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Orth happy for McIlwain and his solid second half performance

Brandon McIlwain led the Gamecocks to 2 TDs in the second half on Saturday night

STARKVILLE, Miss. – South Carolina fifth-year senior quarterback Perry Orth competes with true freshman Brandon McIlwain every day for the starting quarterback job.

As a result, he has a personal stake in how well McIlwain performs on game day.

However, Orth is also incredibly popular among his teammates for his unselfishness and team-first attitude. So, when McIlwain plays well, as he did for most of the second half of Saturday night’s 27-14 loss at Mississippi State.

McIlwain led the Gamecock offense to both of their touchdowns, an 18-yard pass to A.J. Turner and a 4-yard pass to K.C. Crosby, in the second, completing 11-of-22 passes for 126 yards.

Meanwhile, Orth and the USC offense sputtered badly in the first half, gaining just 90 yards on 33 plays and failing to score on seven possessions. Four ended with a punt, two on a turnover and one on a missed field goal.

Five of the seven drives led by Orth lasted four plays or less and four gained three yards or less.

As a result, Orth would have been forgiven if he had been in a sour mood following USC’s first loss of the season, sensing he might no longer be the Gamecocks’ starting quarterback.

During his post-game media session, the second question posed to Orth asked him for his description of McIlwain’s performance, and he offered a response few others in the same situation would have given.

“Exceptional,” Orth said in direct response to the question. “He’s a very talented kid. I’m very proud of the way he came out and played.”

Orth’s first two possessions ended with third down sacks when the Gamecocks offensive line was beaten badly by the Mississippi State defensive line. When the first half ended, Orth had completed 9-of-17 passes for 83 yards and been sacked twice, while the running game averaged less than a half-yard per carry (16 attempts, 7 yards). Take away Turner’s 10-yard run on USC’s second play of its third possession and the Gamecocks totaled minus-3 rushing yards on the other 15 rushes.

Unexpectedly, the Gamecock offensive line was soundly dominated in every way.

“Yeah, it was difficult,” Orth acknowledged. “I’m not sure what it was. Maybe they had a good game plan and they had good players. Sometimes it goes that way. We knew they were good going into the game. I don’t know if we expected as much (as we saw), but we knew they had some size and strength up front.”

Orth doesn’t believe the loss will diminish the confidence the Gamecocks banked last week in the comeback win over Vanderbilt.

”The guys seemed pretty up,” Orth said. “We showed we can play in the second half. We just have to figure out a way to get it started early.”

Offensively, a positive for USC was the performance of tight ends Hayden Hurst (8 catches, 68 yards) and Crosby (3 catches, 14 yards, 1 TD). Jacob August had one reception as the tight ends combined for 12 of USC’s 20 receptions in the passing attack.

“We planned to get the two tight end set into the offense tonight,” Orth said. “They did a good job when they had the opportunity. We can use them as a tight end or wide receiver.”

The downside? Hoping to exploit Mississippi State’s weakness defending the pass (South Alabama threw for over 280 yards in the opener), the Gamecocks intended to test MSU deep. However, Deebo Samuel tweaked a hamstring on the game's first offensive snap when it looked like he had a step on his defender, and he was largely a non-factor. Freshman Bryan Edwards disappeared until the second half and finished with two catches for 38 yards.

Gamecock wide receivers combined for just six receptions. Samuel returned to the game despite the hamstring problems and finished with two receptions for 30 yards.

“Going into the game, we wanted to take some shots going deep because we didn’t think their corners were very good,” Samuel said after the game. “(Had we been able to connect on that first pass) it would have been a momentum boost for the offense and defense. I was there. When I saw the ball, I said ‘This is going to be a touchdown. But then I felt (the hamstring). I said, ‘Ah, man.”

NOTES:

-- Following the loss, Will Muschamp talked repeatedly about the missed tackles and poor tackling technique displayed by the Gamecock defense Saturday night. T.J. Holloman agreed: “We just have to put our face on the ball carrier. We didn’t wrap up (Saturday). We were just diving at them. We have to go back and work on our technique. We just didn’t tackle very well in the first half. Second half, we recouped and did a better job. But in order to win the SEC you have to start fast and we didn’t do that (Saturday).

-- Holloman said the USC defense game-planned for both quarterbacks that played against South Alabama in the opener – Nick Fitzgerald and Damian Williams. Fitzgerald ran for 195 yards and completed 19-of-29 passes for 178 yards and two touchdowns. “He made all the right reads and made all the right plays,” Holloman said. “We just have to tackle better than we did today.”

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LB TJ Holloman agreed with Wil Muschamp that USC's tackling at Miss. State was poor
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