SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL
It’s always hard to evaluate freshmen in the SEC, and even harder to evaluate freshmen quarterbacks in the conference.
The Gamecocks (4-7, 3-5 SEC) are starting one of those true freshman this year in Ryan Hilinski, and Will Muschamp said because of the team’s offensive inconsistency makes it hard to really evaluate how good or bad Hilinski’s been this season.
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“I think that’s very fair to say,” he said. “I think the inconsistency around him have created more issues for a very young player at the most important position on the field. I think that’s a very fair assessment. It’s hard to evaluate.”
Also see: Patrick Iriel's 'nowhere near his ceiling'
The Gamecocks are 4-6 with Hilinski leading the offense that includes wins over Charleston Southern, Georgia, Kentucky and Vanderbilt.
The offense has been clunky and bogged down in recent weeks, averaging 16.5 points, 358.25 yards over their last three games while quarterbacks are completing 55.4 percent of passes and averaging 273.5 yards passing over that stretch.
“Ryan’s done some very good things for us. We have to play better around him. He’ll be the first person to tell you he’d like to make some better decisions and been more accurate with the football. We have to continue to work in practice. That’ll be good this week to narrow some things down we feel good about going to playing a good Clemson defense.”
The Good
After 10 starts, Hilinski is eighth in the SEC in total offense and sixth among quarterbacks in passing yards per game (225.2). In SEC games only he’s seventh in passing yards per game (205.6) and ninth in total offense.
He’s on pace this season (11 starts) for 242 completions on 417 attempts for 2,477 yards with a 3-to-1 touchdown to interception ratio. If those numbers hold, it’d be the fourth-most attempts in a single season at South Carolina, fifth-most completions and finish eight yards shy of the tenth most yards in a season.
Also see: Which players have the highest PFF grades with one game to go
The only other Gamecock quarterback since 2000 with at least 240 completions, 400 attempts and 2,400 yards was Stephen Garcia.
His 69.4 percent adjusted completion is seventh most among freshmen quarterbacks with at least 50 attempts this season, and it’s the highest in the SEC. His 1,895 yards passing without facing pressure is also best in the SEC among freshmen, the fourth-most nationally.
Facing a clean pocket, he has a Pro Football Focus grade of 70.5 and has an NFL rating of 87.8 in 311 drop backs. He’s also thrown just four interceptions, averaging just one interception every 94.8 attempts.
The Bad
Hilinski hasn’t been the most accurate with the football or handling pressure this season. If his numbers stay the same, he’d finish with a 58 percent completion percentage, which would be one of just 16 quarterbacks since 2000 with a completion percentage under 60 percent.
Only two other freshmen since 2000 have finished with at least 100 attempts and a sub-60 percent completion percentage and those are Chris Smelley (2007, 56.8 percent) and Brandon McIlwain (2016, 52.5 percent).
Facing pressure this season, he has a 37.6 PFF grade and has a 52.3 adjusted completion percentage with a 49.2 NFL quarterback rating.
Also see: Insider notes on the snap count from last weekend
The other guys
Once Jake Bentley went down after the season opener, South Carolina’s played two primary quarterbacks the last 10 games with Dakereon Joyner taking some snaps as well.
Joyner, who was a big piece of the Gamecocks’ 20-17 win over then-No. 3 Georgia, is 16-for-28 passing for 168 yards but has primarily been used in the running game where he has 29 carries for 107 yards, averaging 3.7 yards per carry, and a touchdown.
His most efficient day passing came Saturday in a 30-6 loss to Texas A&M where he completed three of four passes for 40 yards with a long of 25.
“We thought he did a nice job. He had a nice hole ball on the sideline on a Cover 2 look there. We had a little yogi route he hit to Kyle Markway. He did some nice things on a limited possession.”
Joyner has an overall PFF grade of 58 this season, a pass grade of 55.4 and a running grade of 65.9.
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