After the South Carolina Gamecocks fired OC Kurt Roper following the regular season, assistant Bryan McClendon was promoted to play-calling duties for the Outback Bowl.

That trial run didn’t get off to a great start, as the Gamecocks trailed Michigan 9-3 at halftime.

From there, though, things improved and South Carolina came back to win 26-19 in impressive fashion. Because of that, it appears McClendon will stay on as the team’s full-time OC in 2018.

GamecockCentral.com reports that South Carolina is expected to make an official announcement on Friday morning.

McClendon has served as the co-OC and the WR coach since Will Muschamp took over as South Carolina’s head coach.

He’ll have a rising junior quarterback in Jake Bentley to work with, so it’ll be interesting to see how McClendon fares in his first year in charge of the offense.