Everything Mike Shula said in his Wednesday press conference previewing SC State

South Carolina offensive coordinator Mike Shula spoke to the media on Wednesday afternoon ahead of the Gamecocks’ home opener against South Carolina State.

South Carolina enters its final game before the start of Southeastern Conference play 1-0 after a win in the Aflac Kickoff Game against Virginia Tech.

Here is everything he had to say.

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After having a chance to look back and cut up the film and everything, how did you think the overall offense played, and specifically the offensive line, how do you think they did?

“Well, I think, kind of about what you saw out there. I mean, it was some really good things at times, and some things that you know weren’t as good. The good things were, I’m sure, as Shane has probably talked about, you know, got off to a good start, stayed out of the third downs in that first drive, except for the last one. The negative plays are what kill you on offense. And we preach about it. And you know, even if you kind of get a little momentum, then all of a sudden you have a negative play, then that it kind of just stalls and you’re playing behind the sticks, so we’ve got to avoid that, try to avoid that much more than we did the other day.

“After the good start, we kind of fell into that a little bit, but I was proud of the way the guys just kind of continued to stay focused. They dialed in. You know, that’s hard when things you know, the emotions of the game, how the what are your feelings go after a drive, when you scored and come back and you go three and out, or you have a negative play, or whatever, take a safety, or whatever it is.

“Now, it wasn’t perfect, by any means, but you know, overall, you know, obviously it’s good to win, and you know, it’s all about winning and getting better. And that’s kind of been the theme for today. And the offensive line was probably a microcosm of what I just talked about.”

With LaNorris, what was sort of your talking points, or what were your talking points with them coming off the field, after the safety?

“I mean, just obviously, you know, our number one goal is to get a first down. And you know, the worst thing that can happen is to take a safety. So we’ve got to be better there. And all of us can be better offensively, coaching me, all of us.

“But learn from it is the main thing, you know, hey, and once this stuff, something like that, happens, whether or not it’s a safety, negative play, a turnover, whatever, you’ve got to figure out what happened, why it happened, and then move on. You know, it’s in the past. There’s nothing you can do about it. Go on and stay focused. And these are things we’re going to talk about for the next drive, moving
forward.”

The tight ends seem to be really involved in that first drive. What kind of went into that being one of the emphases of that first drive and how much do you want to see those guys continue to be involved in the passing game as the season progresses?

“I just think it’s kind of, we want to be as much as we can, very, whatever the word is, diversified. And you know, everybody that has the ability to touch the ball, we want to make sure that if teams are looking at us as an offense, that you know, everybody is a target, not just certain receivers or backs or LaNorris or whatever. We need to be able to be balanced in that regard. So we have to have that ability going into every game. And then, depending on how defenses play us, sometimes it all goes to the running backs, a little bit more it goes to the tight ends or the wide receivers. But just to have the ability going into a game and, you know, as coaches and then collectively as an offense, but each guy, individually, each position.

“Hey, you never know. In practice all week, we may have run that same play, that same pass point, you didn’t get the ball all week, then all of a sudden, the game is maybe a little bit different than what we thought. But that’s up every week, and whether or not the tight ends are, you know, first in the read or third.”

Was the plan going into the game to run LaNorris on designed runs on a lot of those third and short, third and medium and fourth and shorts?

“I think that, you know, it just kind of, we want to have the ability to be able to have him, you know, run the ball, kind of at any time. There’s not really any, like, ‘Hey, this week we’re going to run a bunch in this situation, or run a bunch, you know, in this manner.’ I kind of said all along that, you know, he is talented. He’s a talented runner.

“Obviously, a called quarterback run is different, but as far as him running the football, we kind of want him running it because, you know, he wants to maybe, as opposed to, you know, I didn’t quite see the read correctly, so I just took off and ran. That’s our goal of him getting better. He’s very talented. There’s a lot of quarterbacks in college, in the NFL that you know that have the ability to do that. I think probably every coach is kind of saying the same thing. So, but. He did some really good things there for us.”

