Muschamp goes in-depth on Saturday's play calling
SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL
Sunday night, Will Muschamp offered clarification on South Carolina’s fourth-quarter struggles offensively and one of the reasons the Gamecocks couldn’t hold on to a 17-point lead with 20 minutes to play.
Muschamp said he never had a conversation with offensive coordinator Bryan McClendon about changing what the Gamecocks were doing, even telling McClendon to keep doing what he was doing, but the team’s RPO game wasn’t as effective as it was in the first half.
“It’s based on the run box and four out of five we ended up running the ball based on the run box,” he said. “It wasn’t anything we did differently in the second half. It all gets based off the results. We didn’t get the results we wanted at the end of the day and that falls back on us as coaches. There was nothing changed as far as play calling was concerned.”
Also see: Full recap from Will Muschamp's Sunday teleconference
The Gamecocks, after going up 31-14 with just under five minutes to go in the third quarter, picked up just 29 yards on three drives after that as the Gators scored 21 unanswered points to win 35-31.
Muschamp said offensively they were getting good production off of called RPOs with the second touchdown, a strike to Kyle Markway in the first quarter, coming off of one and Deebo Samuel’s 89-yard catch an RPO as well.
The problem was the execution on some of the second-half RPOs with the Gamecocks not able to move the ball consistently on the ground; of the last 14 plays, nine were runs compared to five passes.
On RPOs, it’s quarterback Jake Bentley’s duty to read the defense and how many defenders are in the box and choose to either hand the ball off or pull it and throw to a receiver.
Also see: Josh Low's instant analysis on the Gamecocks' loss
“I was pleased with the decisions based on the run box and the tilt of the safety. They had played a little more split safety,” Muschamp said. “They left a five-man box at times and five down offensive linemen, which we like those numbers. The one time we did pull it on the incomplete I feel like we could have gotten the ball outside and the defender ran in front of Bryan on the sidelines. I was pleased with the decision making.”
Muschamp also offered an explanation to the Gamecocks’ final drive of the first half when the offense got the ball back with 52 seconds left before the break and ran the ball three times before taking a shot.
Bentley fired incomplete to Josh Vann and the team opted to just take it to the half after that and the Gamecocks (5-4, 4-4 SEC) ultimately ended up losing by four points.
"Well, we had a seven-point lead and you're on the road. We wanted to try and see if we couldn't shake one loose as far as the run game is concerned. We were running the ball so well. They called timeout after the first one. We wanted to make them burn their second timeout and we were able to get the first down on third down with the sweep to Deebo (Samuel). We wanted to play faster than we did,” Muschamp said.
Also see: In-depth stats breaking down the run defense
“We had a hard time getting the signal in once we got the first down. We wasted about 20 seconds off the clock between when we converted the third down and trying to take the shot down the field. I think the worst thing you can do is put yourself in a situation where you turn the ball over, especially the way we were playing offensively with 52 seconds. If we had a little more time, it might have been different. I wish we would have been a little quicker after the third down conversion."
