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Mike Shula says South Carolina will take committee approach at RB without Rocket Sanders
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Mike Shula earned the full-time offensive coordinator role at South Carolina after serving as a senior offensive assistant in 2024. Shula’s offense is preparing to take on Illinois in the Citrus Bowl and unfortunately will be without one of their most important players.
Star running back Rocket Sanders recently announced his decision to declare for the 2025 NFL Draft. To avoid risking injury and to prepare for the draft, Sanders will not play in the bowl game. Shula was asked about how the team would handle the RB position without Sanders.
“Yeah, I think it’s a little bit by committee, but also I’ll leave that a little bit into the hands of Coach (Marquel) Blackwell, our running back coach,” explained Shula. “He’s got a good feel for that. When you have guys that you feel like that can come in and contribute, more than one guy, sometimes you go with the hot hand as well and see how that’s going.”
Sanders easily led the Gamecocks in every rushing category in 2024. The Arkansas transfer rushed 183 times for 881 yards with 11 touchdowns. Oscar Adaway III was the only other running back with more than 200 rushing yards on the season. Of course, quarterback LaNorris Sellers was a weapon in the ground game as well. The QB rushed for 655 yards and 7 TDs during the 2024 season.
Jawarn Howell, Juju McDowell, Bradley Dunn, and Matthew Fuller are other backs on the roster who could factor into the gameplan against Illinois.
“It’ll be a feel thing. We’ll talk about it probably more so in between drives as we go, and then there might be certain plays that we maybe have one guy do that we would ask him only to do that, not the other guy. A little bit of a combination of all those things,” Shula said.
The Gamecocks and Illini will kick off from the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Eve at 3 p.m. ET.
Bryce Lazenby covers college football for Saturday Down South. A Nashville native, his previous stops include FanSided, Dimers, and The Leaf-Chronicle.
