SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL

It’ll take another week to really see how well the Gamecocks’ changes have taken root, but for at least one week Will Muschamp is happy with what the offensive line showed him.

The Gamecock offensive line welcomed two new starters at guard this week in Jordan Rhodes and Jovaughn Gwyn.

Muschamp liked what he saw against a FCS opponent in Charleston Southern before Alabama comes to town.

“More than anything it’s an assignment standpoint,” Muschamp said of Rhodes. “It’s never been about power, it’s never been about athletic ability. He plays with all of those things and then some. It’s about the assignments, doing your job and getting a hat on the right guy. Again, that’s always been the issue. It’s nothing to do with ability.”

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Rhodes started to the left of center Donell Stanley, making his first career start as a redshirt sophomore.

It took a while for Rhodes to finally get his chance on the offensive line—he played the majority of his snaps last year on special teams—and he made the most of it.

He finished with a 63.6 overall grade according to Pro Football Focus, with a pass blocking grade of 65 and a run blocking mark at 62.6.

Rhodes spent his first two years trying to learn, and it was a bit of a learning curve for a guy who’s still relatively new to the game of football, having picked it up less than five years ago as a junior in high school.

That’s when the Gamecocks found him at a high school right outside of Atlanta and the rest is history.

“We didn’t know anything about him coming off his junior season,” Muschamp said. “That was his first season playing football. Going into his senior year we were in the Atlanta area and he’s going to Creekside High School and people kept talking about him in the area. But you had Mississippi State, Florida; there were a bunch of people after him in the end. He just didn’t play football his entire high school career."

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Gwyn had about as good a day as Rhodes, finishing with a 63.5 grade, 82.2 in pass blocking and a 59.9 run block grade.

He made his first career start after missing all but one game last year after foot surgery and did some good things, Muschamp said.

“It’s really the same thing I alluded to with Jordan there,” he said. “He’s a guy that athletically and from a power standpoint is what you want. It’s like, ‘Let’s clean up our assignments,’ you know? That’s something those guys haven’t been as reliable or dependable in getting a hat on a hat. The two closest units on the field better be the offensive line and the secondary. If they get out of whack, it’s a bad deal for the offense and the quarterback. We thought Jovaughn did some nice things for sure.”

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The Gamecock offensive line played much better than it did after the season opener, plowing the way for a school-record 493 rushing yards and keeping Ryan Hilinski upright to the tune of no sacks so he could pass for 282 yards and two scores while running for another.

“He was not under a lot of duress as far as the running game was concerned so he had times to make good decisions,” Muschamp said.