Everything Satterfield said about Mizzou game, Jaheim Bell, what to expect this week
South Carolina managed to score just 10 points in its loss to Missouri.
Offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield continues to face criticism from outside the program for the offense’s struggles. The Gamecocks could not get much momentum on that side of the ball against Missouri, crossing the 50-yard line just three times in 11 possessions.
Here’s what Satterfield said about the performance against Missouri and the state of the offense.
On how Saturday went overall:
“It was very disappointing. The production, the execution, everything. I thought we had a really good week of practice. I thought our guys were ready to go. We just never could get going. Couldn’t get a first down to stay on the field.”
Where was the disconnect from the good week of practice not translating in the game?
“That’s a great question. I wish I knew. Each week, each month as a coach, you try to find how we can make sure that your guys stay consistent. You always worry about that after you have a couple of weeks of success and making sure that everybody keeps that edge about them.
“I thought that our guys did, it just didn’t show up on Saturday.”
Looking at the tape, did you see ways Missouri’s defense knew what was coming?
“For years now, it’s kind of been a trend on defense. The D-linemen can see how much weight is on the hand of the offensive linemen. You’ll see all kinds of people in our conference throw their hands up to alert pass and sometimes they’re right, sometimes they’re wrong. Sometimes it’s tendencies of demeanor of offensive linemen, quarterbacks. running backs. We’ve done a really deep dive starting on Sunday night. ... We need to make sure we’re changing it up so we aren’t giving tips to other teams.”
What challenges come when best utilizing the team’s offensive personnel?
“You try to have a feel for how the game’s gonna go and how you’re going to play the game and then you want to maximize the personnel who’s out there. Obviously, you have certain personnel groups, certain formations for different parts and segments of the field. Different down and distances. Sometimes you’re right on, sometimes you’re not.
“This past week, we had four possessions in the first half, five-and-out, three-and-out, three-and-out and a 16-play drive. The 16-play drive was a lot of two-minute tempo stuff. So you go into halftime and you’ve done nothing from a game plan standpoint of setting up anything. You can’t stay out there long enough. We didn’t get to a lot of plays that we’ve practiced all week, which could be good or bad because now we can carry them over and work them this week.”
What about Saturday could have been better?
“If I had a pause or rewind button on every play, I’d like to do certain things different on most of them. If you watch the first half, it’s a block here, a decision here, a call here. It was one of those days where things were not trending in our direction, at least offensively.
“With 11 minutes, 12 minutes, we were already in ‘rally mode’ because we were two touchdowns down, so we’re having to play fast and trying to get chunks and trying to save timeouts and trying to score. I would probably, if I had to do over, would go back and just play that as a true possession. If it takes eight minutes, it takes eight minutes. Just go get a touchdown and run your offense. So I probably got to rally (mode) a little bit too early.”
Have you had conversations with Jaheim Bell? (Bell finished Saturday’s game with no touches)
“He’s one of my favorite players on the team. There’s not a morning I don’t walk by him and we hug. I want him to get on the field. I want him to touch the ball a lot.
“Going into the rally mode, he wasn’t in those packages. I should have slowed down, stop, realized, got him on the field and gave him a chance to get some balls. He’s gonna have chances every game, it’s just whether the ball gets to him or not. And sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. We’re gonna continue to make sure that we put him in opportunities to get the ball, and when he does, it’s special.”
On short pass plays:
“It got to be a real drop-back game. They were getting a good pass rush on us, and I was just trying to slow down the pass rush and let Spencer (Rattler) have some plays where he throws it out there and then, obviously, a crushing blow when when MarShawn (Lloyd) got banged up and he’d be there for a play and then he’d be gone. He was fighting his butt off.”
On the team’s ability to execute:
“The thing about football and team sports is, 10 people can execute and one not, and it turns into a train wreck. In practice just making sure we’re in situations and stressful situations where we’re putting the pressure on all 11 guys and make sure they’re almost perfect on every play and I think that will translate over to the game.”
How do you feel the staff has done maximizing the offense’s potential?
“I think we’ve given it everything we’ve got. I think that we continue to work hard. I think that we continue to have the trust of our players. I think that we’ve shown games where we’ve been productive and ran the ball, and throwing it and caught the ball and score touchdowns and there’s games where we haven’t. We’re not a young football team, but we’re still early on in stages. It’s Spencer’s first year and just trying to build and know what we ultimately want to look like as an offense. Certain pieces have been available, certain pieces haven’t been available. Moving forward, I think based on this week and how Spencer’s attacked it and how everybody’s attacked it, I think we’re gonna continue to get better.”
How did MarShawn Lloyd going down impact the game?
“MarShawn Lloyd, I think, is a really talented back. You get him five carries, he’s probably going to break off a 12- or 14-yard run every three carries. So that allowed us as an offense to sustain drives, get first downs. I think it became a lot harder to move the ball and get first downs when we lost him.”
On how other players will get opportunities with the ball:
“We got a lot of guys that played running back in high school but, you know, all hands on deck, whether it be quarterback runs, backup quarterbacks, quarterbacks that played in the ball game, receivers who played running back, receivers that return kickoffs back 109 yards. Everybody’s gonna have a chance to see what they can do on Saturday night with the ball.”
On Vanderbilt’s defense:
“(Anfernee Orji) is unbelievable. I think from a schematic standpoint, (Vanderbilt is) very tough, hard-nosed, they’re gonna make you earn everything that you get. On certain down and distances, they make it tough on you with certain types of pressures and simulators that they bring on certain down and distances that we got to be ready for.”
On running Juju McDowell through tackles despite his size:
“He’ll run into a wall without a helmet on if you ask him to. I don’t think you can physically sustain a game of him doing that. You gotta get Juju some bigger guys in there when you’re running between the tackles. Juju is a better runner whenever he doesn’t have to carry five to seven times inside the tackle box and get beat up a little bit by those big guys.”
On Spencer Rattler saying the offense didn’t know what to do:
“He was laughing about that Sunday, just how it was misinterpreted. I can promise you he knew what to do. Coach Beamer sits in our quarterback meetings every day and listens to it. Through the progression of teaching, installing, Spencer knew exactly what to do.”
This story was originally published November 2, 2022 at 2:43 PM.
