Collin Hill beats out Ryan Hilinski for South Carolina starting QB job
When Collin Hill came to Columbia as a graduate transfer, he said he wasn’t leaving Colorado State just to hold a clipboard for the Gamecocks.
He’s now in line to start the first game of the season after beating out sophomore Ryan Hilinski, who started 11 games in 2019. The school announced the news Thursday.
“Collin Hill will start the game against Tennessee,” Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp said through a video statement. “I thought both guys had outstanding training camps. We can win with both guys, bottom line.”
Muschamp said there will be chances for Hilinski to get into games this season. South Carolina starts its SEC-only schedule with a Sept. 26 home game against Tennessee.
“Ryan’s had a really good camp,” Muschamp said. “Obviously, there was an advantage for Collin playing for Coach (Mike) Bobo before. Schematically there are some things that helped him. But we can win with both guys. We’ve got confidence in both guys and, as I told them and our entire football team, we’re going into the unknown. We’ve got to have all hands on deck ready to play. Luke Doty has gotten more reps at the quarterback position, because what if we do lose Collin and Ryan to a COVID situation? We’ve got to have a bunch of guys ready to play in the game, but Collin will start for us.”
In a turn that would have seemed somewhat surprising early in the offseason, Hill took command of the QB race early in the summer. The veteran passer came to Columbia with a deep level of understanding of Mike Bobo’s offense, which couldn’t have hurt with a truncated offseason amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Hill, who played his high school ball at Dorman in the Upstate, spent four years as a Ram playing for Bobo. As a true freshman he started five games before an ACL injury ended his season in October. The next year, another ACL injury kept him out all season.
In 2018, Hill spent the start of the year behind K.J. Carta-Samuels, but after a poor start for the team, Hill started the final four games of the season, throwing for 1,387 yards across 10 total games. He entered 2019 as a starter and put up eight touchdowns and two interceptions in less than three games before another torn ACL put him on the shelf less than three games in.
Hill beat out Hilinski, a former Elite 11 passer and top-65 national recruit, who was pressed into action after Jake Bentley got hurt. Hilinski ended up throwing for 2,357 yards, 11 touchdowns and five interceptions, but was forced to throw more than 400 passes and only put up 5.8 yards per attempt.
When he first announced his transfer, Hill was asked about getting to this point as compared to settling for a job as a backup.
“I’m just gonna be completely honest, I think as a player you want to play,” Hill said. “I mean, that’s what you do everything for. That’s why you work so hard. So yeah, you want to be the starter. You want to be the guy.”
Now he is.
The Gamecocks spent this offseason installing a new scheme under Bobo, one the promises more downhill running and more pro-style looks after two years of Bryan McClendon’s RPO-heavy style.
“It was a very difficult decision,” Muschamp said. “You look at our three scrimmages, which are the three benchmarks really in the evaluation. Ryan was the player of the day in the first one; Collin was in the second. Both of them played extremely well in the third. It was very difficult, a hard decision, but that’s the decision that we made. As I’ve said before, we can win with both guys. We have great confidence in both guys, and both guys know that.”
Muschamp on Thursday also said there’s no resolution in either the running back battle between Kevin Harris, Deshaun Fenwick and Zaquandre White or the competition for the final open offensive tackle spot.
“Fortunately, we’ve got a couple extra days to work through that,” Muschamp said. “We’re still rotating some guys through — Jaylen Nichols, Vershon Lee, Jakai Moore and Jazston Turnetine. Dylan (Wonnum) can play both right and left (tackle); he feels comfortable at both. So we’ll make those decisions probably in the early part of next week.”
Gamecocks’ 2020 football schedule
Sept. 26: home vs. Tennessee, 7:30 pm (SEC Network)
Oct. 3: at Florida, noon (ESPN)
Oct. 10: at Vanderbilt
Oct. 17: home vs. Auburn
Oct. 24: at LSU
Oct. 31: OPEN
Nov. 7: home vs. Texas A&M, 7:30 pm (ESPN or SEC Network)
Nov. 14: at Ole Miss
Nov. 21: home vs. Missouri
Nov. 28: home vs. Georgia
Dec. 5: at Kentucky
This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 1:06 PM.
