Q1 Review & Q2 Lookahead

South Carolina faced a tougher opponent in each of the first three weeks with the last being the team’s toughest and only loss on the year. The Gamecocks now get a week to work out some kinks and get healthier, facing off against Akron at home. There were plenty of key learnings for the team from the first three weeks as they head into the second quarter of the year. 

In this breakdown, I’ll highlight some of my takeaways from the Q1 that will affect how the team approaches the next phase of the season.

The Gamecocks can compete and should be bowl eligible

The team overall is about where I expected them to be at this point; 2-1 with a 1-1 record in SEC play. This leaves two more cupcake non-conference games and an easy SEC matchup with Vanderbilt the rest of the way. South Carolina isn’t a Program that can overlook these opponents but the difference in talent alone should prove to enable easy wins. As a former player, trust me… the team looks at the schedule and assesses outlook.

This leaves a bit of a gauntlet of schedule remaining but given how well South Carolina can look at times, it’s hard for me to think the Gamecocks can’t win at least one of these games to get to bowl eligibility. 

The three matchups that appear to be the best for the Gamecocks here are Oklahoma, Texas A&M, and Clemson, while I have low confidence at this point against Ole Miss, Alabama, and Missouri. 

The coaches deserve praise but have a lot to prove still

For my money as a fan and a former player, coaches should be judged in three core areas:

• Team building: how good are the players they are putting on the field?
• Game planning: how sound is the game plan based on the opponent each week?
• In-Game Coaching: how on point are the in-game decisions and adjustments?

Let’s start with team building.. I have to give Coach Beamer and staff an “A” grade here. The heart of the defense at edge rusher features two newcomers whom ignite the entire defense. At running back and wide receiver, the units are completely flipped with newcomers, while the offensive line also features newcomer starters. When you judge a recruiting class, you look at instant impact and level of talent first, and the Gamecocks score well here.

Game Planning has been good thus far. The Old Dominion game was poor, in my opinion, as that game should have been a blowout but the staff redeemed themselves against Kentucky and LSU. For Kentucky, we can nitpick for sure, but winning on the road against the Wildcats to the tune of 31-6 shows utter dominance in all phases. Lastly, LSU showed us the coaches can plan advantages on both sides of the football as the Gamecocks gained a 17-0 lead through 18 minutes of game play. This type of lead should be good enough for most teams to hang onto.

In-Game Coaching:

Stemming from the last point, which is most relevant given it’s from the most recent game.. You just can’t give up a 17-point lead as a challenger team in the SEC and that’s on the coaching staff’s in-game coaching. Two things stood out the most: defense switching the three-man front after going up 17-0, letting LSU carve them up through the ground en route to their first touchdown. The second was the play calling after Robby Ashford came in. I would have thought the coaches had never seen Robby Ashford hold a football the way plays were called.. Let alone someone who battled for the starting spot supposedly after being a starter at another SEC school. 

In-game coaching is what separates the good from the great and, for my money, is what the South Carolina staff still needs to prove. Overall, I still give the coaches a ton of kudos for flipping the roster and giving the team a chance to win in the SEC. We’re not that far away from being 3-0.

The Gamecocks offense is going to be tough to watch if LaNorris Sellers has any lingering injury issues

I was at the LSU game… the offense without LaNorris Sellers could be one of the worst in the SEC. Looking past Akron here, which should be an easy day for any Gamecock quarterback, the offense has virtually zero chance to score without Sellers in their next month of matchups. 

I expected to see two things better than what I saw against LSU: the ability to get the ball out quickly to first and second reads, and ability to take care of the football. Part of this is on the signal-caller and part of it is on the coaches but the bottom line is that what we saw without Sellers was just not an SEC-winning offense.

The defense is good … but could get worse.

If the South Carolina offense stalls out, the defense just doesn’t have the ability to straight-up stop teams. Two areas I really am concerned about heading into Ole Miss and Alabama in Q2 are the Gamecocks ability to match up with opposing slot receivers and tight ends, and the ability to consistently shut down the run as the unit switches between three and four-man fronts.

Looking at the defensive front first, the coaches have a conundrum as the depth better fits the three-man front but the top-end talent best matches the four-man front with Kyle Kennard and Dylan Stewart in attack mode. 

In the passing game, the Gamecocks absolutely have to figure out something at linebacker and safety. The linebackers have not shown any ability to cover capable receivers, while the safeties, including nickel, collectively are not able to blanket over the intermediate middle of the defense. 

For my money, the defense needs to stick with the four-man front and attack as much as possible, as we’ve seen pressure turn into takeaways from fumbles and interceptions. As the team has shown inconsistent offense, an aggressive defense could be an answer to keep the edge.

The Gamecocks have multiple future or current All-American candidates on the team

Dylan Stewart is an easy candidate here on the Freshman All-American squad and should continue to be one for years to come. Kyle Kennard is playing like a First-Team All-American so far this season; especially in the most important edge category: sacks. On the back-end, Jalon Kilgore and Nick Emmanwori have shown big-time flashes and should be more on voters' radars as they look to prove it in a gauntlet of a schedule. Lastly, a player who has struggled a bit so far but played his best game against LSU is true freshman Josiah Thompson. Hear me out. Not many true freshmen start at tackle, so don’t be surprised if he gets consideration for a Freshman All-American list come seasons’ end if he’s able to put good tape against top 10 teams.

Q2 Lookahead;

As mentioned, the upcoming Akron game comes at a really opportune time as the team has some great key learnings from Q1 and needs to get a little bit healthier ahead of a gauntlet of a schedule in October.

Given the upcoming schedule and what we’ve seen thus far at quarterback, there is absolutely zero chance I would play LaNorris Sellers against Akron. It’s not worth it..

The Akron game provides a tremendous opportunity for the team to test out some new things (play-calling, personnel sets, etc..) as well as re-try some things that may not have worked in previous games. The end result should be a blowout and the individual stats may make some players look better than they really are but the self-scouting here will be key.

This segues into the Gamecocks first bye week of the season. Get healthy and fine-tune your game. This is what it’s all about. When you consider true competition, the Gamecocks have 21 days in between LSU and Ole Miss, and the Gamecocks will be 3-1 when they play the Rebels.

Unfortunately, I think Ole Miss is arguably the worst matchup for South Carolina all season. The Rebels lead the SEC in total offense, can score quickly, and can attack up the middle of the defense through the air. This is a kryptonite type of matchup for the Gamecocks.

Playing at Alabama is still playing at Alabama, even without Nick Saban. The Crimson Tide still have elite talent, an aggressive defense, and a running quarterback who can take over games. This also presents a really bad matchup for South Carolina but I do think the Gamecocks can strike lightning by way of forcing turnovers and winning on special teams. Alabama is a team who wins by being on-schedule and if South Carolina can take them off-schedule, there’s a chance of an upset here. Still, this is low-likelihood as I just don’t think the Gamecocks have the passing game to win against the Crimson Tide secondary.

I see a Q2 record of 1-2 for South Carolina, which results in a 3-3 record overall heading into the back half of the season. Still, this is what I expected heading into the season, so I’m still feeling optimistic about the Gamecocks odds at going bowling.