SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL

Since arriving on campus, Will Muschamp has talked ad nauseam about wanting to run the football more, but now he needs the reverse to happen.

The Gamecocks have seemingly turned the corner in the run game, boasting the conferences fourth-best rushing team in the SEC, but are lacking right now throwing the football and are trying to correct it as they prepare for Tennessee.

“We haven't been as consistent throwing the football. And that's something we've got to continue to work on. And I think that, you know, we try to, each Sunday we try to narrow some things down: what we do well, what we feel comfortable with doing,” Muschamp said. “And we've continued to work on those things. And that's something that at the end of the day, we've got to hit some of the vertical balls down the field.”

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Over the last four games, the Gamecocks are completing 53.3 percent of their passes, averaging 5.3 yards per attempt with three touchdowns to an interception.

Led primarily by freshman Ryan Hilinski, they’ve been somewhat accurate with the ball but not as explosive as they need to be.

This season, the Gamecocks have 25 explosive pass plays for 638 yards, which is down compared to explosive plays through seven games last year (31 plays, 830 yards).

They’ve taken some shots—Hilinski is averaging a little over four deep balls per game—but haven’t hit on them. He’s 5-for-25 on balls thrown at least 20 yards downfield with an average NFL passer rating of 75.5.

Against Florida, he was 1-for-8 for 41 yards and didn’t hit on his last seven deep shots.

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“It's not the lack of we haven't taken some shots; we have taken some shots. We've tried to stretch the field vertical. We've tried to create some one-on-ones,” Muschamp said. “We got to throw the ball in some tight areas when you've got those covers. So those are things, to me, that we're certainly more than capable of doing and we need to perform better in those situations.”

So why has the passing game struggled so much after putting up over 300 yards passing against No. 2 Alabama?

A lot hinges on Hilinski’s health with the quarterback battling through elbow tendinitis against Missouri and a knee sprain against Florida; there’s no telling how either injury really affected him, but he has battled a few bang ups in recent weeks.

The Gamecocks (3-4, 2-3 SEC) haven’t pass protected maybe as well as they needed to at times, giving up a few sacks over the last few weeks with a relatively young offensive line.

Receivers can also run wrong routes with Bryan Edwards saying it’s just about both quarterback and receiver reading the defense the same way and getting “the ball to the right spots.” If they don’t, then it might look a lot like what happened Saturday.

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“We might have a built in hot based on a pressure and sometimes we don't always see the hot, whether it's the receiver or the quarterback,” Muschamp said. “We might have run a route at the wrong depth and suddenly the ball is coming out and it looks kind of funny that the ball was coming out and the receiver's still maintaining the route down the field. So it might not necessarily been on the quarterback, it might have been on the receiver. So there's a number of different issues that present itself in the passing game. Whether it's protection, it could've been the route, could've been the accuracy of the throw in a lot of situations.”

Another reason they may have struggled so far has been the lack of a true third wide receiver with Edwards and Shi Smith shouldering the bulk of the load.

The duo has combined for 48 percent of the Gamecocks’ receptions and 55 percent of the team’s receiving yards in SEC play.

Whatever the reason may be, it’ll be imperative for the passing game to get on track as South Carolina enters a key stretch of its schedule.

“I feel like anybody who’s on the field has to make plays,” Edwards said of the receiving corps. “That’s the standard here. If we let you on the field, let you play whether you’re one, two three or four, fi the ball comes to you, make a play.”