Granted it was just one game and granted it wasn’t as if South Carolina was playing Georgia or Alabama. However, last Saturday’s performance on the offensive line was one of the better ones in recent memory for the Gamecocks.
“Yeah, I thought they did a really good job,” South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer said. “All those guys that came in there, we were rolling guys in and out and played a lot of offensive linemen.”
It was quite the contrast from anything South Carolina produced last year, when they struggled to run the football and protect the quarterback. But against Kent State there were few missed assignments, as the Gamecocks rolled up 645 total yards.
Thanks to a 57-0 victory, USC was able to play a lot of people up front, which was one of the goals coming into the game.
“We were going to play a lot of offensive linemen whether we had won big or not,” Beamer said. “I thought they all did a nice job when they came in there. I thought they played with really good effort.”
Carolina ran for 278 yards, as three different running backs ran for 60-plus yards. Jabree Coleman broke off a 60-yard TD run in the second quarter, while Matt Fuller had a 42-yard run to set up another.
The Gamecocks, who host Towson this Saturday night at Williams-Brice Stadium, averaged 7.1 yards per carry.
“You know, you watch a lot of our plays. If you watch the coach’s show this week, I just pointed that out…You watch a lot of our runs, you see and passes, you see linemen, you know, running downfield,” Beamer said. “So, just the effort that they played with, the mentality they played with, the pass protection was good for the most part.”
South Carolina did allow three tackles for loss, but just one of those was a sack. And overall, allowing just three TFLs is not a bad day at the office.
Last season, the Gamecocks ranked 15th in the SEC with 88 TFLs allowed and 15th in sacks allowed (43).
“I just thought they played a really solid, solid game. You know, we didn’t have really many negative plays,” Beamer said. “We had one on the first drive where we just ID the front the wrong way based on the way that they lined up. So, we made a mistake, but like I said, they came out in a little bit of a different defense than we anticipated.
“We made a mistake on the second play, where we turned the linebacker free, but other than that, I thought we played really clean football and eliminated negative plays, which is the key every week.”
–photo courtesy of South Carolina Athletics