“We’re Not As Far Off…”

by Chris Paschal

When asked last Saturday night if he was still confident in the direction of the program, South Carolina head coach, Will Muschamp, said, “we’re not as far off as people seem to think we are.”

To a lot of fans, that’s tough to stomach. This is a South Carolina team that has been whipped ever since the loss to Florida. This is a South Carolina team that lost to a North Carolina team that is fighting to get to six wins in the weakest division in college football. This is a South Carolina team that was destroyed by middling Missouri and Tennessee teams. This is a South Carolina team that scored 15 points against an App State team that has given up 41, 37, and 27 points to UNC-Charlotte, Coastal Carolina, and Georgia State, respectively. And this is a South Carolina team that with its backs against the wall scored six points this past Saturday.

The Gamecocks are staring down a 4-8 record in Muschamp’s fourth year. How in the world can South Carolina not be as far off as people think?

Well, to be honest, Muschamp isn’t that wrong. Here’s why I think that – Muschamp has recruited strong classes and the SEC East is the perfect division for a Will Muschamp-style team to succeed.

Recruiting

He said in his first press conference that he could sell ice to eskimos. That’s been right to a certain degree. Has he missed on some studs? Yes, but South Carolina recruiting under Muschamp has been pretty good. For those saying it was pretty good under Spurrier, please stop. The circumstances were much different. Spurrier’s best recruits signed with South Carolina when Clemson was good, but not great and certainly not elite. The state of South Carolina also had some generational talents pop up in the span of a few years. “Jadeveon Clowneys” and “Stephon Gilmores” and “Marcus Lattimores” rarely show up in Georgia and Florida, nevertheless South Carolina. All three of them were within just a few years of each other. All three fell on Spurrier’s lap.

Muschamp doesn’t have that luxury. First, Clemson is having the best decade in program history. Not only that, but Georgia is having an elite run. Florida and Tennessee are starting to recruit like they did years ago. North Carolina has Mack Brown convincing elite defensive linemen to go to a basketball school for goodness sake. Recruiting at South Carolina is a lot harder now than it was in 2009. Second, the state of South Carolina has had very good talent, but nothing like the aforementioned legends. Finally, Muschamp cannot rely on his name. He has to roll his sleeves up and grind. He has to recruit harder than anybody in the area. And he has done a pretty good job at it. You can’t convince me that many coaches would have snagged blue chip guys like Zacch Pickens, Ryan Hilinski, Jamyest Williams, and Marshawn Lloyd.

SEC East is Built for Muschamp

Yes, South Carolina needs to find a way to improve on offense. And while I think the best outcome would be throwing the kitchen sink and hiring a Chad Morris-like offensive mind, that’s not realistic. What’s more realistic is South Carolina keeps McClendon or replaces him with someone equally as unqualified/inexperienced.

2020 is going to come down to if Muschamp can develop this defense from pretty dang good to elite. Don’t forget, Muschamp was fired from Florida after his forth year. What happened the following year in Gainesville? Florida had one of the best defenses in the country and made it to Atlanta for the SEC Title. The Gator offense was still really bad.

The East isn’t the West. Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida are still run heavy teams. South Carolina beat Georgia because of its defense. When Muschamp says “we’re not as far off as people seam to think we are,” in a way he is right. Not because South Carolina is close to having a juggernaut offensive attack, but instead, because this defense is close to being really good. South Carolina isn’t getting Chad Morris. The Gamecocks are either keeping McClendon or getting his equivalent. If they keep McClendon, all is not lost. Like I said, South Carolina won’t turn into a high-scoring offense in 2020, but the mistakes McClendon is making now can be fixed.

Breaking Down McClendon

I wanted to look at all the evidence before coming to a conclusion on McClendon, and after doing so, while I don’t think he is a good offensive coordinator, I think he has the potential to get better. Let’s go through the evidence.

First piece of evidence – McClendon can’t make wide receivers catch the ball. Yes, he can do stuff in practice, but do you really think a guy who has made it to this level hasn’t exhausted his coaching methods to help these guys catch the ball? At the end of the day, as Lee Corso used to say, “if you touch it, you better catch it.” He also can’t make Hilinski throw better balls. So much of this game is mental. Jake Bentley is a great example of that. And no matter how many times they work on it in practice, when Hilinski has a wide-open receiver, he, and he alone, has to be the one that completes that pass.

