To say it’s been a puzzling season offensively for the Gamecocks would be an understatement as South Carolina started four different quarterbacks, winning games with each, in an consistently inconsistent year offensively.
South Carolina did end with a high note, putting up Marcus Satterfield’s magnum opus with a 38-point output against North Carolina leading to the question of exactly how much of what the Gamecocks did is replicable moving into 2022.
“A lot of it will carry over. A lot of the plays we were running today were the exact same plays we ran in the auburn game….That’s essentially what we ran today,” Shane Beamer said.
“It wasn’t like some new run scheme for this game. We ran the same runs we’ve been running all year but we just had the element of the quarterback now pulling it more than we’ve had also.”
South Carolina averaged a season-best 8.2 yards per play, over 16 yards per pass attempt and nearly six yards per carry in what was a largely out of character performance in Dakereon Joyner’s first start at quarterback.
It came just a few weeks after being shutout by Clemson, and now the Gamecocks are bringing in a group of offensive players like Austin Stogner and Spencer Rattler to pair with guys like Josh Vann, Jaheim Bell and others to try and build on last week’s performances.
“We don’t listen to the outside noise about what they have to say about our coaches. It’s a team game. It’s not just one person’s fault,” Bell said. “Maybe the last week everybody on offense was keyed into the details. That’s what meant the most. The small things that we did in practice gave us success.”
In reality, the two best Gamecock offensive outputs—home vs. Florida and against North Carolina—came with extra time to prepare.
In those games South Carolina averaged 39 points, 7.6 yards per play and 10 explosive plays per game in two wins compared to 17 points, 4.8 yards per play and 6.1 explosive plays against FBS opponents with no extra time.
“I understand we have to be a whole lot more consistent. We looked great today, we looked great against Auburn, we looked great against Florida. We all saw us against Texas A&M, Missouri and Clemson. The consistency, I’m well aware we have to be more consistent. The bowl game, to win and go into the offseason with so much momentum and so much belief with our players,” Beamer said. “I can’t wait to get back and get right back to work.”
Now the Gamecocks get more talent and depth into the program with a handful of returners who made an impact this season and will need to try and build off the bowl game performance.
“People have to understand it’s a first year coach in a first year atmosphere and we had players who had never been in the same room together. It takes time. As the season progressed people started to understand that and see how we progressed in our games,” Juju McDowell said.
“Coach Satterfield, he’s the type of person where he’s genuine. He cares about the players. He cares about progression. He’s not the type of coach who wants the accolades under his belt. He puts everybody on the field in the position to put the accolades under their belt and make the team successful.”
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