When a team is breaking in a new coordinator, the more reps in the spring and preseason camp the better.
The only problem for Ryan Hilinski and the rest of South Carolina’s quarterbacks is they only got five practices with Mike Bobo before spring practice shut down and only had a month of OTA-style workouts before the start of preseason camp.
But, the lack of spring practice hasn’t stopped Hilinski from feeling good about where the offense is heading.
“I feel good in the new offense. It requires a lot out of our footwork to be improved upon and I’m improving everyday,” he said. “I feel good; the legs feel good. The mind is racing but it feels good to understand the playbook. That’s coming along. Mentally and physically I feel really good.”
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Hilinski is one of four quarterbacks vying for the starting job along with graduate transfer Collin Hill, redshirt junior Jay Urich and freshman Luke Doty.
They’re all breaking in a new quarterbacks coach after Dan Werner left this offseason and Bobo came in to coach the position and coordinate the offense.
While they haven’t gotten a lot of actual on-field time with Bobo since he arrived in December, Hilinski and the rest of the quarterbacks have spent plenty of time with him in the meeting rooms and Hilinski likes what he’s seen from his new coach and coordinator.
“He requires a lot out of you. He requires near-perfection. If you’re not at perfection, the whole offense is messed up. If you mess up one thing here or there, he demands perfection,” Hilinski said. “He’s a really good guy off the field. He talks to you about devotionals, talks to you about a lot of good stuff and asks about your family but when it comes to football time we’re full go and fully invested. He requires the most of us and I love his on the field coaching. He gets fired up and that’s good for us.”
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Hilinski hasn’t gotten much on-field practice time to soak in the system but he has been in the team’s OTA-style workouts, which gives him a little bit of a jumpstart on learning the system before preseason camp.
What he has learned is he needs to continue to improve his footwork and get confident in making all of the calls Bobo is expecting of him.
“It requires a lot out of the quarterback and if you don’t know it, you’re not going to pay,” Hilinski said. “I’ve been studying the playbook as much as I can to master it because you have to go out there with confidence. If you don’t go out there with confidence, other guys aren’t going to have confidence.”
Hilinski, the incumbent starter, is coming off an up-and-down freshman season where he only completed 5.8 yards per attempt and completed 58.1 percent of passes but became just the second quarterback since 2000 to throw for at least 2,300 yards, 10 touchdowns and fewer than five interceptions.
Connor Shaw was the other one.
He’s in the middle of a competition for the starting job and working on improving after he and Bobo spent the offseason critiquing film.
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“Watching film with Coach Bobo, some of it’s hard to watch. I know I could have done better on some of the plays and know I could have made a better throw or made a better progression or scrambled on some plays,” Hilinski said. “Those are good things to improve on and have to acknowledge those. I want to look at the bad stuff I can improve on. I think we improve on the little things after watching the film, which we’re doing; it’s going to be a way better season this year. We’re excited."
