Bye Week: Gameplan

Monitor Health

Getting healthy is an obvious benefit to having an off-week and more time to rest but monitoring health status, recovery timelines and getting backups ready is one of the biggest benefits to a bye week for coaches. 

All eyes are going to be on LaNorris Sellers and Rocket Sanders as those two have really been the heart of the South Carolina offense in SEC matchups so far this season. Given what we’ve seen from the backups, there are guys ready to contribute so don’t be surprised to see coaches be a little more patient here.

From my experience as a player, there are likely another 10+ players dealing with nagging “hurts”, which are injuries that just aren’t classified as such since they’re less severe; usually these are shoulder-related, muscle strains, and bruising that will greatly benefit from extra time with the training team. 

Solidify Positional Rotations

The coaches now have four games of tape on players, including two against SEC opponents, so they’ve got good indicators of who the “guys” are and aren’t. The top positions to look at here are wide receiver and running back.

At receiver, the number one for my money has been Mazeo Bennett, who has been excellent so far this season as a true freshman. Jared Brown has also been consistent despite missing week four with a nagging injury. From there, it’s been inconsistent to say the least. Gage Larvadain and Vandrevius Jacobs have shown explosive flashes but only combined for 5 total catches on the year.

The two players who have been a relief for quarterbacks are tight ends Joshua Simon and Michael Smith who are tied at third on the team in receptions with six a piece. If no receivers step up as reliable, will we see Simon and Smith get more targets moving forward?

Nyck Harbor still just isn’t there from a production standpoint and we’re all waiting for the light to go on there. 

Add New Wrinkles

This was always one of my favorite parts of bye weeks as a player. Coach Spurrier always added wrinkles to the offensive game plans that would throw off defenses in the upcoming matchups. Likewise, Ellis Johnson would do the same for the defense.

This could be something small and obvious, like turning a drag route on offense into a leak where the receiver turns upfield as they drag across the hashmarks.

It could also be showing more “new” plays or packages that haven’t been used much of this season, which will completely catch the opposition off guard and lead to their mistakes.

Defensively, it could be having a blitzing Nickel go under instead of over the tackles, to throw off the blocking of the tackle or running back. Our team did this with Antonio Allen in 2011, for example. 

Given what we’ve seen thus far, what would your wrinkles be to add? 

For me, on offense, it’s more behind-line receptions for backs and receivers, which can come by way of screens, swing passes, and reverses. On defense, I think we could see some different blitz packages featuring the Nickel.

Start Film on Ole Miss

While the main focuses of the bye week are self-scouting and getting healthy, the upcoming matchup with Ole Miss is one of the most difficult for the Gamecocks all season. So far, the Rebels haven’t played any legitimate competition so far, so the film is tough to assess given the talent differential.

I’ll be doing a deep dive heading into next week after we get to see Ole Miss play actual competition in Kentucky on Saturday but here are just top headlines from what I’ve seen thus far and what I imagine Gamecocks coaches and analysts have noted thus far.

Ole Miss has the same identity they’ve had under Coach Lane Kiffin in recent years. The Rebels are a high-octane offense that wants to exploit individual matchups and drive downfield via chunk plays. The Rebels want to put fear in defensive players that they could be singled out and keep defenders off-balance between playing pass and run. So far, Ole Miss is the top overall offense in the SEC and features the top passer, top receiver, and fourth-running back in terms of yards. 

Defensively, the Rebels are aggressive as they are 100% confident in their offense's ability to score. A defense who knows they can take risks and make mistakes because they will be in a points advantage can be difficult to prepare for as the reads may be unconventional. What I’ve seen so far is an Ole Miss defense that likes to create havoc with their defensive front, which is made easier as opponents are in passing situations for much of the game.

 

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