A big concern for the Gamecocks offensively

The Gamecock offense isn't firing on all cylinders, and one of the main reasons is that Bryan Edwards is the team's only explosive threat on the field.

But, there's a larger, easily fixable issue that could be helpful if the Gamecocks (4-6, 3-4 SEC) wanted to address it.

“We need to cut down on the penalties," Will Muschamp said. "There’s no doubt about it. Self-inflicted wounds, especially offensively, we’re not as explosive as we need to be so it’s hard to make up the yardage in the hidden yards you’re losing in penalties. There’s no question it’s a concern.”

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The Gamecocks have committed an SEC-worst 71 penalties this season and are third worst in terms of penalty yards in the SEC with 582, which is good for the 39th-worst in the country.

In five of their nine games against FBS teams, they've committed more penalties than opponents and have been penalized for more yards in seven of those.

They've committed eight or more penalties five times, including Saturday night when they committed eight for 50 yards in a 20-15 loss to App State.

Some of those came in crucial moments, too.

They had a false start right after crossing midfield early in the second half against the Mountaineers and had back-to-back holding penalties to end the game.

“The whole game, penalties killed us. We killed ourselves. You can’t do that, no matter who you’re playing,” Donell Stanley said. “I thought we were in a good spot and we got a holding call. In desperation mode, no timeouts and 10 seconds left, we just have to be better.”

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Some of it is poor execution—the holdings, the pass interferences—but the Gamecocks have made mental mistake after mental mistake and ultimately that falls on coaching.

They had a handful of false starts and two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties after pushing and shoving from Cam Smith and Javon Kinlaw.

They also were whistled for 12 men on the field between the third and fourth quarter after having an entire commercial break to discuss which play they would be running.

“That’s certainly a concern. We had three situations where we’re in no-huddle and have to make sure everyone’s set, especially in some of our empty sets. With guys spreading out, we have to make sure they’re set. That’s something we need to be able to handle.”