What are the 2021 Gamecocks? Well coached, nope. Talented, nope. Experienced, nope. Good, nope. South Carolina is what most of the experts thought they would be. This is a bad team in virtually every aspect. By now even the most Gamecock goggle wearing positive superfan realizes we are bad. So what do we do? How do we handle that disappointment, anger? What's the fix for this? Fire the coaches, let all the players transfer and start over? How do we blow this up and get back right? I asked a lot of legitimate questions and I know each and every Gamecock fan is going to have a different answer and a different reason why we are where we are and what we need to do to fix it. Most of those answers and responses are going to be based on emotion and frustration. Is that the best way to respond or the best way to decide on how to move forward?
What's right? The defense has for the most part played well. It's not like we have a shut down NC calibur type defense but it's a good unit that can be respected. LB, secondary and safety are issues as we knew they would be but as far as coaching and confidence in the coaching, effort and just overall outlook I think we can feel good that we have the right staff, some players and can feel good about improvement going forward when we can recruit away some of the talent issues.
Special Teams. Lembo was a heck of a find and of course with Beamer's back round this has unit has been a stand out. I think with the exception of returner. We don't have anyone back there yet that scares anyone but Juju has potential. With a little work and some experience it's a unit to feel good about. Parker is going to be a huge loss and a spot we can hopefully fill with someone close.
Offense is obviously a huge issue. Let's go back to last year. Mike Bobo. Many absolutely hated Bobo and soundly criticized his play calling. The O line couldn't pass block. We had one receiver that could catch. We didn't have a QB that could throw. So we ran the ball, a lot. Still lost games but got some yards running because that was all we did. Most were so happy to run off Mike Bobo. Hated him. Wanted a fresh start. He's doing pretty good at Auburn with better talent. So was our issue last year Mike Bobo and his 'old fashioned' play calling or was it talent?
So what got fixed on the offense over the offseason? O-line, nope. Receivers, nope. QB, nope. So where did we expect to see the improvement? The O-line is struggling changing from man to zone blocking. They are confused, missing plays, out of position. So is this coaching, talent or both. I can't answer that. I think it's a huge problem that has to be fixed. You would have to expect some growing pains but we should be at the point where we start seeing some significant improvement and I don't know that we are seeing that. It's going to be extremely tough to recruit and change this in a year unless we can get a few solid OL transfers in. Starting Freshman OL are not a great option. OL has to get better. If this means a evaluating the possibility of a OL coaching change then so be it but this is in my opinion the weakest group on the team and the major obstacle keeping the offense from making any kind of improvement.
We need some difference makers at receiver. We just don't have the guys that are performing, between catching and also blocking when needed most just aren't doing the job. I don't see any help in this 2021 class yet. We need some transfers until we can recruit and give those incoming high schoolers time to grow.
We are obviously good at RB if we can block for them.
QB. Doty has shown some promise and is still VERY inexperienced and young but he has to make a move next year or we are in trouble and might need to look elsewhere. He's still not seeing the entire field yet. His deep balls are horrible. He is going to have to fix his deep accuracy. We have left a lot of points on the table from badly missed balls and not having respect for the deep game is causing problems in the rest of the offense.
TE. I would like to see them used more. I did see we put three TE on the field some on Saturday. Might need to do more of this but the main hold up for the group is that they are having to stay in to help the OL blocking. I don't know the answer there if we have to keep helping the OL.
OC. Everyone's favorite dart board. This is a difficult job when the OL can't block and you have a freshman QB and limited weapons at receiver. Likely why Bobo ran the first chance he got. I wouldn't have taken the job. This is a no win situation until the talent and experience improves. This is no one's dream job at this point. I know this is going to be contrary to popular opinion but I think we have a potentially good OC that is making some mistakes in just trying to be too cute at times. It's also some on Beamer as we have left some points on the field in passing up field goals by going for it on 4 down. The Kentucky game might have been very close if we had taken the points we had. Beamer want's to be aggressive and it's hard to say how much that is changing the play calling. If your running the ball well, don't run it all the way down the field get into the red zone and pass it three times or visa versa. We are bailing out the other team that isn't making the adjustments. It seems like we get things going well (which he deserves credit for) and then he changes things up or goes for some trick play or pulls the QB or changes the RB right when we were having success. I think the signs are there for potential but the consistency isn't. Let's also be fair in saying that there have been some boneheaded passes, badly off target passes, bad drops and poor execution by the skill players at times. Couple that with bad OL play, stupid penalties some bad OC calls at other times and you have an offense that is struggling. I don't have any stats to throw out there but I feel like the penalties will get better, the OL should eventually get better at zone blocking, Doty should get better throwing and running as he gets more confidence in his foot. My hope is that with some of that improvement that the coaches relax a little bit and slow down on some of the cute stuff, stick with what's working, be aggressive but they also have to learn when to be aggressive. What I think this team really needs right now is a bye week to take some time to correct some of the more obvious issues. You can only do so much in season but so many issues are fixable. That doesn't mean we will suddenly be good or win anymore games but if we can improve some of the sloppy and self destructive stuff I think fans will come back around. Until then we have a contest next week for who is the worst team in the SEC. Us or Vandy?