Second piece of evidence – South Carolina’s offensive tackles have really struggled in pass protection. Yes, there are ways to mask those deficiencies, but there are also times where as an offensive tackle it’s you vs. the defensive end in pass protection. I of all people know that. Trust me, as much as my coaches wanted to help me against Georgia-bound defensive end, Jeb Blazevich, I knew that there were going to be plenty of times where my butt was going to have to be the one that took Jeb on all by myself. It normally didn’t end well. And it usually doesn’t end well for South Carolina’s tackles. This is a maturity, development, and recruiting issue. It’s not a McClendon play-calling issue.

Third piece of evidence – McClendon has good ideas, but bad timing. This is a mixed bag of evidence for McClendon. I re-watched the offensive snaps for South Carolina against A&M before writing this piece. Throughout the game, there is plenty of evidence of McClendon having a good play when examined in a vaccum, yet calling that play at the worst possible time. We will examine the first two drives closely, but trust me, this is throughout.

On the first play of the game, McClendon calls a counter run with Rico that went for a first down. It was a thing of beauty. McClendon had the offensive linemen act as if it was a “pin and pull” run play, which has been a calling card for McClendon this season. A&M’s defenders instantly recognized it and quickly flowed with the offensive linemen. Rico slipped behind the crashing defensive end and ran untouched for over ten yards. On the second play, McClendon called a great passing play. Here, Hilinski got rid of the ball too quickly. While the completion gained six yards, you can tell that Hilinski progressed through his reads faster than he should have. How? Because coming across the middle was a wide open Shi Smith. A&M had blown the coverage and Shi was primed for a first down catch and run, if not more.

Alright, two good play-calls back-to-back. Here’s where you see McClendon not have the insight or experience yet to capitalize. It’s now second down and four. McClendon goes to the pin and pull. But he calls the play into the boundary. (The boundary side of the field is the short-side of the field when the ball is on one of the hashes.) I never understood calling a run play to the boundary side that requires outside leverage. You can ask my brother or father. I have complained about this for years. Not surprisingly, South Carolina’s offensive line is whipped and the Gamecocks lose yards on the play. So now it’s third and long and an obvious passing situation. Hilinksi is pressured and lets go of the ball a second too early and it falls incomplete. End of first drive. So McClendon had some good ideas and some good plays, but his timing on second down stymied the entire drive.

On the second drive, McClendon starts off hot again. On the first play he calls a play-action on the “pin and pull” concept. Wide receiver Chavis Dawkins acted like he was going to pin a linebacker and at the last second released up the field for a 20 yard completion. It was a thing of beauty. McClendon follows that up with a head scratcher. He calls the “pin and pull” again. But it was doomed from the beginning. South Carolina brought Hutcherson from his spot at left tackle to the right-side to put an extra offensive linemen on the right side. That left tight end Chandler Farrell at the spot where the left tackle usually would be. Farrell is a big boy (6-3, 290) and can handle his own in run blocking, but what he was tasked to do was impossible. On his inside shoulder was an Aggie defensive end. Farrell was tasked with somehow crossing the Aggie defenders face and cutting him off from getting into the backfield. Not smart. The Aggie was too quick and sliced into the backfield for a tackle. Now it’s second and ten. McClendon goes back to the “pin and pull” with a little bit of a delayed handoff wrinkle. Again, that play is well designed and has worked before. But not this time. Why? Because South Carolina center, Donell Stanley was asked to kick out the three-technique. For those of you who don’t know what the three-technique defensive tackle is, it’s basically a defensive linemen who lines up three spots away from Stanley. In the SEC, that block ain’t happening. And it didn’t happen as the three-technique penetrated into the backfield for another tackle for a loss. Now it’s third and long, yet again. Hilinski is pressured, again. He throws an incompletion, again.

So McClendon struggles with play-calling, not necessarily play design. South Carolina has the potential to be a better offense than it has been, but the play-calling has to improve, which brings me to my fourth piece of evidence. McClendon has to gain the trust back from the players. Shi Smith’s antics throughout the fourth quarter were childish. Muschamp’s body language and facial expressions in the fourth quarter were depressing. Hilinski looked like a deer in headlights for most of the game. This is the most crucial piece of evidence for me. Better wide receiver play will correct the first piece of evidence. Maturity at quarterback will correct the second piece of evidence. And yes, even more experience as a play-caller could fix the third piece of evidence. But McClendon as a man has to fix the fourth piece of evidence. And if he doesn’t, his fate and Muschamp’s fate might be sealed.