What I'm watching: Spring practice

South Carolina is set to start its second spring practice of the Will Muschamp era Saturday and there are several intriguing storylines to watch as the Gamecocks look to take another step forward as a team. Here's a look at five of them.

Eric Wolford makes his return to South Carolina to try and fix a Gamecocks offensive line that has some pieces to work with but didn't perform up to the needed standard a season ago. Wolford brings with him an NFL pedigree and a resume that also features a stint as a head coach at Youngtown State. While the scheme that Carolina employed previously won't change much, Wolford will bring a new approach and a fresh set of eyes to the position.

With all three starters on the interior of the line back, plus Donell Stanley's return from injury and several tackles who are capable of playing guard, Wolford should have plenty of pieces to work with at guard and center. The real question for Wolford will be at offensive tackle where the Gamecocks will replace starter Mason Zandi at a position that struggled with the speed rush last season. The wild card to watch at tackle is Sadarius Hutcherson, who redshirted last season and is raw but likely the most athletic offensive tackle on the current roster.

Senior linebacker Skai Moore will make his much-anticipated return to the South Carolina practice fields this spring and not a moment too soon. Moore, who missed all of last season and redshirted due to a neck injury, will team with Bryson Allen-Williams to form the starting duo for the Gamecocks linebacker position which lost T.J. Holloman and Jonathan Walton from last season.

Reports we've received on Moore's work in the weight room has been positive as he shows no signs of being hampered by last year's injury. Moore and Allen-Williams give the Gamecocks arguably one of the conference's best duos, and sophomore T.J. Brunson will be in position to spell both players and play as the third linebacker in those sets. But past those three, the Gamecocks have no proven depth at the position.

South Carolina will welcome five scholarship newcomers to the program -- WR OrTre Smith, DT M.J. Webb, CB Kaleb Chalmers, S Jaylin Dickerson and OL Summie Carlay -- as well as two high-upside walk-on transfers in RB Caleb Kinlaw and DB Jaylan Foster.

Due to a combination of talent and the current situation at their respective positions, Smith, Webb, Chalmers, Dickerson and Kinlaw, should all be in a position to make some type of impact for the Gamecocks this season.

As the state of South Carolina's best prospect, according to Rivals.com's rankings, Smith will look to use his size and catch radius to break into the Gamecocks receiver rotation. He'll likely be the most talked about newcomer this spring provided he's fully recovered from the ankle injury that cut his senior season short.

Dickerson and Chalmers should immediately work into the rotation in the secondary while Webb has a chance to play inside at the three-technique or on the edge at defensive end.

In this year's spring game, South Carolina fans will get their first extended look at running back transfer TySon Williams, who sat out last season after arriving from UNC.

The returns on what Williams has done in practice since arriving in Columbia last summer have ranged from good to out of this world. At the very least, Williams will provide another threat to a backfield that already features Rico Dowdle and A.J. Turner.

But if he's as good as some of those returns have indicated, he'll push Dowdle, already an All-SEC candidate, for the starting job and team with him to create one of the conference's best duos.

Now that Jake Bentley has half a season under his belt as South Carolina's quarterback, I'm curious to see what changes and tweaks co-offensive coordinator Kurt Roper will make to the Gamecocks scheme.

Some of those tweaks will likely be determined (or limited) by what South Carolina's offensive line is able to accomplish, but on the other hand, having a quarterback like Bentley, who can make all the throws with accuracy, also should give Roper plenty to work with.

The Gamecocks also return almost all of their starters from last season which means their base comfort level with the scheme, terminology and play-calling style of Roper, should give the coaches the ability to incorporate a more diverse scheme of plays.