What Collin Hill, Ryan Hilinski have shown in two practices
Preseason camp started and even with questions about whether or not the season will continue, the quarterback battle at South Carolina is taking center stage.
The Gamecocks have what looks like a two-man competition right now between Collin Hill and Ryan Hilinski with both guys splitting first team reps evenly through the first two practices in camp.
“I’ve seen improvement with that group every single day. We’ve been rotating basically Collin and Ryan with the ones,” offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said. “Luke (Doty) got some ones a little bit but those two got the majority of the one reps. Ryan got the reps the first day, Collin the second. Day three is tomorrow so Ryan will be back getting the one reps. I’ve been pleased with both of them.”
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Freshman quarterback Luke Doty is taking a handful of first-team reps but it appears things are between Hilinski and Hill early with no decision to be made in the immediate future.
The Gamecocks have 23 more practices to go and over a month before their season opener against Tennessee, which means there’s time to let the battle play out.
South Carolina has practiced only twice so far in just helmets (shells will get put on Friday and full pads happen next week) but the battle is close early in camp.
“Collin Hill is an NFL arm already, in my opinion. He’s good. He knows the playbook better than anybody, maybe even better than coach Bobo to be honest with you. He has special ability and has what it takes to play here,” Nick Muse said. “Ryan’s also been creeping up. He’s gotten healthy and is a different man than he was last year. He’s more confident. He believes in himself and his mentally is different. Both of them look really good right now. If it was today, I couldn’t choose one.”
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Hilinski is the incumbent in Columbia, starting 11 games last season and throwing for 2,357 yards and 11 touchdowns while averaging 5.8 yards per attempt.
Hill played in 18 games the last three years at Colorado State, throwing for 3,323 yards and 23 touchdowns in three years averaging 7.7 yards per attempt.
Both are coming off injuries—Hilinski had a meniscus procedure in the offseason and Hill is fully recovered from a torn ACL—and both guys haven’t shown signs of being injured through two practices.
Bobo joked he even called Hill to make sure his knee was OK since he didn’t see him favoring it at all in camp so far.
“Ryan’s a younger guy who’s very, very smart. He’s got really nice touch on the ball and able to read defenses and make the right decisions, same as Collin. Collin is just as good of a quarterback as Ryan,” Fenwick said. “Collin’s obviously older, a little more experienced so there’s that. I’m not going to differentiate between them.”
Bobo’s mentioned it’s a healthy competition between those two guys and the rest of the quarterbacks in the room, saying they all understand the position they’re playing.
“Only one guy plays. It’s a tough position. We’re all in this together; we’re all at South Carolina and all going to go to work. I’ve been really, really pleased with those guys,” Bobo said. “We’ll continue to evaluate the more practices we get. We have to be productive on offense. If you want to be successful in any league, you have to have good quarterback play.”