What's right? The defense has for the most part played well. It's not like we have a shut down NC calibur type defense but it's a good unit that can be respected. LB, secondary and safety are issues as we knew they would be but as far as coaching and confidence in the coaching, effort and just overall outlook I think we can feel good that we have the right staff, some players and can feel good about improvement going forward when we can recruit away some of the talent issues.
Special Teams. Lembo was a heck of a find and of course with Beamer's back round this has unit has been a stand out. I think with the exception of returner. We don't have anyone back there yet that scares anyone but Juju has potential. With a little work and some experience it's a unit to feel good about. Parker is going to be a huge loss and a spot we can hopefully fill with someone close.
Offense is obviously a huge issue. Let's go back to last year. Mike Bobo. Many absolutely hated Bobo and soundly criticized his play calling. The O line couldn't pass block. We had one receiver that could catch. We didn't have a QB that could throw. So we ran the ball, a lot. Still lost games but got some yards running because that was all we did. Most were so happy to run off Mike Bobo. Hated him. Wanted a fresh start. He's doing pretty good at Auburn with better talent. So was our issue last year Mike Bobo and his 'old fashioned' play calling or was it talent?
So what got fixed on the offense over the offseason? O-line, nope. Receivers, nope. QB, nope. So where did we expect to see the improvement? The O-line is struggling changing from man to zone blocking. They are confused, missing plays, out of position. So is this coaching, talent or both. I can't answer that. I think it's a huge problem that has to be fixed. You would have to expect some growing pains but we should be at the point where we start seeing some significant improvement and I don't know that we are seeing that. It's going to be extremely tough to recruit and change this in a year unless we can get a few solid OL transfers in. Starting Freshman OL are not a great option. OL has to get better. If this means a evaluating the possibility of a OL coaching change then so be it but this is in my opinion the weakest group on the team and the major obstacle keeping the offense from making any kind of improvement.
We need some difference makers at receiver. We just don't have the guys that are performing, between catching and also blocking when needed most just aren't doing the job. I don't see any help in this 2021 class yet. We need some transfers until we can recruit and give those incoming high schoolers time to grow.
We are obviously good at RB if we can block for them.
QB. Doty has shown some promise and is still VERY inexperienced and young but he has to make a move next year or we are in trouble and might need to look elsewhere. He's still not seeing the entire field yet. His deep balls are horrible. He is going to have to fix his deep accuracy. We have left a lot of points on the table from badly missed balls and not having respect for the deep game is causing problems in the rest of the offense.
TE. I would like to see them used more. I did see we put three TE on the field some on Saturday. Might need to do more of this but the main hold up for the group is that they are having to stay in to help the OL blocking. I don't know the answer there if we have to keep helping the OL.
OC. Everyone's favorite dart board. This is a difficult job when the OL can't block and you have a freshman QB and limited weapons at receiver. Likely why Bobo ran the first chance he got. I wouldn't have taken the job. This is a no win situation until the talent and experience improves. This is no one's dream job at this point. I know this is going to be contrary to popular opinion but I think we have a potentially good OC that is making some mistakes in just trying to be too cute at times. It's also some on Beamer as we have left some points on the field in passing up field goals by going for it on 4 down. The Kentucky game might have been very close if we had taken the points we had. Beamer want's to be aggressive and it's hard to say how much that is changing the play calling. If your running the ball well, don't run it all the way down the field get into the red zone and pass it three times or visa versa. We are bailing out the other team that isn't making the adjustments. It seems like we get things going well (which he deserves credit for) and then he changes things up or goes for some trick play or pulls the QB or changes the RB right when we were having success. I think the signs are there for potential but the consistency isn't. Let's also be fair in saying that there have been some boneheaded passes, badly off target passes, bad drops and poor execution by the skill players at times. Couple that with bad OL play, stupid penalties some bad OC calls at other times and you have an offense that is struggling. I don't have any stats to throw out there but I feel like the penalties will get better, the OL should eventually get better at zone blocking, Doty should get better throwing and running as he gets more confidence in his foot. My hope is that with some of that improvement that the coaches relax a little bit and slow down on some of the cute stuff, stick with what's working, be aggressive but they also have to learn when to be aggressive. What I think this team really needs right now is a bye week to take some time to correct some of the more obvious issues. You can only do so much in season but so many issues are fixable. That doesn't mean we will suddenly be good or win anymore games but if we can improve some of the sloppy and self destructive stuff I think fans will come back around. Until then we have a contest next week for who is the worst team in the SEC. Us or Vandy?
