What South Carolina is looking for this weekend in preseason’s first scrimmage
The real, live action for South Carolina’s football team won’t come for nearly another month. But Saturday will be a step closer.
Outside observers no doubt will look for the minutiae of who looked good and what it might say about which position battle. But the head coach? He wants to look at the broader scope, what he might call the operation.
“I think as much as anything just procedurally, offensively functioning without issues, self-inflicted wounds, offsides, substitution issues, getting the call, getting the correct call in the huddle. If we’re all off the line of scrimmage, on the line of scrimmage, the communication details that you need to have offensively and playing a clean game.
“Defensively, I would say a lot of the same.”
Saturday’s work won’t be 100% scrimmage, but it will be the first time for some young players in Williams-Brice Stadium. The plan is for offensive coordinator Mike Bobo to be in the press box, with coaches off the field and players having to fend for themselves in the game-like tempo.
There will be some tackling, but also some “thud tempo” (not bringing offensive players to the ground).
Muschamp said if those things come together, the offense might make an explosive play or the defense might make a dynamic stop. But if it comes in the context of doing the small things right, the staff would be pleased.
The scrimmages offer a key opportunity for quarterbacks as it’s the closest thing to live game reps that they’ll get. Incumbent starter Ryan Hilinski and graduate transfer Collin Hill are battling it out for the starting job, and on Saturday they’ll perform with less of a safety net.
“Saturday would be good to get (coaches) off the field and let them go out and administer the offense and run the offense,” Muschamp said. “And we’ll go from there.”
Hill brought a wealth of knowledge about Bobo’s offense from Colorado State, while Hilinski was a decorated recruit forced into action by injury last season.
One other aspect at play is the looming specter of what the COVID-19 pandemic might require. There’s the expectation the virus might affect depth charts once the season arrives, meaning even the players who lose their position battles have to get in position to play.
“We need a lot of guys to get looks,” Muschamp said. “We’ve got to have some depth as we enter the season and a little bit in the unknown here of what we’re going through. We’ve got have as much depth as we can create.”
The Gamecocks will take the field in Williams-Brice trying to mimic a gameday atmosphere, even in a building that’s empty and at best will be about 25% full this season because of coronavirus safety measures. After speaking to the media Wednesday, Muschamp said he was set to meet with his staff to discuss the differences in sideline and gameday operation that will come with the pandemic.
But outside that, the hope is to build some facsimile of a normal afternoon on that field.
“Any time we step in the stadium at Williams-Brice, we’re going to make it as game day as we can,” Muschamp said. “So we’ll have game uniforms that we’ll be wearing for this fall. The defense will be in one uniform, the offense will be in another. Then the next time we go in the stadium will be the same operation.”
