South Carolina’s season this year largely resembles less of a steady climb but more of a rollercoaster with plenty of peaks and valleys over the course of the first five games.
After rattling off two straight wins to get back to .500, the Gamecocks were shellacked by LSU and are coming off a bye week ready to get back to even against a top 10 Texas A&M team.
Despite some of the struggles, Jimbo Fisher was extremely complimentary of South Carolina and understands if his team doesn’t take the Gamecocks seriously it could be a loss.
“We have to play a very good South Carolina team that has some great wins this year with great players, great secondary people, good people up front. They have physical backers who are active and can run. They have skill guys at receiver, a great back and are physical up front. They love to run and have an experienced quarterback,” Fisher said.
“It’s going to be a big challenge. They’re a very well-coached football team.”
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The Gamecocks are 2-3 and are coming off a bye week where Will Muschamp has typically been good in his time at South Carolina.
Over the last four years he’s a perfect 4-0 coming off a bye, including going down to Georgia last year and upsetting the Bulldogs in double overtime.
It remains to be seen if that can happen this year—ESPN’s FPI gives the Gamecocks a 44.6 percent chance to win—but Fisher sees a lot of challenges when game planning for South Carolina.
Fisher obviously is no stranger to Muschamp haven’t coached with him at LSU under Nick Saban and against him during his time at Florida State and now at Texas A&M.
Even though the defense has struggled defending the run lately and against the pass a lot of the year, Fisher is still impressed with the defensive effort and personnel South Carolina has.
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“Will’s a great coach on defense. What they do is extremely hard to go agains.t they mix blitzes, they stunt and twist inside and mix coverage and do a great job,” Fisher said. “They’re very physical in the secondary getting their hands on you and playing a lot of man coverage. They do a great job there and mix in zone looks with it.”
The biggest change, though, from last year’s 38-6 Aggie win last season in College Station to now is the hiring of Mike Bobo to run the Gamecock offense.
Both Fisher and Bobo are offensive minds, cutting their teeth as offensive coordinators in the SEC before going on to other programs; Fisher to Florida State then A&M and Bobo to Colorado State and now South Carolina.
South Carolina this year has been better offensively compared to last season, especially late, and are doing it mostly on the ground.
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Mike’s always been great. He had great success at Georgia and the quarterback is always well coached. One thing Mike does is he’ll run the football. They’re very physical up front. Their backs are big and heavy and know how to run. He also knows how to get great play action and screen game,” Fisher said.
“They have a lot of diversity and things off of all those run that make it all look the same. Shi Smith’s a very good player for them at receiver. They have a big tight end and they have a receiver coming back they’re happy about. It’s going to be a big challenge. They’re a very well-coached football team.”
