Gamecock mailbag: What’s wrong with South Carolina’s offense after Tennessee loss?
We’re halfway through the South Carolina football season. Hard to believe, eh?
Feels like just yesterday USC blew the doors off Eastern Illinois in the season opener. Things haven’t gone exactly to plan since, as the Gamecocks sit at 3-3 and 0-3 in SEC play — but it hasn’t been all bad.
With Saturday’s 45-20 loss to Tennessee in tow, let’s launch into some questions:
The big question is what and when will Beamer do something to address our pathetic coaching and play-calling on offense? They are dysfunctional with no identity or direction on what they’re trying to achieve. — Michael W.
OK, let’s call the offense what it’s been: bad.
Now that that’s out of the way, I don’t think you can take a holistic view to everything that’s transpired offensively without taking out some positives.
Say what you will, but Luke Doty looks like the long-term answer at quarterback. His numbers haven’t been insane — 69 of 119 for 733 yards, three touchdowns and one interception — but they’ve been good enough to keep South Carolina in games (think Kentucky three weeks ago).
The running game has assuredly had its issues, but this past weekend felt like a bit of a breakthrough. Kevin Harris’ 16 touches for 61 yards weren’t other-worldly, but he ran with the pace and shiftiness we expected in the preseason. Saturday’s 153 rushing yards also marked USC’s best output to date against FBS competition.
All that said, there are certainly question marks. The trick-play call with Jordan Burch on Saturday that resulted in a Tennessee interception in the end zone was interesting at best. Calling for a Statue of Liberty run trailing by 35 points was also something.
Beamer didn’t bite on a postgame question Saturday angled toward Marcus Satterfield’s performance calling plays. Sure, some of the plays have been questionable, but there’s a base level of execution that has to happen for an offense to work as well.
Coaches shoulder plenty of criticism, and deservedly so. They make millions of dollars per year to make things work. South Carolina’s offense hasn’t worked so far this year, but coaches can’t run out to midfield and help a guy make a throw or block an oncoming defender.
Satterfield took over an offense that has lacked a true flow and rhythm since Stephen Garcia, Connor Shaw and Dylan Thompson ran the show. This isn’t a new problem. It’s simply new names and coaches who are dealing with it.
South Carolina has to be better on offense and sure, the play-calling could be better. But it’s also going to take execution if USC has any hope of winning another game this season after next week’s contest with Vanderbilt.
Why can’t we try a new quarterback? — Benita H.
There’s no one more popular in college football than the backup quarterback on a struggling offense.
Zeb Noland was a spectacular story while he got his shot. The former graduate assistant was added to the roster late in fall camp, won the starting job and has helped Doty along as the backup since getting hurt at Georgia.
But benching Doty now? That’s a recipe for disaster.
Like I said above, Doty’s numbers haven’t been incredible by any stretch. But there’s still something inspirational about his presence in the pocket, the way he’s handled criticism and what he might bring long term.
South Carolina was never going to be a seven- or eight-win team in 2021, despite what some keyboard cowboys might think. It’s a young squad that had more holes than a Battleship board and is under the direction of a new coaching staff. Benching a young quarterback who has been productive enough is a sure way to stunt his growth.
Why have we not improved as the weeks have gone? We are getting worse; that seems a little backward? Where is the team that came out with swagger and hype the first game? Where did that confidence go? — Brandy B.
I can assure you, Brandy, if South Carolina played Eastern Illinois every week, it would probably be 6-0 right now and inside The Associated Press Top 25.
South Carolina is still the same team it was on Sept. 4 against EIU. The difference is, the Gamecocks are taking on Southeastern Conference teams that are just flat out better than they are.
I’m sure plenty of you reading this played sports growing up. Losing is never fun. When it keeps happening, it wears on you.
South Carolina has lost three of its last four games, and all three were contests against SEC competition. That stings.
As far as improvement, I don’t think this team is without it. Doty has looked more and more comfortable running the offense from the Georgia game to now. Add in the couple scrambles he had on Saturday and there’s a pretty clear upward trajectory in what he’s doing under center.
South Carolina’s defense, too, has been stingy minus the first half against Tennessee. But even after allowing nearly 400 yards of offense Saturday, it responded by surrendering just one garbage time score and limiting the Volunteers to 99 yards in the second half. That’s progress.
USC has its share of issues. Don’t take this answer to say that its a perfect program. It’s not. But there’s a big difference from playing an FCS team that hasn’t won more than three games since 2017 and SEC competition week to week.
Why can’t we get fans that are fans and not self appointed coaches and critics? Why is Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, and now Tennessee getting better? Because they believe in their coach and have confidence in their team and each other. They have bought in and playing like it. Why did we have success when we had Spurrier? Because they believed in him and they played with confidence and swag. Stop calling for everyone to be fired or that everything sucks when you have no clue what is going on or never played the game at the Division 1 level. — David P.
You’re right, David! Fans who are just supportive and don’t criticize would certainly save me from the dumpster fire that is my Twitter mentions every week.
Jokes aside, this is what college football is. Every fan base has their crazies and every program in America deals with it. From Jacksonville State to Alabama, there are always going to be those who latch onto the bad and want people fired the second things go south.
After losing to Texas A&M on Saturday, Alabama fans are calling for the head of the greatest coach in college football history. It’s not right, but it happens.
At the end of the day fans are, at their core, fanatic. For better or worse, people care. That’s a good thing. Sometimes it spills over into nastiness, but I promise that a fan’s thoughts on a message board or Facebook page are not something coaches care about and don’t change the trajectory of a program.
That comes from coaching, recruiting, improvement from the players — and even a little luck.
