What was the secret to unlocking Gamecocks’ run game vs Florida? The answer’s simple
Shane Beamer said he knew some people thought he was “crazy.”
Week in and week out, South Carolina’s first-year head football coach fielded questions about the lackluster performance of his running backs; the offensive line’s inability to create lanes for Kevin Harris, the top rusher in last year’s SEC; or the measly offensive showings that saw the Gamecocks averaging 15.6 points per game against conference competition.
Beamer gave similar answers each week. He’d watched the team in practice and found it frustrating to see the Gamecocks’ offensive line struggle to create pathways for four talented running backs in their four losses.
After South Carolina’s 40-17 win over Florida on Saturday, Beamer was able to hush some of the doubts. The Gamecocks put up a season-high 284 yards on the ground against Florida, besting even their mark against FCS Eastern Illinois in Week 1.
Two Gamecocks tailbacks finished with over 100 yards, including Harris, who appeared to finally be fully healthy after failing to total over 61 yards on the ground in any of South Carolina’s first eight games while he recovered from preseason back surgery and an ankle injury.
Harris led the rush game charge against Florida, finishing with 128 yards on 16 carries. ZaQuandre White totaled 111 yards on 13 attempts. MarShawn Lloyd added 46 yards on seven carries.
How did this offensive line improvement and run game success come to be? Beamer and members of South Carolina’s offense said it was actually a simple focus point the Gamecocks employed during its bye week: Every player is in a one-on-one battle. Win that.
“We just made an individual commitment to win your one-on-one battles,” Beamer said. “Be physical, and then just compete. That’s what we talked about in the locker room before we took the field. It’s just a bunch of one-on-one individual battles all over the field, every single play with the 22 guys out there. We needed to compete our butts off better than we have been, and win those.”
Wide receiver Josh Vann bought into Beamer’s message and said it could explain how South Carolina’s offense regained its rhythm against Florida. The Gamecocks put up 456 total yards on Saturday, their highest number of the 2021 season.
“Football is a game of 11 people on the field, but it’s all of the one-on-one battles,” Vann said. “That’s pretty much everybody just executed their job, won their one-on-one battles, and it showed tonight.”
Quarterback Jason Brown, who started his first game for South Carolina on Saturday, said he believed the Gamecocks had always been able to run the ball, but focusing on one-on-one battles both at the line of scrimmage and along the perimeter throughout the bye week is what helped the Gamecocks’ run game woes.
“We just had to tighten up some things here and there, and we did that,” Brown said. “We competed and won our one-on-one battles and came out victorious today.”
South Carolina put up the second-most rushing yards of any team that’s played Florida this year. Only LSU, which defeated the Gators in a 49-42 shootout last month, accumulated more yards on the ground (321).
Beamer said he also wanted to give credit to offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield and offensive line coach Greg Adkins’ game plan for Florida. With the addition of the Gamecocks’ improved physicality and focus on winning one-on-one battles, Satterfield and Adkins were able to construct a perfect plan for success.
“We did some good things schematically,” Beamer said. “Tried to get into some certain formations, checking the run based on how they lined up and couple of different options out of a couple different formations. Our guys did a good job of handling that and executing it, but (it) really just gets down to trying to be more physical up front.”
South Carolina sits one game away from bowl eligibility and travels to Columbia, Missouri to face the Missouri Tigers’ worst-performing rushing defense in the SEC. The Tigers have allowed opponents an average of 283.9 yards per game in 2021.
