W
Wes Mitchell
Guest
As we turn the page from the Tennessee game to the Florida game, here are some big-picture thoughts on what we saw Saturday and what it could mean moving forward for the rest of the season.
** At some point we'll take a deeper look at Mike Bobo's scheme and what it's going to be at South Carolina as it evolves throughout the season, but there's a lot to like about what we saw from game one. Frankly, the offense put up more points than I expected it to, and as we had been told would be the case this offseason, you can see there is a plan in place with plays complementing other plays and a diversity of run schemes that just wasn't there last year.
I was a little surprised that the staff didn't stretch the field out vertically more in the first half, but once they did in the second half and hit a couple of balls there, it started to open up the rest of the offense with scores in four of the final six drives and one of those punt drives was a 4th and one situation where they could have potentially gone for it and stayed on the field.
** From what I've seen from past Bobo teams, what we saw from the offensive scheme on Saturday was a starting point, but his offenses tend to evolve and adjust from week to week more than most.
** I have to think Bobo sat down this preseason and said what's my best weapon and No. 13 kept coming up. As we've talked about over and over, there's a lack of proven talent in the skill positions on offense, but Bobo did as good a job as any coach I've seen at moving Smith around and getting him the football in multiple ways and from multiple receiver positions.
The question moving forward is, will Bobo be able to continue to find ways to scheme Smith open as teams will certainly look to keep him from beating them and sometimes even bracket him? I think there were some positive things to take away from Xavier Legette and I see him as someone that's going to continue to improve as the year progresses. The talent is obviously there.
As for the other receivers? One thing that was a problem with the receivers last year is they struggled to get open against man coverage and I think that continued Saturday night. It's easy to say the coaches need to "get other guys involved" but at the end of the day, the other guys are going to have to defeat man coverage and get open to the ball their way. I would look for the freshmen to get more and more chances as the season progresses.
** I took a more in-depth look at South Carolina's screen game in my rewatch of the game and there are two things to take away from that. One, the screens were a big part of the offense but offered very little production. Two, most of the screens called were literally one additional block away from going for a successful gain and sometimes a really big gain.
The interesting thing about most screen plays is that there's sort of a point of inflection in each of them where the blockers are trying to get to a spot and essentially create a new line of scrimmage and the defenders are trying to beat them to that spot or flow through them if the offensive players get there first. What it creates is a scenario where often times it's almost all or nothing, a negative/no gain play or a 10+ yard play.
In the case of Carolina, almost all of them went for nothing, but screens have always been a big part of Bobo's attack, and I imagine the timing on those is akin to an offensive line gelling as a season progresses, so I expect they'll continue to be a big part of the O and that they'll start to hit for some big gains, maybe even this week against a blitz-happy DC.
** It wasn't something I noticed watching it live, but once Muschamp said the tight ends struggled in the run game blocking and I watched for it, it was painfully obvious in the rewatch. Luckily, there are some very correctable issues there and there were plays where the OL did its job but a backside defender wasn't cut off by the TE and the whole thing got blown up. OL play, in general, has to improve but there were some things out of their control too that caused the running game performance.
** For me, the defensive line was a mixed bag, but I think it's a group that will steadily improve as the season goes on. The pass-rush was hit or miss, but that's pretty common in an SEC matchup. They did affect the QB and force misses on several throws.
J.J. Enagbare has been exceptional in his last few games if you date back to the end of last season and he continued that on Saturday. Taking a closer look at his game on Saturday (and then looking back at what he did down the stretch last year), I think we're actually on the front end of him rounding into a big-time player for the Gamecocks who should be a household name by the end of the season. Keep an eye on him, because I don't think he's getting the credit yet for how good of a player he is.
Zacch Pickens and Jordan Burch just look "different" to me from an athletic standpoint. South Carolina went with the veterans head of Pickens in the starting lineup and those guys are very consistent in practice from what I hear, but ultimately Pickens is the guy who can be a disruptor in the middle if one game is any indication. I'd look for his snaps to grow and he looks like the former five-star prospect that he was to me.
Burch flashed when he was in there and is still learning the ins and outs of the defense, but I'd imagine his snaps will slowly rise as the season progresses as well. Tonka Hemingway quietly was very productive in his limited snaps. This group has some inexperience but the younger guys are super talented and will only get better.
** As I've said on our live show, we all know it was a tough game for Cam Smith, but this is a redshirt freshman playing his first career major SEC snaps. Cornerback is one of those positions where it's easy to get exposed early on and mistakes are easy to spot by the casual watcher compared to some other positions where freshman mistakes are cloaked because they don't involve the actual football. It was a day to forget for Smith, but he's a talented kid who will only learn from it and he's going to be fine. Some of the social media comments I saw were way out of line.
** There were probably actually more positives coming from the game than expected, but still some major concerns moving forward that the team will need to get cleaned up. Someone is going to have to step up from the group of WRs not wearing 13 or 17. The special teams units need to clean up some mental errors and the punting game has to be better. I think there has to be some concern about the LB position other than Ernest Jones from an athleticism standpoint moving forward and I'll be curious to see how quickly Mo Kaba can get into the mix there. I thought both the OL and DL were a mixed bag, so I'm curious to see how both match up against the Gators on Saturday.
** I'll have more on the actual matchup in Friday's confidential.
---------------
Today’s Carolina Confidential is brought to you by Herring Insurance Services. Call, email, or PM Gamecock Central member Brent Herring today to discuss your home and auto insurance needs.
Located in Lexington but serving all of the Carolinas
803-356-0763
Brent@BrentHerring.com
@BHerring06
