That last, long Gamecocks drive: What happened, and how it undercut flashes on offense
After the South Carolina football team’s opening loss to Tennessee, coach Will Muschamp explained that a minute and a half can be an “eternity” in college football.
This Saturday, his team got the ball with 8:11 on the clock and down 14 points to the No. 3 Florida Gators. It’s a spot where most teams will lose the game, often by trying to get everything back at once.
The Gamecocks didn’t take that approach, but they did use more than five or so eternities in pursuit of a touchdown to just get within a score of UF in the late going.
In the end it didn’t matter. The Gators won 38-24.
South Carolina couldn’t convert the drive into points, getting stopped on the goal line when quarterback Collin Hill put a pass behind an open Shi Smith and they couldn’t connect. But that came with 48 seconds left in the game, more than 7 minutes after the drive started.
Here’s how Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp explained the 7-minute, 23-second, 18-play drive that all but drained the clock.
“It wasn’t a deliberate pace,” Muschamp said. “At the end of the day, we’re trying to get first downs. They were playing more coverage. They were staying on top. We were unable to get some explosives down the field. We were taking what they were giving us. You still have a minute to play in the game with two timeouts and an onside kick. And you got an opportunity to go win the game if you score. And so we had to go for it on a couple fourth downs.
“Certainly did we want more time on the clock? Yeah. But you take what they give you in that situation and that’s what we were able to do.”
At the start, one has to say that driving 78 yards isn’t easy. Doing it fast, then either getting a stop or an onside kick and then scoring another touchdown? That’s highly difficult.
Lamenting a slow drive in some ways is just being worried about one way to lose vs. another. Of course, any hope of a comeback needs the first block.
That moment drew some quizzical responses on social media from the likes of former USC football QB Steve Taneyhill and baseball star Grayson Greiner.
“Are we trying to win? Where is the hurry up offense! We are down 14 points!! Cmon gamecocks!!” Taneyhill posted to Twitter.
Said Greiner on Twitter: “We’re down 14 with under 3 minutes left, and have run the play clock under 5 seconds on back to back plays (runs up the middle) HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN??”
And in the end, any consternation about the final drive undercut an afternoon where the Gamecocks offense once more showed flashes, even if the final numbers weren’t all that great.
A week after the Gamecocks’ running backs looked just OK, they ran with fire against Florida, tearing through arm tackles and spinning for extra yards. Drops marred parts of the passing game, but those receivers were getting all sorts of open against a pretty talented Florida secondary.
The final numbers showed some problems, notably 4 yards per play and a turnover. Some of that was trying to fight from behind, but considering where the offense was a season ago, the flashes were some real progress.
But that last drive just sits there, an odd and dragging finish. Quarterback Collin Hill admitted he probably could’ve pushed things a little. Muschamp said USC could’ve been more “crisp” in their tempo late. But he also implored that some of the slowdown was having protections correct against a pass rush that was teeing off without the threat of the run.
“We’re just trying to get down the field, guys,” Muschamp told reporters. “If they would’ve given us a nine ball that we could have thrown and scored really fast, we would have done it. They weren’t. They were staying on top of the coverage in all situations. We could have played with a crisper pace, especially when it gets to about four minutes in the game. But we’re trying to stay on the field, score and make it a one-score game, to onside kick with two timeouts to go try and win the game. All right?”
USC was still attacking with the plan of saving remaining timeouts for after an onside kick, a challenging situation to say the least. Even if one follows Muschamp’s logic, it’s the second week in a row where something in the staff’s hands felt as if it didn’t all line up. (A late field goal against Tennessee, instead of going for a touchdown, left the USC offense in a similar spot of needing to pull off a run of tall tasks.)
In the end, if USC tries to score faster, maybe folks are lamenting some different facet of a loss. But two states away, fans watched eternity after eternity slip away without much sense as to why.
This story was originally published October 3, 2020 at 5:43 PM.
