Many things went wrong for the Gamecocks in 2019 but the team’s struggles on offense all began with the declining play of the team’s quarterbacks last fall.

When recently discussing the opening of South Carolina’s spring camp, Will Muschamp quickly pointed toward last season’s poor turnover margin, not getting enough explosive plays, losing the field position battle and failing to finish games as the biggest reasons as to why the 2019 campaign didn’t go nearly as well as projected. The uninspiring play under center could have easily been roped in there but Muschamp (wisely) failed to call out any of signal-callers during his first press conference of the spring.

Now with a healthy Ryan Hilinski back for his sophomore season and touted freshman Luke Doty on campus after enrolling early, the Gamecocks enter spring with a renewed sense of confidence in what they can get from the quarterback position with Mike Bobo running the South Carolina offense this season.

Bobo has a track record of producing strong play from his quarterbacks and based on what Muschamp recently had to say about the Gamecock quarterbacks following the third practice of the spring in Columbia, the South Carolina offensive coordinator has two outstanding options to work with this spring.

“I think Ryan was Player of the Day the first day,” Muschamp said of Hilinski. “Mike has been very pleased with Ryan and Luke and what they’ve done, Jay Urich’s done some much nice things but Ryan has done a really nice job offensively with the things we are doing, some different things that we are trying. More than anything, we are evaluating right now, ‘What can we do?’ That’s kinda where we are at this point, we’ve been very pleased.”

According to Muschamp, one of the toughest challenges either quarterback will face this spring is learning the new offense. Processing all the new terms thrown their way while trying to lead an entire unit on the field can prove to overwhelm many players but so far so good down in Columbia.

“Mike has been impressed with them, as far as the meeting rooms are concerned,” Muschamp added. “The amount of time they are spending over here, their understanding – that takes a lot of time, especially when you are going with some new things, new terminology. You’ve got to be able to master those things, those guys have worked extremely hard. We’ve been really pleased with that.”

When it comes to Doty, starting slow is to be expected but the way Muschamp tells it, the freshman signal-caller is well beyond where Bobo was when he got to college.

“Luke has done some nice things. Obviously, he reacts well, the moment has not been too big the first three days,” the South Carolina coach noted. “Coach Bobo and I laughed about his first day of practice at Georgia, I think he fumbled six snaps and Luke didn’t fumble any. At the end of the day, there’s a lot of positives to build on.

“He’s very intelligent, he reacts well in the pocket, obviously, he’s got the right kind of athleticism we are looking for and he’s been effective throwing the ball.”

Based on how things played out under center last season in Columbia, those comments have to be music to the ears of South Carolina fans.