South Carolina fired offensive coordinator Kurt Roper after the regular season and coach Will Muschamp has yet to name a replacement.

Therefore, in the Outback Bowl on New Year’s Day, interim OC Bryan McClendon will handle the play-calling duties.

That’s an exciting prospect for some of the Gamecocks’ top offensive players, as junior TE Hayden Hurst said McClendon has inspired confidence in the team’s offense (via 247Sports):

“B-Mac brings a sense of confidence that we need,” Hurst said. “For some time now, we’ve been searching for a bit of an identity as an offense. I think he has a pretty good philosophy of how he wants to run things and wants things done. I think that will be really good for this team.”

Sophomore QB Jake Bentley agreed, saying the offense is similar to Roper’s, but the Gamecocks are adding some new wrinkles:

“The guys have really embraced Coach McClendon’s offense,” Bentley said. “He came in, told the guys this is what we’re going to do and this is how we’re going to do it. There’s not that much new, but there’s definitely some new things that we’re doing offensively to try to get guys more open and try to run the ball effectively.”

McClendon may very well be auditioning for the full-time role with the Gamecocks, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens against Michigan on New Year’s Day.