Last season was a struggle for South Carolina offensively for a lot of reasons, one of those being the passing game.

To try and remedy some of those issues, Will Muschamp shook things up; he demoted Bryan McClendon and hired Mike Bobo, brought in Joe Cox and Des Kitchings in efforts to revitalize the offense.

In this, we’ll look at the good and the bad of the passing game last season, and what can be improved to show improvement in 2020.

The passing game exceled when it didn’t have to air the ball out, completing 73.1 percent of passes 10 yards or shorter from the line of scrimmage and averaging 5.6 yards per completion but really struggled trying to go down field.

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In passes 10 or more yards down field, the Gamecocks completed just 35.1 percent of their passes and averaged 7.5 yards per attempt, which should be higher since the ball is going further downfield.

On throws 10 yards or fewer down the field, the Gamecocks had an average quarterback rating of 92.1 compared to a QBR of 67.5 on throws 10 yards or more.

That’s the biggest issue of why the offense bogged down in the passing game at times, but those problems are easily fixable, at least on paper.

Obviously these things are easily said and done and require minor to major schematic tweaks, and it’ll be up to new offensive coordinator Mike Bobo to figure out how all of these pieces fit together.

The biggest piece is becoming more explosive—something Will Muschamp said needs to happen—which comes with completing more passes and finding someone that can give the Gamecocks a downfield threat.

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The Gamecocks only completed eight passes (out of 41 attempts) on balls 20-plus yards down the field and that’s in large part because they didn’t have many vertical threats capable of taking a top off a defense.

Shi Smith seems like the natural to be that guy who can be an explosive play threat as arguably the fastest offensive skill player on the team that’s also the most experienced guy on the team.

One of the biggest reasons the Gamecocks struggled to move the ball consistently was became they couldn’t get big, chunk plays and were forced to try and move the ball in short gains, which can be difficult to keep up for a 60-minute game.

The Gamecocks also struggled to throw the ball under pressure compared to when Ryan Hilinski had a clean pocket.

South Carolina had an adjusted completion percentage last year of 54.4 percent when pressured, averaging 5.1 yards per completion with a 40.3 Pro Football Focus grade.

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When the quarterback wasn’t pressured, he had an adjusted completion percentage of 72.6 percent, averaged six yards per attempt with a 67.8 overall PFF grade.

Being able to handle pressure better and keep whoever’s starting at quarterback from having to scramble or rush anything.

Plus, a hurried quarterback doesn’t have the time to air a ball out 20-plus yards down the field, which limits South Carolina’s explosiveness.

In reality, it’s not just one issue that caused the passing game to struggle like it did at times last year.

Inexperience and injuries were factors, but those should be fixed this season, which means now it’s all about Bobo finding ways to become more explosive—and nailing down a downfield threat—and continue to get better up front to allow the quarterback more time to throw.