Apparently, it’s not just South Carolina fans that are eager to see what freshman quarterback Ryan Hilinski can bring to Will Muschamp’s program.

South Carolina offensive coordinator Bryan McClendon met with the media on Wednesday and the hottest topic on the minds of those peppering the Gamecock assistant with questions was the progress of the young quarterback following his arrival in Columbia.

The 2019 All-American Bowl quarterback enrolled early at South Carolina in time for spring camp after being rated as the nation’s No. 2 pro-style QB in the nation for the 2019 recruiting cycle by 247Sports Composite Rankings. Hilinski crossed the country all the way from southern California to play in the SEC for Muschamp and McClendon. Now the big question is how soon will he get his first opportunity to show what he can do on the field in meaningful action?

“I’ll tell you what, he’s looking pretty good. Like I said, you have to take into consideration this is only his seventh college practice. But he’s grasping everything, doing a good job of understanding of what we are trying to do,” McClendon said on Wednesday in a video posted to YouTube by GamecockCentral.com. “Every time he’s in there, he does have good command. He’s doing a pretty good job right now.”

South Carolina’s offensive coordinator was then asked where is Hilinski is on the team’s depth chart at the moment. At this point, it appeared McClendon was attempting to slow down the hype for the high school All-American.

“I still think we have a lot to look at before we even consider a pecking order. Right now, we are just trying to give those guys as much an exact amount of reps,” McClendon continued. “Now we have a good body of work and an understanding of who did exactly what with each group because it kinda gets tough when you are looking at somebody working with the third team and the second team then the first team and we have different guys that he’s going up against, also. We have a lot more information to gather before we can get there.”

With Clemson currently dominating the in-state rivalry, the Tigers have won five consecutive games in the annual series following South Carolina’s five-game streak over Clemson, there’s no hiding from the fact the defending national champions loom large over the Gamecocks heading into 2019. When you consider the Tigers won the title last season under true freshman Trevor Lawrence, it’s understandable why someone would make the connection.

That being said, McClendon was asked to compare Hilinski’s progress to Lawrence’s progress at Clemson last spring. Considering McClendon was on staff in Columbia last season, it was an odd question that the Gamecock OC to field on Wednesday.

“I wouldn’t know. Trevor Lawrence is a really good player, you know? He is a really good player. I’m sure it didn’t take a lot for them to figure out, I’m sure we could have figured that out over here for them,” he added. “But to compare is unfair to (Hilinski). You are talking about a guy that’s gone in as a freshman and won a national championship and right now this guy is on practice seven. So we still got a long time to see.”

Hilinski was the No. 1 topic of the conversation but last time we checked, senior Jake Bentley was still the starting quarterback in Columbia. McClendon was also asked about his returning starter and what he needed to improve upon this spring during camp.

“The only thing he can worry about is being better than the day before,” McClendon said. “When you look at everybody, I can go through every player that we have — myself included, as a coach — and just say ‘Hey man, there are a million different things we need to get better at.’ But if we approach the day the right way, and keep getting better – I feel like he’s working towards that goal.”