More 'creative' playbook coming in second year under Roper

Last year it was somewhat of a trial by fire for Jake Bentley. He became a starting quarterback in the SEC at 18, just six games into his college career. As a freshman, he spent the last seven weeks of the season trying win games while still learning the Gamecocks’ offense.

The offense was a little dialed back last season, trying to scheme plays and opportunities for an inexperienced offense and young skill position players.

“You try to protect quarterbacks with play calls. The more I get comfortable with his understanding, the more he has,” offensive coordinator Kurt Roper said of Bentley. “It’s just the way it is.”

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The Gamecocks return 10 starters on offense, including every skill player. Three players—Bentley, Bryan Edwards and Rico Dowdle—are all sophomores who played significant snaps their freshman years.

With all of those pieces returning, the players think they’ll be more creative this year on offense. Tight end Hayden Hurst said there are a lot of moving pieces and Bentley said he’s excited to take the reigns off the playbook.

“Last year we were kind of limited because we didn’t’ have much time to learn the plays and the concepts, so we had to keep things in one specific way,” tight end Jacob August said. “Now that we all know what we’re doing and we have more depth, we can really expand the playbook.”

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Practice just started on Monday and the Gamecocks have spent less than five hours on the practice field to start installing of Roper’s system.

Players are still working on learning the plays and calls, spending over 12 hours a day in the football offices in practice or meetings.

Camp is a time for younger players and transfers, like running back Ty’Son Williams, to get acquainted with the terminology. A.J. Turner, who started four games last season, said he’s working with younger players on the playbook.

Through the first two days of practice, he hasn’t seen any new interesting wrinkles in the offense, but is expecting it with him, Williams and Dowdle.

“I haven’t seen anything too crazy, but I’m waiting for it,” he said, smiling. “I’m waiting for them to put all three of us in the backfield.”

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Roper said he tried to install a lot of the offense last season with the idea that it wouldn’t be used in a game situation but to get the players more comfortable in the system. Now, it’s something that could pay dividends.

The Gamecocks are expecting a high-powered offense this year, one that could score a lot of points. Lineman Zack Bailey said the goal is always to score more points, and thinks this year’s offense could do just that.

“It takes more points to win today that it did when I first got into this year. I think you have to have an aggressive mindset and go out and try to score points,” Roper said. “You want to do it by controlling the ball. If you can score points and not have to give up the ball, it’d be even better.”

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There are just 24 more practices left before the Gamecocks travel up to Charlotte, North Carolina for their first game against NC State. The offense will continue its install of Roper’s playbook over the coming weeks, with the idea of adding wrinkle after wrinkle to keep defenses guessing throughout the season.

“The more you have, the more they have to work,” Roper said. “The more formations you throw out there the better. I do think if you can use the same personnel groupings and get in the same formations, then that’s harder on a defensive coordinator.”