SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL

It’s not unusual to see a young player, especially a freshman, hit some bumps in the road over the course of a season.

Ryan Hilinski is in the midst of a small skid right now as the Gamecocks try to find consistency in the passing game after a few tough outings, but head coach Will Muschamp said he’s starting to look good in practice to start Tennessee preparations.

“I thought he looked the best he’s looked in a Tuesday practice since the injury. Let’s be fair here. It’s not all on Ryan,” Muschamp said. “There were some things: there could have been a flatter route on one of the deep balls. There are some things we could have done better around him, but he’ll be the first one to tell you he needs to be more accurate throwing the football. I thought he had a really good Tuesday practice. He was bouncing around in the pocket.”

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It’s still unclear how much tendinitis in the elbow or a knee sprain is affecting his performance, if at all, but Hilinski and the pass game appear to be sputtering after the Alabama game.

Over the last four games they haven’t eclipsed 200 yards in any of those games, including going for just 170 yards in a 38-27 loss to Florida Saturday where Hilinski averaged 4.9 yards per attempt.

Since the Alabama game, Hilinski is completing 53.6 percent of his passes for 592 yards, averaging 5.3 yards per attempt.

He has an average NFL quarterback rating of 76.5—the maximum a quarterback could get is 158.3—with an average Pro Football Focus grade of 60.4.

In his best game, at Georgia, he finished going 15-for-20 for 116 yards (5.8 yards/attempt) with a PFF grade of 80.3 and a passer rating of 105.4.

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The biggest issue in the pass game has been connecting on deep shots with explosive plays; this season is Hilinski is 5-for-25 on throws 20-plus yards down the field, which is something they have to work on moving forward.

“Obviously more work and more throws,” Bryan Edwards said. “Any time you’re having a hard time completing passes, you just have to throw more to get the timing down.”

The Gamecocks currently rank eighth in the SEC in pass offense through seven games, averaging 216.3 yards per game through the air.

They do have one of the league’s best receivers in Edwards, who’s top 10 in the SEC in receptions per game (5.5) and yards per game (71) while leading the team with 40 catches for 504 yards.

He’s kind of taken a mentorship role for Hilinski, who’s almost leaned on him since taking over as a starter. In the five games against Power 5 teams since the North Carolina game, Edwards has accounted for almost 32 percent of the team’s receptions and 37 percent of the reception yards

He and Hilinski spend a lot of time working together before and after practice to develop chemistry, and if the Gamecocks want to get their passing game back on track, it’ll likely be in large part to Edwards and Hilinski continuing to develop that chemistry.

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“We always usually hit the plays we have up this week we expect to score on; we usually hit those on practice Thursday," Edwards said.