How Mike Bobo’s Gamecock schemes and Oklahoma’s offense aren’t all that far apart
One could tell new South Carolina coach Shane Beamer had heard the concerns, and he had a dialed-up response in mind.
The headline point: talking fullbacks.
“People say to me, ‘Mike Bobo uses a fullback,’” Beamer said. “Well, so does Oklahoma. We call it an H-back to make it sound fancier, but it’s the same thing.”
That’s often true, though the Sooners’ top two H-backs last season combined for 42 carries, 616 yards and eight touchdowns. Last season, Gamecocks fullback Adam Prentice spent plenty of time in the H-back spots but wasn’t asked to carry the ball.
Setting that aside for the moment, questions had lingered since it emerged that Bobo would be retained as South Carolina’s offensive coordinator. His schemes are characterized as old-school, willing to use fullbacks, under-center looks and huddles. The Lincoln Riley Oklahoma offense that Beamer said would influence his schemes in Columbia is often painted as a high-tempo spread, but in truth it’s a bit more than that.
“I hear people say, ‘Well, his offense is completely different than what you did at Oklahoma.’ and that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Beamer said. “Anybody that says that probably hasn’t watched Oklahoma play a lot of football this year. People hear ‘Air Raid at Oklahoma’ and think that we throw it around 70 times a game and we’re going up tempo and all that stuff, and that’s not us at all. Oklahoma’s offense sets records year in, year out, and we’ve done it actually running the ball more than we’ve thrown it the last five years.”
In truth, the Sooners offense has been highly flexible, adjusting to the players it has, and Bobo’s schemes have been somewhat the same.
The Sooners last year rushed slightly more than they passed, but they were a little below average nationally in how much they ran. But this made sense. They were short the tailback talent they’ve had of late, and quarterback Spencer Rattler was really good at points.
But in the years before, they went downhill with the best of them. They had two 1,000-yard rushers in 2019, with a QB (Jalen Hurts) who ran for 20 touchdowns. A year earlier, the Sooners were close to having three rushers at 1,000 yards.
Of course, those two offenses also put up crazy passing numbers.
Bobo’s one Gamecocks offense in 2020 did not, but Beamer noted the situation wasn’t the best talent-wise. Bobo built around one tailback, one receiver and a tight end who battled drop issues. The group also struggled, especially down the stretch after Will Muschamp was fired.
Had Bobo not already been at USC, Beamer said he would’ve been his first call for the offensive coordinator job. The first-time head coach said his father once tried to hire Bobo, and incoming offensive line coach Will Friend, to Virginia Tech.
Friend has seen the Bobo offense evolve through the years and adapt to situations.
“He’s done it with a lot of different styles of attack,” Friend said. “As an offensive coach, sometimes you’ve got to be able to play with the personnel you have.
“Coach has always been one that’s been able to adapt, whether it be because of injuries or because of maybe less talent in certain spots and still be successful. And I think a lot of that comes from his overall system.”
Friend pointed out that Bobo’s Georgia offenses got big years from QBs sometimes and from running backs other years. Their Colorado State attacks produced six 600-yard rushers in three seasons and often ran through high-end wide receivers.
Beamer said he plans to have some hand in the offense and how it functions. As a defensive coach, Muschamp mostly left that side of the ball to Bobo.
One factor Beamer noted with Bobo and fellow staff holdovers Des Kitchings and Tracy Rocker: Despite being part of the Muschamp staff, they’ve not been part of the fabric of the program for all that long. Bobo was hired last December. Rocker came on in mid-February, Kitchings in late April. Their lone years on campus were all scrambled by the COVID pandemic.
The offense next year will look different, even if it’s just from having Luke Doty in at quarterback from the beginning, losing Shi Smith, likely adding MarShawn Lloyd and, of course, losing fullback Adam Prentice. But there should be an amalgamation — some Oklahoma scheme, some Bobo staples and the natural evolution and adaptation that’s baked in with both.
“There’s certainly some aspects of Mike’s offense that I want to keep and Mike and I talked about it,” Beamer said. “He’s excited about it, being able to implement a lot of the things that we did at Oklahoma, in the running game and the passing game. I think some things that we were doing in both those, running and passing, are pretty cutting-edge stuff offensively and I’m really pumped about the opportunity to blend these two systems together.”
This story was originally published December 29, 2020 at 9:17 AM.
