Still no decision in South Carolina starting QB battle. The latest
South Carolina football offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said the team had planned to have its starting quarterback decision made as it turned toward a two-week preparation for the opener Sept. 26 against Tennessee.
But as the team hits that point, after three scrimmage Saturdays, the decision hasn’t been made yet.
Will Muschamp said Ryan Hilinski and Collin Hill are still battling it out, as they have been most of the summer. Hill joined the team as a grad transfer this offseason, while Hilinski started 11 games last year as a true freshman.
“We’re going to continue to work through that tonight into tomorrow, and then maybe look at Tuesday’s practice,” Muschamp said. ”We don’t officially start on Tennessee till Thursday.”
He spoke well of how both scrimmaged on Saturday, with five touchdowns in the first six possessions.
Hilinski had to play catch-up with a new offense, not having the benefit of a full spring or the normal offseason because of the COVID pandemic.
Last year, he 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.
Hill, who played his high school ball at Dorman in the Upstate, spent four years as a Colorado State 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.
Muschamp said there’s not one particular thing he’s looking for with his quarterbacks that would fully separate them.
“Mike wanted to go back and look at some things (Sunday night) that we’ve done through training camp,” Muschamp said. “As far as that’s concerned, we’ve already game-planned Tennessee. We’re going back to some things and as we work into this week and we’ll introduce Tennessee to our team.”
This story was originally published September 13, 2020 at 6:38 PM.
