SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL

Ernest Jones is going to be a busy man Saturday night.

The job of a middle linebacker is always a complicated on game day, tasked with making sure the other 10 players are lined up and also doing his job, but his duties become a lot more difficult with App State bringing in an offense that tries to confuse it’s opponents with a lot of pre-snap motion.

“This week, it’s going to be good,” Jones said. “I believe if I’m communicating well enough and doing my job to the best of my ability, the stress wont be as bad for everybody else. They’ll be able to get lined up and play faster. I’m putting a lot on myself to make sure I’m studying the film and I know each check they’re going to make.”

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The Gamecocks (4-5, 3-4 SEC) host the always-dangerous Mountaineers Saturday and the defense is preparing to be tested with a lot of distractions before the snap.

The term players and coaches is window dressing, which means teams running their typical offense and same routes and route concepts just out of different formations with a lot of movement pre-snap to try and confuse the defense.

As the Gamecocks began watching film earlier in the week, they notice the Mountaineers didn’t do a lot of different schematic things, but they did a lot of different motions to make it look unique.

“It’s more so window dressing. When you look back to it, it’s the same scheme and they just get to it a different way,” Jones said. “You just have to be locked in; this is one of those games where it’s not too much of them. The success from them will come from what we’re doing. If we’re not in the right spot, they’ll have success with the ball.”

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So, how does a team prepare for a lot of movement pre-snap? It’s easier said than done.

It’s up to Jones to get everyone aligned but each position group has their own players to key on before the ball is snapped.

"In every defense in all 11 players, there's a pre-snap key. So as an on the line player, your eyes are going to be either on the guy you're lined up on or an adjacent player," Will Muschamp said. "From a linebacker standpoint, generally our keys are in the back field, whether it be the offset back, whether it be what we would call the sniffer, the offset tight end, depending on the run game it could be the back. Generally we'll have as a corner, your general keys are either the guy you're aligned on or somebody adjacent inside, whether it be a tight end, or a number two receiver. And then depending on coverage, your safeties are going to be aligned on either a tight end a number two receiver, a nub side key in through the uncovered guard on a back side if you're a spun down safety in some form of sky for us."

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It’s harder to do with Appalachian State because the Mountaineers, who operate an up-tempo offense, because they move so fast it could be hard for a defense to read its keys and get aligned quickly enough.

Through eight games, App State is averaging 38.5 points, 232.6 yards rushing, 204.9 yards passing and 437.5 yards per game.

"So every defense has a different key, and then when motion occurs, sometimes that key could change based on who is motioning and that's where they try and get you a little confused, but they do a really nice job of creating a lot of window dressing, as far as motions and things are concerned,” Muschamp said. “But then also mixing that with tempos, so you can't not get aligned, get your cleats in the dirt, get your eyes in the right spot, all of a sudden the ball's being snapped and they're running, they're going fast, as opposed to they also mix the tempos with a motion, a motion then a reset, a motion then the snap, so you've got to just be alert in what you're trying to do and have your eyes in the right spots, but I think that eye control's critical for us on Saturday.”

Window dressing is a pretty common process in college football with South Carolina doing a lot of it as well.

While it gets a defense potentially out of position, it can also make a defense tip its hand as to what coverage it’s in that play.

“When you’re doing it, you can easily tell what defense they’re in,” Kyle Markway said. “It’s always good for Ryan (Hilinski) to get that look and get the right play call out there."