To expect what happened Saturday night against Florida given the Gamecocks’ prior offensive performances would have been going out on the longest limb possible but 40 points and over 400 yards later and it was the team’s best performance of the season.
Behind Jason Brown at quarterback the Gamecocks walloped the Gators and now have a brighter outlook offensively, it seems, as they sit on the precipice of bowl eligibility.
Now it’s about stringing together consistency, something elusive so far this year, with the Gamecocks hoping what they saw against the Gators is replicable on the road against Missouri.
“I would hope all of it is. We ran some different schemes the other night specific to Florida but it’s not like all of the sudden we came out with a whole new offense. We ran a lot of the same plays over and over against Florida multiple times,” Shane Beamer said.
“There are schemes specific to the opponent but we’ve got to continue to b e efficient and play with great physicality and competitive sprit like we did the other night. That’s one thing we have to keep going on that I hope will carry over.”
The Gamecocks (5-4, 2-4 SEC) were the most explosive they had been all season and rushed for 284 yards, a season-high, en route to the largest margin of victory against a non-Vanderbilt SEC team since 2017.
They’d rattle off six runs of at least 12 yards with no rushes of zero yards or a loss with more gap scheme runs compared to the previous few weeks.
“Running as a whole, we’re going to run the ball each week as many times as possible. In the SEC we have to be able to run the ball and stop the run. That’s what we harp on,” MarShawn Lloyd said. “The last couple weeks we’re going to run the ball and our defense is going to stop the run.”
Brown looked competent in his first FBS start, averaging 7.3 yards per attempt with two scores and no interceptions but he and the offense, despite moving the ball well, only managed two red zone touchdowns on five attempts.
The Gamecocks kicked four field goals, which is great for Parker White but speaks to the need for more efficient red zone offense. The Gamecocks were also 2-for-12 on third down and averaged less than three yards per play on that play.
“Parker was the SEC special teams player of the week because we kicked four field goals. As much as I love those four field goals, I’d love to have four touchdowns and let him kick extra points. We have to finish drives. That’s a big challenge for us. We weren’t great on third down the other night against Florida. Part of that was because we had some third downs where we ran it because we knew we’d go for it on fourth down,” Beamer said.
“Primarily let’s be better on third downs, lets try to score touchdowns in the red zone and let’s build on what we did well: one penalty, no turnovers ands run the ball efficiently. We’ll have to make some plays in the passing game this week to win the football game, there’s no doubt about it.”
The Gamecocks are hoping what they saw Saturday from the offense and Marcus Satterfield was proof of concept and what they did schematically offensively carry over into Missouri this weekend.
“I think we’ll continue to do what we need to do,” Nick Muse said. “We saw a good piece of how we can do it we ain’t seen in a while. We just have to build on that. It’s a big momentum shift and hope to build on it.”
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