The problem with going fast for South Carolina’s offensive line
South Carolina and new offensive coordinator Bryan McClendon work on speeding up the Gamecocks offense, which means offensive line coach Eric Wolford will be watching for something very specific this season.
“The thing I have to pay attention to, when you go fast, obviously there’s more fatigue that starts to set in and when fatigue starts to set in, you start to play higher,” Wolford said. “I’ve got to continue to do a good job of when we’re going fast, making sure we’re playing with pad level because if we can go fast and play with pad level, we will have a much better chance of having success on the line of scrimmage.”
The Gamecocks ran 802 offensive plays last year (61.7 per game), the 10th-fewest in the SEC, but that number figures to go way up this year under McClendon.
“As players get tired, I see both lines of scrimmage starting to get higher,” Wolford said. “We have to find a way when it’s play 60, play 70, play 80 that we can play with pad level and that will give us the opportunity to win games in the fourth quarter.”
This story was originally published July 27, 2018 at 5:48 PM.