The Gamecocks’ offense was efficient in Week 1. Can it stay on schedule vs. ECU?
Marcus Satterfield could only help but crack a smile.
Asked during his Wednesday press conference how he graded himself after his first game as South Carolina’s offensive coordinator, he quipped he could only focus on the Gamecocks’ missed chances.
“I’m never happy,” he joked. “My wife was like, ‘You just won the game.’ But all I see is five or six calls that maybe I didn’t like or didn’t flow, and it just eats me up.”
Satterfield’s slight annoyance aside, the South Carolina offense largely stayed in front of the chains in Saturday’s 46-0 throttling of Eastern Illinois.
USC finished the contest converting 50% of its third downs. The Gamecocks were also a perfect 3-for-3 on fourth-down attempts.
“I thought our protection was really good,” head coach Shane Beamer said on Wednesday’s Southeastern Conference coaches teleconference. “We spent a lot of time on a protection plan. It’s not like we just go out there and call a pass and the offensive linemen drop back and figure out who the five most dangerous guys are and block them.”
Beyond the line play, quarterback Zeb Noland turned in one of the more efficient nights in recent South Carolina memory. Noland, who began the summer as a graduate assistant but was later added to the roster as a quarterback, completed 13 of his 22 passes for 121 yards and four touchdowns.
Despite the low passing yardage number — which came in part from a handful of short fields the South Carolina defense and special teams units gifted the offense — the former Iowa State and North Dakota State signal caller avoided any major mistakes.
Noland finished the EIU win 10 of 14 on throws inside of 10 yards, with three of those incompletions scored as drops according SEC StatCat. By those same metrics, he was also 3 of 5 on throws between 11 and 20 yards and his only pass longer than 20 yards — a deep post pass to Jalen Brooks on the second play from scrimmage — was dropped.
In all, Noland concluded his South Carolina debut with an 81.3 adjusted completion percentage — the fifth-best mark of Southeastern Conference quarterbacks with 15 or more attempts in Week 1 per SEC StatCat.
“He took care of the football, called the plays, organized guys with the line of scrimmage, got the ball ready,” Satterfield said of Noland’s performance. “The stage wasn’t too big for him. It wasn’t too fast for him.”
While Noland was efficient in the passing game, South Carolina’s offensive line paved a reasonably effective path for tailbacks ZaQuandre White, MarShawn Lloyd and Juju McDowell. The Gamecocks tailbacks combined for 5.4 yards per touch and 254 total yards on the ground.
With the run game erupting, the Gamecocks averaged two first downs per drive and nearly five points per possession, which ranked second in the conference per SEC StatCat.
“We were in a short field thanks to the defense and the punt blocks,” Satterfield explained. “So we were always in that territory where it was third down, two downs. So we were able to run the ball on third down more than we would be normally, which allowed us to have, I think, a lot more success.”
Heading into Saturday’s contest with East Carolina, USC’s offensive picture remains a bit muddied. Sophomore quarterback Luke Doty, who won the job during spring ball but has been sidelined with a lingering foot injury, may be healthy enough to play in Greenville, North Carolina. If not, it should be Noland’s show once more.
Junior running back Kevin Harris is also expected to play this weekend. Harris finished the 2020 campaign as the SEC’s leading rusher with 1,138 yards and 15 touchdowns despite South Carolina’s meager 2-8 record. The Georgia native is recovering from an offseason back procedure, but Lloyd told reporters Tuesday that Harris practiced full-go that day.
“Kevin is a true competitor,” Lloyd said. “What he did last year — he’s coming for something else better this year.”
South Carolina concluded 2020 converting on just 41.9% of its third- and fourth-down attempts. The Gamecocks’ 58.8% conversion rate in Week 1 likely won’t hold against an ECU defense that held Appalachian State to just 6 of 14 on third- and fourth-down chances in its first contest.
Satterfield lauded the Gamecocks offense for its ability to stay on schedule last week. Whether South Carolina can escape Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium with a win — or how many calls USC’s new offensive coordinator kicks himself over next Monday — may boil down to how effective the Gamecocks are in must-convert situations.
