Taking stock of how South Carolina’s 2020 football season went down
The 2020 South Carolina football season ended both earlier and later than one might expect.
Teams that go 2-8 generally don’t have seasons that get to Dec. 22. But the Gamecocks were supposed to be practicing for a bowl on Saturday before a COVID case on staff took out most of the offensive coaches with quarantines.
So an eventful 2020 is finished. It didn’t go as fans, players and especially coaches had hoped, but as the Shane Beamer era gets rolling in earnest, it’s worth taking stock of the season that was.
What went right
Kevin Harris emerged as an all-conference running back. Shi Smith had to show he was a go-to receiver, and he generally did that. The interior offensive line was decent run blocking. Jaycee Horn played like a star for chunks of the year. Ernest Jones played well enough he felt he could try his hand at the draft. Kingsley Enagbare earned first-team All-SEC honors. Sophomore corner John Dixon started to emerge.
What went wrong
Oh, where to begin?
▪ Will Muschamp got fired.
▪ The team lose a crucial opener, and after rallying to beat Auburn, allowed 159 points in three games to end the Muschamp era.
▪ The offense struggled through the air and the defense struggled all over.
▪ USC finished the game on a six-game losing streak, the program’s longest since 1999.
▪ Issues cropped up at multiple positions, including quarterback, wide receiver and just about every spot on the defense.
▪ A strange bowl trip was scuttled a few days into the lead up.
The offense
Quarterbacks
Coming in as a grad transfer, Collin Hill won the starting job but struggled after a few games as a distributor without much in the way of weapons and took too many sacks. Luke Doty came in and showed flashes, but has a lot of honing to do. Ryan Hilinski was barely put on the field.
Running backs
Things could’ve gone badly after projected starter MarShawn Lloyd was lost for the year with a knee injury. But without maybe the most explosive play-maker on the roster, Harris stepped up to average more than 110 yards a game and finished as the top rusher in the SEC for the regular season. Deshaun Fenwick was an able second back, and Zaqunadre White played well on special teams and helped on defense.
Wide receivers
Shi Smith was a consistent target, but no one stepped up past that. Xavier Legette produced some early, but drops and injuries were an issue. Players such as Josh Vann, Dakereon Joyner and Rico Powers had a few moments, but couldn’t assert themselves, and Jalen Brooks didn’t make a strong impact when he was allowed to play following an NCAA waiver. Adam Prentice came in and performed ably at fullback.
Tight ends
Nick Muse was a No. 2 option on the offense and had a nice game or two late. He put up some of the better numbers in the offense, but blocking was an issue at the position. Keveon Mullins made some big plays, but then got hurt. Outside a few plays from younger players and solid blocking work from Prentice, there wasn’t much there.
Offensive line
The interior of the line was solid, and Sadarius Hutchinson was pretty good, But the tackles all struggled, in part because of conditioning issues after the COVID layoff. Between Jakai Moore, Dylan Wonnum, Vershon Lee and Jazston Turnetine, the team never really figured out an answer there. The QBs were also a big factor in getting sacked on 9% of drop backs.
Overall
The offense worked in some new schemes that ended up helping the offense produce decent efficiency and explosiveness. But it wasn’t all that consistent. And the passing game struggled amid QB questions, lack of play-makers and pass blocking issues. Even with some steps forward, the product didn’t improve enough to get things on track.
The defense
Defensive line
This group had one of the defense’s stars in Enagbare, but it also had too much talent to struggle the way it did. The line had two former five-star recruits and a set of former four-stars, yet was often the target of Muschamp’s ire before his departure. Keir Thomas was a solid option when healthy and Jordan Burch flashed at points, but there wasn’t enough havoc plays being created.
Linebackers
Ernest Jones played hard and had some high-tackle games, but overall the linebackers made precious few big plays. Sherrod Greene was lost for the season in the opener and a set of injuries left basically everything on Jones and Damani Staley. There wasn’t a ton of production there, though Staley was rarely picked on in coverage.
Defensive backs
This was supposed to be a place where the team had a set of proven players, and while Horn showed his star talent at points, the rest of it didn’t work out. R.J. Roderick and Israel Mukuamu were plagued by inconsistency and Mukuamu was often hurt. Jammie Robinson struggled at points, and while John Dixon came on well, some depth the staff hoped for never arrived. The Gamecocks gave up one of the highest completion rates in the country and more explosive plays than usual.
Overall
The dam broke in some ways, with South Carolina putting up its worse defensive performance of the Muschamp era. The group finished 111th in yards per play allowed and in points per drive allowed. That was in Year 5 of a tenure of a defensive-minded head coach whose skills included being a recruiter (and the Gamecocks had a top-25 roster in terms of talent, per 247 Sports).
Specialists
Parker White hit only 57.9 percent of his kicks, but was frequently asked to try long ones (four of 50-plus yards) and dealt with an injury. Kai Kroeger showed promise but had some inconsistencies as a true freshman, and Mitch Jeter struggled on the kickoff side. There wasn’t much there in the return game, though the kick and punt coverage was usually solid.
This story was originally published December 23, 2020 at 9:42 AM.
