With two truly healthy scholarship quarterbacks on the roster, one of which was the scout team quarterback before the bye week, South Carolina is leaving no stone unturned behind center.
Luke Doty is already on the shelf and Zeb Noland is coming back from knee surgery, leaving just Jason Brown and Colten Gauthier as the only two scholarship quarterbacks operating at maximum capacity.
Because of that, they put out an APB for players on the roster with quarterback experience and in stepped freshman receiver O’Mega Blake.
“They said, ‘Satt you need to watch the defensive scout period with O’Mega Blake. I thought running routes or something. He was dropping dimes, man. It was impressive,” offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield said. “So got to again exhaust all options. I mean, he really did look good throwing the football yesterday against the defense so that's something you have to do to.”
Blake, who played quarterback along with receiver and cornerback at South Pointe (S.C.) High School, answered the bat signal this week and is taking reps with the scout team to try and mirror Florida’s two-headed attack at quarterback.
“Florida has two guys that can run it and throw it so you try to find guys have played high school quarterback and let them run around and run the ball and run-pass options and things of that nature,” Satterfield said. “I think they were just they asked around who played some quarterback in O’Mega volunteered for it. Then when he went out there was I amazed how well he did play quarterback.”
His job over this week of preparation is to replicate as well as he can the skill sets of Emory Jones and Anthony Richardson, two mobile and athletic quarterbacks in Dan Mullen’s fifth-ranked offense in the SEC by offensive rating.
Both are good passers—Jones is sixth among qualified quarterbacks in yards per pass attempt at 7.5 and Richardson is averaging 8.3 in 57 attempts—but where they can also hurt a defense is on the ground.
Jones and Richardson each have Pro Football Focus rushing grades no lower than 81 with Richardson averaging 10.5 yards per attempt and Jones 6.4.
The two are not just scramblers with a combined 85 designed carries this season and a combined 27 rushes of at least 10 yards. They’ve forced 35 missed tackles and 457 yards after contact.
Which is why having a receiver and former quarterback like Blake replicating the speed is beneficial in practice.
“It’s big time for us to be able to replicate that speed and just that tempo of certain plays,” Clayton White said. “A lot of times quarterbacks you know, for the most part aren't as quick as the guy that they have at Florida and so you got to make sure your defensive guys are used to that look so when they get to Saturday that's not the first time we're seeing that kind of speed.”
South Carolina’s pass rush is one of the best in the SEC and by proxy the country, spearheaded by potential first-round pick JJ Enagbare.
They’ve generated 114 quarterback pressures, an average of 14.3 per game, with 70 hurries but having not one but two mobile quarterbacks to deal with is a big test and something White is pushing daily in practice.
“Can you keep it on the players’ minds? So they're not going too far too and too crazy to pass rush moves, understanding who you’re playing. You do a great job of studying where the quarterback likes to throw the ball from, how deep is he and the timing of when they step up and run the ball,” White said.
“So those are the kind of guys who just continue coaching and I guys had to come and get the film and understand and take the coaching to the field on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and then take it to the field on Saturday.”
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