Two players taking bulk of first-team reps at center

Coming into the spring, it looked like a wide open competition at the center spot and, while it still is to a degree, it looks like two guys are splitting the majority of first-team reps two weeks into practice.

The Gamecocks are still working four different guys in the rotation, but offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said Eric Douglas and Hank Manos are getting the bulk of lead reps.

“I think the center has to be very, very smart,” Bobo said. “He’s got to understand what we’re doing. He sets the communication for the line of scrimmage in the run game and in the pass game. Both of those guys have done a nice job.”

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Douglas is entering his redshirt junior season and has just one career start to his name but has been the team’s swing offensive lineman the last few years playing behind guys like Donell Stanley, Dennis Daley and Zack Bailey.

Manos started one game his redshirt year and the team’s opener last season against North Carolina. He’s now getting ready for his redshirt sophomore season listed at 6-foot-4, 305 pounds.

The other two guys getting reps in practice are redshirt freshmen Vincent Murphy and early-enrollee Trai Jones.

Murphy is the more seasoned between the two, redshirting last year while getting stronger and his teammates have seen the bump.

“He’s getting very strong. He’s getting quicker. He’s just working hard, and that’s what I like to see out of him,” Sadarius Hutcherson said. “He doesn’t really say a lot. He loves to work. For me being a senior, he looks up to him. I have to do what I need to do to push him also.”

So far, it’s been a learning process working a few new guys while learning Bobo’s new offensive system.

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“We’re probably asking them to do more communicating than they’ve done in the past,” Bobo said. “We’re probably getting it done a little slower than I’d like right now, but we’ll figure it out and we’ll get it. We need more practice.”

Bobo’s system incorporates a little more under center compared to the almost exclusively shotgun offense the Gamecocks played the last two years under Bryan McClendon.

It’s an adjustment for most centers, but things have gone somewhat smoothly through the first two weeks.

“Well, knock on wood we haven’t had a lot of fumbled snaps,” Bobo said. “We’ve had some with the freshman center, but I don’t think it’s been an issue with our quarterback being able to get the snap.”