Before even playing a snap of South Carolina’s game-winning drive Saturday, Zeb Noland came up to Juju McDowell in the huddle and delivered a message.
McDowell was about to be the feature back on what will be the Gamecocks’ penultimate drive of the game and Noland wanted to calm the freshman’s nerves.
"I got in the huddle and said, 'Look dude you were made for this,’” Noland said." adding, "I said just don't fumble and hang on to it and let's roll."
Ten plays, 54 yards and a Parker White field goal later the Gamecocks won in large part because of McDowell’s contributions not only on that drive but the game as a whole.
He accounted for 83 percent of the offense's 54 yards on the final drive and Shane Beamer said he had nothing wrong with leaving McDowell in during a big moment.
"When JuJu went out there I felt fine with it," Beamer said. "It wasn't like I was involved with some long discussion on what running back to put out there, we have confidence in all our running backs and JuJu was certainly fresh and running that ball."
Despite having some older, arguably more talented running backs in the room ahead of him, it was McDowell said he wasn't surprised he was kept in the game during crunch time.
"I didn't really surprise myself," McDowell said. "Coach puts every back in those situations every single week in practice."
After ZaQuandre White stepped up to lead the running back room this week, McDowell separated himself as the leader against East Carolina, racking up a team-best 11 attempts and averaging 6.5 yards per carry.
On top of that, McDowell had an impact on special teams with a 63-yard kickoff return to set up a game-tying field goal in the fourth quarter.
"Whenever your number is called you've gotta go out there and make play," Vann said. "He stepped in and got us down the field for the game winning field goal kick."
His performance was part of a second-half resurgence in the Gamecocks’ run game with South Carolina picking up 124 yards and averaging 5.4 yards per carry after halftime.
During halftime Beamer and offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield told the running backs that they were going to be relied on heavily in the second half.
"If we're going to get beat," Beamer said, "we sure as heck better get beat handing the ball to those guys."
With SEC play starting next week in McDowell’s home state of Georgia against the No. 2 Bulldogs, it wouldn’t be insane to think McDowell earned himself a little more playing time.
"He's definitely going to be a good player for us. Ever since he came in he's just had something different about him,” JJ Enagbare said. "He just carried himself different, deep down he's got that dog in him."
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