Every week in a season, especially with a SEC team coming to town, is a big one but this week seems a little bit bigger for South Carolina and its run game.
The Gamecocks have struggled to get the run game off the ground, coming to a head with just 2.8 yards per rush against Georgia, and with Kentucky coming to Williams-Brice this week could be big in figuring out what South Carolina is best at on the ground.
“We’re still learning a lot about our football team and our running backs are still, and not to make excuses for them, knocking the rust off in some ways and continuing to learn us as well,” Shane Beamer said. “This is a big week from that standpoint. We need to be able to hang our hat on something we can run and we’re not quite there yet. We will be.”
Also see: Redshirt tracker after week three
After starting slow but clicking late the first two weeks of the season, both wins, the Gamecocks couldn’t get much going in the run game on the road in the SEC, rushing 34 times for 96 yards with just one run of at least 12 yards.
The bread and butter run game, according to SEC Stat Cat, was the inside zone read; it was run 12 times with a 25 percent success rate.
Inside and outside power were each run five times a piece with relative success, working 60 percent of the time albeit on limited sample size.
“We didn’t do a lot of good last night. That’s all of us: coaches, offensive line, tight ends, running backs, quarterbacks,” Beamer said. “We have to be able to run the ball more effectively. It’s a combination of things last night…We have to continue to look at what our offensive line does well, what our running backs run well and have confidence in running.”
Also see: Evaluating Luke Doty's game against Georgia
Through three games, the Gamecocks have run either inside zone read or inside power 69 times this year according to data from SEC Stat Cat with a success rate for both hovering around 41 percent.
South Carolina’s success rate on inside zone ready is 40 percent while inside power is 41.7 percent.
One of their best run schemes for the Gamecocks offensively this season has been outside zone, where the success rate is right around 47.4 percent, the highest success rate of any scheme with at least 15 attempts.
Despite some struggles, Beamer thinks there’s still plenty of time for the run game to turn into something the Gamecocks can lean on this year.
“I’ve said all along I think this offensive line can be a strength of this offense cause of the guys we have returning. Our running backs can be a strength of this offense because of the guys we have returning. I don’t feel any differently today. We have to continue to look at that.”
Also see: Early expected visitor list this weekend
They’ve used four backs through three games with ZaQuandre White, Juju McDowell, MarShawn Lloyd and Kevin Harris with varying degrees of success.
Juju McDowell, second among running backs averaging 5.1 yards per attempt, didn’t have a carry Saturday and was only targeted once in the pass game with Beamer saying the plan was for him to play early but when he was in it “wasn’t probably the best situation to put Juju in run-pass wise.”
“A lot of that was how the game was going and some plays that were going to be called when he was in there,” Beamer said. “We ask our running backs to do everything. We don’t try and limit guys to one thing but there were a couple situations when Juju would have been in there where we felt a little bit better about Kevin, MarShawn and ZaQuandre.”
----
• Not a subscriber? Learn more about Gamecock Central here!
• Watch our live show and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
• Sign up for Gamecock Central's FREE news alerts and daily newsletter.
• Subscribe to our podcast on whatever podcast platform you prefer!
• Follow us on Twitter: @GamecockCentral, @GCChrisClark, @WesMitchellGC, @CollynTaylor.
• Follow Gamecock Central on Instagram @GamecockCentral.
