The Verdict: This offense just isn't cutting it
In South Carolina, the verdict is published by the Clerk of Court. In other words, when a jury has reached a verdict, the Clerk of Court, not a member of the jury, announces the verdict to the courtroom.
But in every jury trial – whether criminal or civil – there is no mistaking that the jury, and only the jury, is the finder of all facts.
Starting in August and running throughout the season, I will be writing a weekly column called The Verdict - presented by the Goings Law Firm. And much like a jury, I will try to base my findings and opinions on facts. But unlike a jury, I want to hear from the gallery, both what I got right and what I got wrong.
This week’s Verdict is in: This offense just isn't cutting it
I went to three Carolina games last season. One of them was the Texas A&M game in Williams-Brice Stadium. One of my buddies had four tickets and one of the tickets went to a woman we were friends with who was from New York. She had never been to a college football game.
It was a hell of an introduction to the sport.
Secondarily because the reduced capacity stadium lacked the pageantry and tradition of normal Gamecock home games, but primarily because it was the ugliest game I have ever seen in person. Carolina lost 48-3. I was not in a good mental or emotional state during that game.
As we were leaving the stadium, she looked at my buddy and said, “if that’s what he’s like every game, I don’t think I am ready for this.”
That game was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me and the Will Muschamp experiment. (In fact, many friends joked they knew Muschamp was about to be fired when even Chris Paschal had enough.)
Some of y’all are probably confused why it took me that long.
I really don’t like the idea of not giving a head coach time to try and build his program his way. So many coaches struggled and fought and scratched their way for years before finally breaking through at perennial losers.
(See: Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech, Bill Snyder at Kansas State, and, heck, Mark Stoops at Kentucky).
South Carolina is not the place to plug in a head coach and expect immediate results. Carolina is in a brutal football conference with recruiting powers surrounding it. This was never going to be a quick fix. This was never going to be a 9-win or 10-win campaign. While there is talent littered throughout the roster, it’s clear that both the locker room culture and the proven depth were lacking.
But these first eight games have been enough for even me to admit that a change must happen with this offense.
Five straight offensive possessions for Carolina either gained no yardage or lost yardage this past Saturday in College Station. Five straight. So many graphics floated around on Saturday night and Sunday morning illustrating the massive yardage gap between A&M and Carolina. At one point late in the third quarter, Carolina had gained just six yards of offense.
Of course, this is a shift in my stance on Marcus Satterfield. For weeks now, both through this median and through Twitter, I have called for patience and understanding. In conformance with my traditional outlook on coaching at Carolina, I didn’t want any decisions to be made in haste. Maybe what we had been told was true. Maybe Satterfield does have a good feel for the game. Maybe Satterfield is on the verge of putting it all together.
After last weekend’s performance, I have suspended my usual mindset of patience and understanding. This offense is historically awful despite having adequate playmakers at its disposal. To have this Carolina offense only gain six yards through three quarters of football and struggle to score against Vanderbilt/Kentucky/Tennessee, yet have Jaheim Bell, Juju McDowell, Josh Vann, Kevin Harris, EJ Jenkins, and others at our disposal is mind-blowing.
I’m not asking for a 2019 LSU breakout performance. I’m asking for enough offense to prevent me from wanting to punch a hole through my TV.
I am also not asking for wins. Please do not confuse this week’s Verdict as a desperate plea for more wins in year one of this rebuild. Carolina has the same record as Tennessee who is also under new leadership. But Tennessee fans are excited. They are engaged. Why? Because their offense has a pulse.
I envisioned Carolina this season to resemble what we are currently seeing in Knoxville. Yes, the Vols have the same record as Carolina. But Tennessee’s 4-4 and Carolina’s 4-4 are not the same. Tennessee’s four wins were exciting blowouts. Carolina’s four wins were a blowout of an FCS team and three close games against far inferior opponents. Tennessee’s four losses were competitive and three of those games went deep into the second half. Three of Carolina’s four losses were ugly beatdowns.
The difference is one team can score points and one team cannot. You cannot tell me that Tennessee’s roster is that much more talented than Carolina’s, and when you look at how that roster was built in recruiting and how Carolina’s was built, the evidence supports that assertion.
This piece is not a dig at Beamer. This piece is because I support Beamer and thought he was the best man for the job. But part of the reason why I thought he was the best man for the job was because he marketed himself as a guy who could go out and hire great assistant coaches. And for the most part, he seems to have been right.
But a change needs to happen at offensive coordinator. And that change needs to either be a firing of Marcus Satterfield or something so dramatic that it incites significant changes in that office. That may not be fair. Satterfield might be the best role model, and a good husband and father, and one of the brightest football minds in the country. But those things can be true while also not taking away from the fact that amongst many fans, this offense is already slowly sinking the Beamer tenure.
Beamer hitching his wagon to this offensive output is one of the quickest ways he can kill the momentum and the goodwill and the love he stockpiled throughout the offseason. That simply can’t happen.
What does unhitching his wagon to this offensive output look like? There is an easy way (firing Satterfield) and there is a much harder way (revamping this offense with Satterfield still on staff).
I truly believe Beamer is the right guy for this job. But whether he chooses the easy way or the hard way, a change needs to be made.
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