Jaheim Bell got his touches vs. Vanderbilt. South Carolina needs the same at Florida
Jaheim Bell may well be adding a new position — on the hardwood.
“Y’all want to see me hoop?” Bell tweeted in response to a joke that he might be an option to join the men’s basketball team at South Carolina.
The Florida native has lined up at just about every conceivable position this fall for USC’s football team. His usage, though, had come under fire in recent weeks.
That said, Bell’s role in the win over Vanderbilt as a running back in the wake of MarShawn Lloyd’s lingering thigh injury paves the way for another heavy dose of the tight end-turned-tailback this weekend in a crucial road trip (4 p.m. Saturday, SEC Network) to his home state to face the Florida Gators.
“I was an SEC fan growing up, so I just remember Bo Jackson, all those big running backs all at Georgia — that’s what (Bell) looks like,” Satterfield told reporters Wednesday. “He looks like a 1985 SEC running back.”
South Carolina’s offense looked suddenly competent in Nashville. That came, at least in part, due to a reliance on Bell’s game-breaking ability and the matchup problems he causes just by being on the field.
Added head coach Shane Beamer postgame on Saturday: “I’d be willing to bet anything when the vocal minority of our fan base saw that Marshawn (Lloyd) wasn’t playing tonight (due to injury), I’m sure it was doom and gloom and all that,” Beamer said. “We’ve got to get past that as a fan base, man. Find some joy. It was ugly last week, but we’ve got some great kids that are fighting their butts off.”
Bell finished the win over the Commodores with 16 rushes for 56 yards. He added another 27 yards on a trio of receptions. The 19 touches marked his most in a game since the season-opening victory over Georgia State.
The 38 offensive snaps Bell received were also the most he’s played in a game since he played that exact same number in last year’s Vanderbilt victory, per Pro Football Focus — one week after playing a season-low nine snaps in a loss to Missouri.
“We weren’t going to come out of here saying, ‘Jaheim Bell didn’t touch the ball,’ ” Beamer said. “We weren’t gonna come out of here saying, ‘We didn’t give our playmakers an opportunity to make plays.’ ”
Satterfield has been maligned plenty for not getting the ball to South Carolina’s best playmakers as frequently as USC should.
Last Saturday, though, the Gamecocks looked the part of a team maximizing potential. Bell got his 19 touches sans Lloyd. The three catches were an added bonus, as the team expected him to shoulder the load at running back.
Quarterback Spencer Rattler completed 16 of his 23 passes at Vanderbilt and had his third game this season without a single turnover-worthy play, per PFF. His 92.2 passing grade on PFF’s 100-point scale on Saturday was also the best among Power Five quarterbacks in Week 10.
Receiver Antwane “Juice” Wells has also come on strong of late. Wells has had at least 50 yards receiving and three catches in three of his last four games. That includes a 110-yard, two-touchdown effort against Vanderbilt.
“Spence, he played with a lot of confidence tonight to be able to sit in that pocket and let it rip,” receiver Josh Vann said on Saturday. “... I feel like he’s learning and he’s maturing and growing week by week being able to sit in that pocket and make the throws that he did tonight. I can agree — I will say it was one of his best games tonight leading the offense and making the throws that he did.”
South Carolina will need its best offensive playmakers in tune this weekend to keep pace with a Florida offense that, though it’s ebbed and flowed, is as dangerous as any given quarterback Anthony Richardson’s skillset.
The Gators are averaging more than 430.4 yards of offense and 31.2 points per game this season. That’s good for seventh and eighth in the Southeastern Conference, respectively.
In games the Gamecocks have won this fall, Bell is averaging 20.5 snaps per contest, according to PFF. That number dips down to 18.7 in losses.
Perhaps, one day, we’ll see if that correlates to the hardwood as well.
This story was originally published November 10, 2022 at 6:55 AM.
