Former Gamecock football wide receiver Nick Jones' first breakdown of the Gamecocks offense for the 2021 season is now live.

The former Byrnes standout, who spent five seasons under Steve Spurrier at South Carolina, played in 48 games - including 19 starts - from 2011 until 2014.

For his career, Jones accumulated 93 catches for 1,125 yards and 11 touchdowns. His career long reception of 70 yards came in the Outback Bowl against Michigan after the 2012 season. His best game as a Gamecock was in 2013, when he caught six passes and a pair of touchdowns against Georgia. Jones was also a key part of one of the most memorable games in program history, the comeback road victory against Missouri in 2013, as he caught the game-tying touchdown pass with 42 seconds remaining.

Check out Jones' thoughts on several key plays from South Carolina's 46-0 win over Eastern Illinois right here:

NICK MUSE TOUCHDOWN

JONES: The benefit to running a tight formation; it kind of confuses the defense. If they're in man coverage, they have to pass off coverages to each other. When you're tight like that, you're getting a read on a defense to see if they're in zone coverage or man coverage.

Every time they're in the red zone, they're using tight ends heavily. They have real athletic tight ends; Muse is athletic as I-don't-know-what. They're using him as a linebacker because he's way quicker than just about any linebacker he faces. You have to give Zeb a whole bunch of credit. They were in a man coverage and Zeb just found Muse in a tight window, but he squeezed it in there. Muse just found a soft spot. Big body, like a basketball play, just get in the end zone and box him out.

JOSH VANN THIRD DOWN RECEPTION

JONES: The receiver at the bottom, he notices the corner blitz and is really looking for the ball now, like a hot route.

Josh Vann, he runs a slant. The linebacker drops to the first down marker, so Vann kind of cut his route off in front of the backer. The reason he does that, slant routes are anywhere from three to five yards. Snap of the ball, zone coverage, backers are taught to drop back. You don't want to run a ten yard slant, so you want to run your slant right in front of the backers. You're taught to press upfield, make your cut at three to five yards, which he did, caught the ball, and just, being an athlete, made a play to get the first down.

When Josh Vann made his cut to the slant, he did a good job of avoiding the backer. The backer is taught to re-route you, put their hands on you. Routes are a timing thing, so they're taught to put their hands on you to mess up your timing. He did a great job to cut right in front of the guy so he couldn't get his hands on him.

JOSH VANN TOUCHDOWN

JONES: Zeb really could have picked his poison here. Muse has already scored a touchdown, so he has the defense's attention. That's the first reason you had two guys free. The backer and the safety both looked at Muse for some reason, and the corner let the receiver run free for some reason. Down at the bottom, you have straight man coverage. No safety is in the middle of the field, that gives you an indication it's zero coverage, which is man to man across the board. The receivers have to win on the route.

Vann just won on the post route. In man coverage, the DB is taught to play slightly inside, press him toward the sideline, but he did a good job of getting inside on this route. Zeb put it in a nice window where only his guy could get it. The DB was in trail mode because there was no safety in the back.

ZAQUANDRE WHITE TOUCHDOWN

JONES: With those tight formations, especially in the red zone, it creates chaos.

They were in man-to-man, you can just tell by how the DB is faced up on the receiver and not even looking in the backfield. There's no safety in the middle of the field. Josh Vann knows right now it's man-to-man coverage, probably knows he's not getting the ball right now. He probably knows he's pick man, trying to free somebody up. He's taught to hard release. The DB is playing him to his outside, he's taught to release outside. When he releases outside, the DB takes his eyes away from his play. If he releases inside, the DB could see the running back coming out and could come off his guy and cover the running back. So when Josh Vann takes an outside release, the DB can't read the number two receiver, which is the running back. He did a great job of brushing the safety right here. The safety was supposed to have White. Vann ended up taking both guys with him and it ended up being perfect for ZaQuandre. He ran a flat route and is in the flat by himself.

MARSHAWN LLOYD FIRST DOWN RUN

JONES: They put the receiver in motion to hold this d-end and linebacker, to give them something to think about. You're hoping number one, this outside linebacker, goes with Dakereon, to eliminate him. He actually did a pretty good job of reading the play. The play is designed for the cutback where that backer is coming from. The o-line tried to wash down the d-line - block them to the right - which created the cutback lane. Then Lloyd's talents took over.

Typically, on zone read plays, the offensive line is taught to wash down, meaning head one direction, wherever the play is directed toward, so they can give the running back a lane to cut or hit the hole right there. The way they blocked it, they gave him the lane to cut and then MarShawn, being the beast he is, just made people miss.

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