How Ryan Hilinski responded after Collin Hill won South Carolina’s QB battle
He spurned offers from some of the nation’s most elite programs to come to South Carolina, became an instant fan favorite and gutted through a challenging season when thrown into the fire — only to lose his starting job in a quarterback battle that lasted all preseason.
Sophomore Ryan Hilinski had plenty of cause to feel disappointed when the USC football staff announced Thursday that graduate transfer Collin Hill would start under center for the Gamecocks next Saturday against Tennessee. But taking Friday off to process all of that? That wasn’t going to happen.
“He didn’t take a day off from practice, and I wouldn’t expect him to take a day off from practice,” offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said. “Obviously everyone in that room wants to be the starter and there’s competition, but I think we foster good relationships in that room and everyone knows the ultimate goal is for South Carolina to win.”
In speaking with Hilinski after the decision came down, Bobo said he simply had to be “honest and truthful” about why he and coach Will Muschamp went with Hill.
“That’s life, you know? Things happen and they aren’t always what you’d like. It’s how you’re going to respond to that, and I feel like he’s responded the right way,” Bobo said.
From the start of his tenure as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Bobo said he has looked to clearly define expectations and balance competition with camaraderie. That communication has helped now.
“Quarterback, you gotta have a borderline cockiness about you, you got to have faith in yourself. But at the same time it can’t be about you. It’s got to be an unselfish position, it’s got to be about the team. The quarterback is truly the leader of the team, that’s his, that’s his nature — unselfish and want to do what’s best for the team. So we have talked a lot about leadership and being a good teammate and being a good leader,” Bobo said.
Since the QB decision came out, Bobo said he and Hilinski discussed where he’s improved as a QB since the new offensive coordinator took over in December and what he still needs to do to be more consistent.
Consistency has been Bobo’s watch word throughout preseason camp, and Hilinski’s improvement in that area could be crucial this season even in the backup role. With the novel coronavirus wreaking havoc on schedules and teams’ rosters, Bobo and Muschamp have said they’ve worked to get the second and third teams more reps in case players have to miss games because of COVID-19 or contact tracing.
So while both Bobo and Muschamp have sounded cool on the possibility of a two-QB system with Hilinski rotating in, there’s still a possibility he’ll see the field.
“I’ve never really repped this many quarterbacks this close to the starting of the season, but the situation that we’re in this season with the pandemic, we felt like we needed to continue to get more guys reps with (the first team),” Bobo said.
This story was originally published September 19, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
