on hold.
This story was originally published May 3, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
