The final steps for South Carolina’s QB battle as first game week approaches
Sunday night seemed like a logical point for South Carolina’s quarterback battle to end.
The team was a day removed from its final scrimmage. It had about as full a body of work as can be expected from the top two competitors, Ryan Hilinski and Collin Hill.
But the coaches were still pondering it, at least publicly, when Will Muschamp spoke to reporters Sunday night.
When might the final choice be rendered?
“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.”
The coach said he and offensive coordinator Mike Bobo had spoken about it only briefly Sunday, as the offensive and defensive staffs worked mostly separately on Tennessee. The plan was to get back together Sunday night or Monday.
The Gamecocks have a lifting session and film Monday, then moved up a practice to Tuesday. They’ll take Wednesday off.
To hear Muschamp tell it, word could come down at any point, maybe Monday, or maybe after that Tuesday practice is reviewed. Maybe it stretches closer to that Thursday deadline when prep for the Sept. 26 opener begins in earnest.
That it’s pushing this long is notable for Hilinski, who had to play a degree of catch-up with the offense. He worked with many of the current Gamecocks last season, but he had to learn Bobo’s system, something Hill did for four seasons while the two were at Colorado State.
The competition seemed to get going in earnest when the players returned to campus in early June. Hilinski had been part of the team’s abbreviated spring practice, while Hill was still recovering from a torn ACL.
Several reports and rumblings from camp had Hill in strong position, but publicly the team consistently said the battle was right down the middle. The quarterbacks split USC’s player of the day awards in the first two scrimmages.
Hilinski was pressed into duty after Jake Bentley got hurt in the 2019 opener, starting 11 games and throwing for 2,300 yards, but needing to up his efficiency. Hill took starting jobs twice at Colorado State for Bobo but saw both seasons end early with torn ACLs. Hill also stepped in when a started faltered in 2018.
It’s also not to say both players won’t end up playing because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Muschamp said the staff took measures to keep the quarterbacks separated to a degree to avoid the whole room getting the virus at the same time.
Last season, word of the Gamecocks settling on a backup quarterback behind Bentley came out the Monday after the final scrimmage.
When exactly this battle that has gone three-plus months comes to an end, that’s still to be determined. And there’s not one last little aspect the staff is looking for in the coming 24 or 48 hours.
“I wouldn’t say there’s any one thing,” Muschamp, “other than the totality of the competition.”
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
