Muschamp addresses fourth-quarter play calling

SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL

With just under five minutes to go in the third quarter South Carolina was looking pretty. The Gamecocks were up three scores on a top-20 Florida team and were looking to finally put the game away.

That didn’t happen.

Instead, the Gamecocks struggled to move the ball offensively, and the Gators turned into a rush-happy offense as they stormed back to score 21 unanswered points in a 35-31 South Carolina loss.

After the game, Muschamp said he didn’t see a problem with the play-calling and Florida made more plays.

“We were running the same thing we were running early in the game and having a lot of success,” he said. “We had the same run checks that we felt good about. They did a little better job leveraging the football in some situations. We felt good about where we were.”

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The Gamecocks (5-4, 4-4 SEC) went up 31-14 with 4:41 left in the third quarter and didn’t score again the remainder of the game.

They’d have three more drives to score points and halt Florida’s momentum but couldn’t move the ball consistently, picking up just two first downs on the next three drives.

Of the 14 plays they ran, nine were runs compared to just five passes. They picked up 29 total yards, averaging just over two yards per play.

Jake Bentley was just 1-for-5 after going up by 17 points, completing one pass for seven yards and throwing an interception.

After the game, Muschamp said a lot of the calls were ones that were successful as the Gamecocks steamrolled through a Florida defense, putting up 31 points on 339 yards prior to that.

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“We’ve called the same things we were calling to get to that point,” Muschamp said. “We hit a slant for 89 yards, the same things we called later in the game but had some drops late in the game that gave them some opportunities. We had some run checks that they leveraged and did a better job than us.”

Bryan Edwards and Deebo Samuel did not have a yard of offense in the fourth quarter despite Edwards being targeted twice on the team’s final offensive drive.

“Everything coach McClendon does I agree with,” said Samuel, who had 120 yards receiving through three quarters. “I wouldn’t say I there was a call that shouldn’t have been made.”

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The Gamecocks watched offensively as the defense gave up 21 unanswered points, 14 of those coming in the fourth quarter to fall 35-31 and end a two game winning streak.

Offensively South Carolina couldn’t stopped the bleeding as Florida used inconsistent offense from the Gamecocks to seize and hold on to all of the momentum.

“I don’t think it was anything they did. It was all on us, just like it is every play of every game,” Jacob August said. “It’s all that we do. They were playing hard, they’ were good, physical athletic team but it was just what we did.”