25 things you might have missed from South Carolina’s spring game
1. The coaches were in full gameday mode, though Will Muschamp did coach from the middle of the field. A few assistants were in the booth, while Kurt Roper, Pat Washington, Mike Peterson, Coleman Hutzler and Travaris Robinson were all seen on the sidelines.
2. As many as 600 students took coach Muschamp’s offer to run out with the team to ‘2001’ before the game.
3. Attendance was 32,916 (Muschamp quipped that it looked more like 40,000). Steve Spurrier’s first spring game back in 2005 attracted 38,806.
4. The alumni game featured two pretty cool touchdowns: The 94-year-old Lou Sossamon, who was the Gamecocks’ first Associated Press All-American in 1942, had the first score Saturday. Former lineman Randy Wheeler, who was paralyzed in a car accident in 1998, scored the game-winning touchdown on the final drive of the game.
5. Among those alumni, there were four Super Bowl appearances and three Super Bowl wins on the field: (bold means a win) George Rogers (Washington, 1988); Max Runager (Philadelphia, 1981; San Francisco, 1985); and Anthony Wright (New York Giants, 2008)
6. South Carolina debuted some new concepts for the video board. Stats, scores, notes and player/coach bios were shown throughout the game. There were also multiple camera angles used on replays.
7. South Carolina revealed possible uniform combinations for the 2016 season. Among them included a black helmet.
8. Six media members were “embedded” with the team for a behind-the-scenes look at the team on a gameday. The State’s Josh Kendall was among those.
9. Gamecock great Melvin Ingram, now a linebacker for the San Diego Chargers, caught a two-point conversion from Sean Kelly in the second quarter.
10. Muschamp and staff honored the spring’s top performers at halftime: wide receiver Deebo Samuel was named the Steve Spurrier Offensive Player of the Spring, and Marquavius Lewis was the Rex Enright Defensive Player of the Spring. The Jim Carlen Special Teams Player of the Spring was awarded to Bryson Allen-Williams, and linebacker T.J. Holloman was named the Dr. Harris Pastides Outstanding Student-Athlete Representative. The Harold White GPA Award went to quarterback Perry Orth (offense), linebacker Jordan Diggs (defense) and kicker Elliott Fry (special teams).
We’ve got a critical time starting from here to Aug. 1. Our guys have got to take ownership in that. You can make a tremendous amount of improvement in your football team, offensively and defensively, during this time, and I think we have the leadership and the maturity to handle that.
Will Muschamp
11. The longest run of the day was 33 yards on a reverse by receiver Deebo Samuel, aided by a block from No. 1 QB Brandon McIlwain. Former cornerback/running back Jamari Smith made some eye-catching plays at receiver on the way to 54 yards. Walk-on WR Devin Dingle had the highest big play-per-touch ratio, with his only catches going for 35 and 42 yards.
12. The running backs didn’t do a whole lot. Muschamp admitted the staff held back on some staple concepts to prevent linemen from getting legs tied up or fallen on. That said, both sides averaged three yards per carry, with top two runners A.J. Turner and David Williams combining for 12 yards on eight carries.
13. Two players were rested for the day after halftime: Deebo Samuel and David Williams.
14. Tight ends were involved in the offense. KC Crosby lined up several times as a slot receiver and had four catches. Kyle Markway had three receptions, while Hayden Hurst had one.
15. There was a holding call on Brandon McIlwain’s 18-yard touchdown run, but Muschamp declined the penalty (while smiling). McIlwain accounted for three touchdowns in the game.
16. Freshman receiver Bryan Edwards caught two touchdown passes, both from McIlwain. Edwards collided with the hedges on one catch but was OK.
17. McIlwain is expected to rejoin the baseball team this week. “Chad and I are the same page about what we want to do,” Muschamp said. “It’s worked very well to this point and it will continue to work.”
18. There were zero turnovers in the game.
19. The lone injury reported from the day was a high ankle sprain by wide receiver Christian Owens.
20. Daniel Fennell and Boosie Whitlow lined up most often in the defense’s Buck position.
Lot of command, lot of maturity. I think he throws the ball extremely well. I thought the decision-making was very good and the one-minute drive was impressive.
Will Muschamp on Brandon McIlwain
21. Several of USC’s defensive leaders did not play, mostly because of injuries, including linebackers Skai Moore, Jonathan Walton (fatherhood), Jordan Diggs and Darius English, as well as defensive tackle Dante Sawyer and safety D.J. Smith.
22. Redshirt freshman linebacker Sherrod Pittman led the defense with seven tackles. Sacks were credited to Boosie Whitlow (2), Ulric Jones, T.J. Holloman and Javion Duncan. Defensive lineman Dexter Wideman had four tackles and a QB hurry. Safety Toure Boyd had two tackles for loss, indicative of how actives DBs were chasing down screens.
23. Muschamp listed the following among his top post-spring concerns: finding a quarterback, playmakers on offense and the secondary.
24. Muschamp singled singled out true freshmen Brandon McIlwain, Bryan Edwards, Keir Thomas and Kobe Smith for their improvement over the 15 spring practices. He cited Deebo Samuel and David Williams as top team playmakers and praised the offensive and defensive lines as a whole. Muschamp said he felt very good about linebackers and again praised the effort of Bryson Allen-Williams.
25. AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells” was played (a lot) on third downs Saturday. The use of the tune began last year when Shawn Elliott became interim head coach.
This story was originally published April 11, 2016 at 3:12 PM with the headline "25 things you might have missed from South Carolina’s spring game."