As Mike Bobo tries to improve the South Carolina offense, the Gamecocks' new offensive coordinator will do so with a rushing scheme that looks drastically different than the one that struggled down the stretch last season.

Head coach Will Muschamp has spoken several times about how the staff as a group needs to do more to help its quarterback than it did with freshman Ryan Hilinski last year.

Muschamp, who spoke about the offense and the need to be balanced, shouldered the blame for that when he joined the Sports Talk Radio Network earlier this week.

"Mike is a firm believer that you've got to be able to run the football and I think that our running game is going to be drastically different, schematically, from a year ago," Muschamp said. "Now there are a lot of the same passing concepts, obviously, Coach McClendon and Coach Bobo's backgrounds together that we have. There will be a little bit more under-center than we've been before in our previous three years. ... There will be some drastically different run schemes that maybe South Carolina fans haven't seen."

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That's not to say the Gamecocks are going to a run-heavy scheme -- just that they'll likely run it more than they did last season when they threw it more than any other team in the league during the regular season.

It's been clear for some time that the scheme would be different. The addition of more under-center looks and a fullback have been staples of Bobo's offenses in the past.

But specifics about the scheme for 2020 have been more difficult to come by as the staff tries to determine what their personnel does best and the Gamecocks' spring practice was cut short after just five workouts.

But there are at least two things that have already become obvious: the Gamecocks will almost surely run the football more in 2020 than they did in 2019 and freshman running back Marshawn Lloyd, a former five-star recruit, will be a heavy focus in those plans.

"What I'll tell you about MarShawn, I think he's about as competitive of a young man as I've been around and I mean that in a very positive way," Muschamp said. "... He's a very talented guy, but he's the first one in the meeting room. Coach Bentley at the time and now Des Kitchings talk in terms of, he's always got questions, he's always asking the right kinds of questions. Obviously, God's blessed him with a lot of ability. He's got lateral change of direction, he's got vertical, he's got good vision and we've good competition in the room."

The Gamecocks lost four seniors from that room, if you count two-way player A.J. Turner, in Rico Dowdle, Tavien Feaster and Mon Denson. But despite that, Kitchings should have plenty of pieces to work with, especially with the addition of the three-man recruiting class signed by Thomas Brown that includes Lloyd, JUCO transfer ZaQuandre White and freshman Rashad Amos.

"Kevin Harris did a lot of good things as a true freshman," Muschamp said. "Deshaun Fenwick is playing his best ball. We feel like Adam Prentice as a fullback, move guy gives us some things in the backfield. Rashad Amos is a guy that's going to come on campus whenever we're able to get (freshmen) on campus, so I feel like we've done a nice job in that room."

And it seems the guys in that room will get plenty of action this season in what will be a new scheme.