The efficiency, explosiveness dynamic and how it might impact Gamecocks QB battle
South Carolina offensive coordinator Mike Bobo described what he wanted as not a game manager, but something more.
It’s not just a quarterback who gets the ball to his play-makers, but in a sense it is. It’s someone who can rhythmically make the read that’s asked for, again and again and again down the field.
“It’s just doing the job over and over and being consistent in that,” Bobo said. “It’s not just making the great play but it’s making the routine play, consistently over and over.”
Contrast that with some of the things his boss, Will Muschamp has said, paying special attention to explosive plays, including mentioning some of the explosive plays Gamecocks QB Ryan Hilinski has produced through the course of spring practice.
It would be too simple to say Hilinski might lean toward the explosive side while Collin Hill, a veteran of the Bobo offense and graduate transfer, might bring more of that consistency, but it cuts to the core of an interesting question about the offense South Carolina will end up running in 2020.
An offense’s production can be split along two axes: explosiveness and efficiency. ESPN’s Bill Connelly has done a good deal of work on the matter, but to put it simply: Explosiveness is about how big of plays a team produces, and efficiency measures an offense’s ability to do what Bobo said, create chain-moving plays at a high rate, producing first downs and then points.
To be good, an offense needs to do both to a degree. An offense that’s explosive but inefficient will get a few big plays but not be consistent. An offense that’s efficient but not explosive will need to string together long drive after long drive, which is pretty difficult to do and still produce consistently.
Muschamp has long spoken in terms of explosive plays as a key indicator. His defenses, especially his first three, were excellent at preventing big plays even if opponents could string together drives. His best offense was only after in terms of efficiency, but top 35 in explosiveness.
Bobo’s best offenses at Colorado State have trended more toward efficiency, though some have also been pretty explosive, and his Georgia offenses trended the same way.
That’s not to say the scheme doesn’t create deep looks, as Muschamp explained.
“Mike does a really good job of creating one-on-one matchups down the field and Ryan made nice throws,” Muschamp said. “At the end of the day you’ve got to have guys from the receiver position, which we have had, that have made nice plays on 50-50 balls been able to go and win the battles of the 50-50 balls. So that’s where a lot of those have showed up.”
In Muschamp’s tenure, players like Bryan Edwards and Deebo Samuel have been good on those 50-50 balls, while Bobo’s Colorado State teams had a parade of talented and often tall wide receivers.
South Carolina is in good position to improve after the offense was notably below average in terms of both explosiveness and efficiency. Perhaps whoever wins the quarterback battle won’t factor in on that front, but Bobo seems to have a clear sense for what he’s looking for from the offense. He wants his QBs to make the right plays, whether that’s throwing to the right guy or checking to the right run, rather than looking to just make the big play.
“The job for the offense when they get on the field is to get first out first downs and first downs lead to points,” Bobo said. “And obviously taking care of the ball.”
This story was originally published September 7, 2020 at 12:31 PM.
