How South Carolina can measure offensive progress in 2020

If you’re looking for a microcosm of South Carolina’s offense last season, look no further than the final three games of the Gamecocks’ 4-8 season.

They scored one touchdown the final three games, averaging eight points and 3.9 yards per play, prompting wholesale changes on the offensive staff.

Mike Bobo takes over as the offensive coordinator with head coach Will Muschamp asking for a few measurable ways to track progress.

“Scoring points. At the end of the day we have to be more productive,” Muschamp said. “I think we scored one touchdown in the last three games last year. We lost a lot of confidence, which doesn’t just affect your offense it affects your football team.”

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Anemic is a word tossed around to describe this offense as the Gamecocks, averaging just 5.2 yards per play, 5.7 yards per pass—which Muschamp called “horrible”—and were just 32 percent on third down and less than 50 percent on red zone touchdowns.

The Gamecocks shook up the offensive staff, bringing in a new coordinator and quarterbacks coach (Bobo), receivers coach (Joe Cox) and running backs coach (Des Kitchings) with the only two returners being line coach Eric Wolford and tight ends coach Bobby Bentley.

Bobo arrived in December and began installing the offense with the hopes of resurrecting a sputtering offense from 2019.

“The number one stat is winning ball games. I do believe we need to be balanced. We have to be able to run the ball effectively,” Bobo said. “That doesn’t mean we’re going to rush it 35 times and pass it 35 times. We have to be able to establish the run game and be able to stretch the field vertically.”

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To expect South Carolina to go from where it was, which was near the bottom of the SEC, to be putting up LSU numbers from last season is a little far-fetched, but there are ways to measure progress.

Bobo wants to see yards per play, yards per attempt and the team’s red zone and third down efficiency numbers go up, all of which would show marked improvement.

Through camp it’s been so far so good for the Gamecocks under Bobo.

“I’ve been very pleased with what Mike has done, our offensive staff, the buy in from our offensive players. We’ve had more success offensively in a fall camp than we’ve had in a long time here as far as being productive, being aggressive and doing the things we need to do to be successful,” Muschamp said. “I measure it on winning games because that’s the bottom line, but we need to score more points.”

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The Gamecocks get to unveil their new system Saturday against Tennessee and a chance to show improvement, even incrementally, as they try to wash the taste of 2019 out of their mouths.

Confidence seems higher this year about the multiplicity of this unit and the ability to put points on the board.

“I think Coach Bobo just touched on it: every time we step into Williams-Brice we want to bust the scoreboard,” Ryan Hilinski said. “Go out there and execute and bust the scoreboard. In the end, we trust our defense; we trust Coach Muschamp and everything they’re doing. We just want to win ball games.”