Rapid Reaction: South Carolina’s new-look offense goes off on Coastal Carolina
By SDS Staff
Published:
The new-look South Carolina Gamecocks’ offense was money Saturday against Coastal Carolina. Yeah, it’s Coastal, but it’s still encouraging to see this type of offensive display out of a Will Muschamp-coached team.
South Carolina throttled Coastal Carolina 49-15 Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium, and it was important the offense got off to a hot start from a confidence standpoint with Georgia looming next Saturday. In new OC Bryan McClendon’s home debut, the Gamecocks’ offense nearly put up 50 points. That’s impressive.
A few things we took away from Saturday’s win:
- Offensive pace: The offensive pace was perfect. It wasn’t too fast; it wasn’t too slow. Looking back over Will Muschamp’s history, this style of offense has never been fully installed. Now, it has, and it’s going to give them an edge. Credit Muschamp for going out of his comfort zone and installing this style of play. Another thing that stood out was sustaining offensive drives. We counted five different offensive drives of 70-plus yards? Impressive.
- Jake Bentley: Bentley’s progression was obvious. You can thank Bryan McClendon and Dan Werner for that. Bentley finished 22 for 29 for 250 yards and four TDs. Eleven different receivers caught passes for South Carolina. If that Bentley shows up for every game this season, the Gamecocks are going to be tough to beat. We’ll learn more next week against Georgia.
- Deebo Samuel: Welcome back, Deebo! We loved seeing Samuel line up next to Bentley in the running game. The Gamecocks have to get the ball to their playmaker, and giving it directly to Samuel is certainly the way to go. Florida burned teams using Percy Harvin like this for three years, and Samuel will burn several this year.
- Bryson Allen-Williams: It was clear the Gamecocks missed him last season, and he was flying around Saturday making plays.
- The helmets: We couldn’t go a full game story without mentioning the South Carolina helmets. The script Carolina on both sides is truly an outstanding look.
- Too many penalties: South Carolina committed nine penalties Saturday. Interestingly, USC led the SEC last year committing only 4.8 per game.
Now, with week 1 over, South Carolina turns its attention to the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs Saturday. The Bulldogs play Austin Peay Saturday afternoon.
Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.
