Can Kendal Briles revive South Carolina’s dormant offense?
By Jeff Moeller
Published:
These days, Kendal Briles finds himself in a familiar spot.
Over the years, Briles has weaved his magic as an offensive coordinator at TCU, Arkansas, Florida State, Florida Atlantic and Baylor. During his stops, Briles has raised the offense’s overall production and points per game output.
Now, South Carolina is calling. And Briles appears to face another Herculean task to bring the Gamecocks’ unit back to respectability and also likely to save their head coach’s job.
He has done it in the past, and the Gamecocks faithful are confident he can reverse the trend again.
Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger on Briles, who will be his fourth different offensive coordinator in his 6 years in Columbia. Beamer is confident he has hired the difference maker in what will be a make-or-break season for him.
“He’s a proven Power-4 offensive coordinator,” boasted Beamer. “And this job is not for on the job training. When you talk about someone that has done it in this league and done it in other conferences at a high level, has done it with multiple personnel, different styles of quarterbacks; it’s really impressive.”
Briles will need to resurrect the Gamecocks’ anemic offense that ranked second-to-last overall in the SEC last season. Nationally, South Carolina’s 336.3 yards-per-game average ranked it 108th and its 22.7 points-per-game production placed it 104th in the nation.
Overall, the Gamecocks’ litany of offensive numbers were abysmal, and they produced a season in which the Gamecocks finished 4-8. It was a frustrating and inconsistent season that ignited and infuriated a strong, devoted fan and alumni base that began to get out the proverbial torches and pitchforks for Beamer.
The 2025 season began with high expectations as a preseason top-20 team with Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback LaNorris Sellers leading the way. In their opener, the Gamecocks worked their way through a 24-11 victory over Virginia Tech and then followed with a 39-10 rout of South Carolina State.
They weren’t impressive wins, but the new offensive coordinator Mike Shula was expected to further infuse the dual-threat Sellers into the offense, fully utilizing his passing and running abilities.
Unfortunately, it never happened.
After a 31-7 loss to Vanderbilt, the Gamecocks never truly recovered. They did bounce back with a 35-13 victory over Kentucky in which the defense produced 2 touchdowns.
Shula couldn’t get the offense out of gear to create a smooth ride, and he was fired in early November. A month earlier, offensive line coach Lonnie Teasley was let go, as the Gamecocks’ O-line was a turnstile, allowing a SEC-worst 43 sacks at season’s end.
Under Shula, Sellers produced a combined 2,707 yards as opposed to 3,208 combined yards under former offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains.
As a result, Briles is faced with putting the pieces back together. Sellers announced that he will be returning and generational talent wide receiver Nyck Harbor, who caught a career-high 30 passes last season, hasn’t announced any plans yet to declare for the draft. Tight end Brady Hunt is also expected back.
However, Briles will rely on some familiar faces to make his transition smoother.
Long-time friend and colleague Randy Clements will handle the offensive line, and it will be a challenge with a few current linemen apparently entering the transfer portal.
Stan Drayton, who also worked with Briles in the past, will take over the running backs, and the former Penn State assistant and Temple head coach has a huge task ahead with a returning young core and an anticipated active transfer portal.
At TCU, Briles’ offenses were consistently among the national leaders in several offensive categories. The Horned Frogs finished 40th, 25th and 43rd nationally in scoring offense under Briles and never had a season averaging under 30 points.
Prior to that, Briles produced similar results, being able to steadily elevate overall offensive numbers as well as points scored per game through his years at each program.
At all of his stops, Briles’ offenses showed significant improvement from the previous season.
In his first year as an OC at Baylor, Briles orchestrated an NCAA record 601-yard passing yards effort against Michigan State.
Briles’ resume is chock full of impressive statistics and numbers that justify his status as one of the game’s most successful coordinators. He already has made an offer to 4-star Texas quarterback Weston Nielsen, whom he made an offer to at TCU in 2024. Nielsen, who threw for over 3,000 yards with 49 touchdowns, has committed to Arizona State.
How will he do it with Sellers, who is the centerpiece? Briles plans to work with Sellers’ strengths and not make him adjust.
“It’s really more the offense fitting around him,” stressed Briles. “He’s the quarterback. He’s touching the ball every single snap. I’m not going to go out there and ask him to do something he’s not great at, so we’re going to build the offense around him, and the rest of the personnel, and do the things that he’s really good at.
“So we want him to be comfortable. He’s out there with people running full speed at him, probably with a bad attitude and trying to get after him. So we’re going to do the things that he feels really comfortable with.”
At Arkansas, Briles had a mirror-like dual threat with quarterback KJ Jefferson, who found his niche with Briles.
“I can remember when we were back at Arkansas in 2021, which was KJ Jefferson’s first start,” recalled Briles. “We were doing some things offensively that probably didn’t fit him great, and we changed it at halftime and we got a lot better.
“We started doing the things that KJ was very good at, which is running the football and throwing it down the field. So I think you’ve got to figure out what your team is good at and go from there.”
With just over a week under his belt, Briles doesn’t want to rehash any schemes from the lackluster 2025 campaign.
“I want these guys to have a clean slate moving forward so we can judge them for what they are, whenever we see them practice and get on the football field instead of what they were,” Briles said. “But I saw some guys that are really talented and we’ve just gotta fine-tune it a little bit.”
Despite having a cloud of desperation hanging over him, Beamer believes he has the right man with the tools to get the Gamecocks’ offense tuned to its full potential.
