Why a freshman South Carolina tailback caught Muschamp‘s attention in first scrimmage
Rashad Amos wasn’t the South Carolina freshman tailback getting the most attention through much of this offseason.
But coming out of a Saturday‘s scrimmage, he showed a little something.
The Gamecocks are still figuring things out in the backfield after losing presumptive starter Marshawn Lloyd to a torn ACL. South Carolina has several older backs on the roster, but Amos made some plays in the team‘s first action in Williams-Brice Stadium.
“Rashad Amos had a couple of nice runs,” Muschamp said. “For a young guy, he can really see the inside zone well, in my opinion, the duo play. He makes nice cuts and gets north and south. He’s got to hang on to the football. It got loose a couple of times. We can’t tolerate that. He won’t play if he turns it over.”
Inside zone is a base running play in most every modern offense, while “duo” is more of a gap-blocking scheme that creates multiple double teams and looks very similar to outside zone.
The Gamecocks had long relied on inside zone going back to the Steve Spurrier era, but through the second half of last year shifted away from it in a lot of situations.
Amos represents an intriguing player in the South Carolina backfield. He was committed to Western Kentucky into his senior year, a late riser who put up high-caliber numbers at one of Georgia‘s talent-rich programs.
As a senior he ran for 1,324 yards, scoring 30 times and added 478 more yards through the air with six receiving touchdowns.
And he checked in at a sturdy 6-foot-2, 215 pounds with some speed.
How he fits in the constellation of South Carolina‘s running back room remains to be seen. Zaquandre White probably has the highest 2020 upside of the group, but he also arrived the latest on campus.
Deshaun Fenwick and Kevin Harris have both been around for a bit and showed promise. Muschamp had nice words about how both moved the pile in Saturday’s scrimmage.
That said, the reserve defense struggled, making it hard to take too much from that.
Still, Amos, the No. 1,085 player in his recruiting class, beings size, speed and some history of success. And with the threat of COVID-19 and what it can do to rosters, all four backs will at least have to be prepared.
“At the end of the day they’ve all got to be ready for the number to be called because you never know what’s gonna happen in any given situation,” Muschamp said.
