Muschamp updates offensive line two-deep

As the season opener ekes closer and closer to starting, Will Muschamp took some time on his weekly call-in show to update how things stand on the offensive line, with a few freshmen taking reps in the two-deep.

Muschamp, who’s admittedly excited about this year’s offensive line, said two true freshmen have been working in the first two groups at two pivotal positions.

“I’ve been pretty pleased with our offensive line, especially in the run game,” Will Muschamp said on his weekly call-in show. “If we started the game tomorrow, Sadarius Hutcherson would be our left tackle with Jakai Moore as the backup there. He’s a young player who has a promising future.”

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He also mentioned Vincent Murphy is taking second-team reps at center behind Hank Manos, also saying Donell Stanley would also be a candidate to snap if anything happened to Manos.

Both Moore and Murphy come is as three-star prospects with varying skillsets. Moore seems to be on the fast track to take over at left tackle once Hutcherson leaves while Murphy’s future is likely an anchor inside at either guard or center.

The rest of the line is either made up of upperclassmen or talented young players.

Muschamp detailed what his two-deep line would look like if the season kicked off this weekend and it looks a little like this:

Hutcherson at left tackle with Moore backing him up while Stanley starts at left guard and Jordan Rhodes backs him up.

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Manos and Murphy are taking center reps with Eric Douglas and Jovaughn Gwyn still battling it out at right guard. Dylan Wonnum is the team’s starting right tackle with Douglas backing him up.

While Douglas is the team’s presumed starter at right guard, he also serves as the Gamecocks’ swing man, backing up at right tackle and has also played center in camp.

“We’re more athletic, we’re more powerful and we did a better job protecting the quarterback last year than we did the year before,” Muschamp said. “We were much better in mixing up protections, which helped us a lot.”

On Pro Football Focus, the Gamecocks finished last season with a pass block grade of 72.2 while the run blocking finished with a 66.2 grade.

Muschamp touched on that a little Thursday night on his show, saying at some point it’s up to the running back to take over and make a play.

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“The running backs make the runs,” he said. “At the end of the day, you could get a hat on a hat in the run game but against the teams we play, there’s going to be a free hat. You’re going to have to make a guy miss, you’re going to have to run through contact. I think we’re more equipped to do that.”

The Gamecocks have three senior running backs in Rico Dowdle, Mon Denson and graduate transfer Tavien Feaster, who joined the team this fall.

Reviews on Dowdle have been excellent through camp and the staff has raved about Feaster, his athletic ability and his knack for catching onto the playbook quickly.