Oscar got a good bulk of the carries on Sunday and a couple of drives where he was heavily featured in the run and the pass game. What do you kind of see from him throughout practice and who he is as a runner? To give you confidence to feature him that much?

“Yeah, he’s been probably, and that group’s a good group. I’ll say that to start with, they worked hard and they played physical. He’s probably been the most consistent throughout, going back to day one of spring ball. And he’s got a very kind of a lunch pail mentality of just, you know, being that steady force, whether or not it’s, you know, running the football, catching it, pass protecting.

“So, you know, you kind of want guys like that. And again, it’s, it’s not really ever dictated, kind of, especially we talked about the running backs last week and how we’re going to kind of substitute those guys. It’s just kind of the game starts one way, and then sometimes you have certain plays for like Oscar or maybe for Rahsul, whoever, Isaiah, whoever, and then it’s just, and then after that, we just kind of let it go. And the biggest thing for us to say is, let’s stay on the field so they all can kind of get into a group. But he’s been really good. He’s been a steady force.”

How many were there a lot of times during the game where LaNorris ran and maybe you didn’t want him to?

“No, I mean, not, probably not more than some of the other games in the past. But, yeah, it’s just, you kind of look at after the game, kind of how many touches he has and all that kind of stuff, and then you kind of look at how many called runs you have.

“And so, you know, I don’t think there’s any exact science to it. Going back to some of the other guys I’ve been around that I’ve coached, or coaches that have coached quarterbacks, it’s just, you know, he’s a weapon, both throwing the ball and running the ball, so we want to make sure we use that. We also want to kind of keep them healthy.”

There’s obviously what looked like a touchdown catch called back. There was another one the previous night in the Clemson-LSU game. What’s your opinion of that catch rule? And what do you tell your receivers when it looks like they got one and they didn’t?

“I got enough to worry about with the offense to get those guys ready. I literally did not even look at the scoreboard. I didn’t look at anybody else; I was just kind of pacing back and forth. I was, you know, had it been second down, I was getting ready for a third down call. That’s all you can do. You can’t control that. So get ready with what you can control now that one was going to be fourth and nine, so just kind of hoping.

“But you know that that stuff happens, and you have to, you know, we tell our players, “Hey, no matter what happens, you’ve got to go. Until that clock strikes zero, after that play is over, your mindsets got to be on to the next play, whatever it is, and not get caught up in the emotions. You can do that after the game.’ So if we ask our players to do that, we need to do that as coaches after the game.”

After the game. I think Coach Beamer referenced something from camp, referring to the touchdown to Nyck (Harbor), where I think Hunter (Beamer) shared a coaching point with LaNorris. Not to use that phrase again, but I think maybe you encouraged Hunter to go to LaNorris at one point and say, ‘Hey, let it go. When you see him there.’ Do you remember that specific?

“No, you probably got to get Hunter up here.”

But with that play, obviously, it’s a big play, and kind of puts the score in a comfortable margin. But how do you sum up the way things came together to make that possible on Sunday?

“He did a good job reading the play. Kind of like a lot of past plays in the game. You can have certain plays where you’re trying to look, you know, look one way, and if they give you the, you know, the deep ball, and you throw it. There’s other times when we’re trying to throw the ball deep, and they were really, really soft. That one, you know, Nyck did a great job, and LaNorris made a great throw, and we were able to get behind the defense, but we were fortunate on that play.”

What do you think the freshman receivers learn by just being in a college football game?

“I can only imagine. I try to put myself in their shoes, you know, in their last year, at this time, what they were doing and even, you know, at the end of last year, compared to what they just went through and the experience that they had in their first time against a really, really good football team and that atmosphere and that stadium. I mean, that’s really cool.

“So I thought for the most part, they did a good job, you know, probably about what we expected. Obviously, we, you know, we all want to be more productive. And as receivers and freshmen, as coordinators and all that, but it’s just good to kind of get going now and get those guys in and playing. So each week, as we all know, with whatever we’re doing, we should be better at what we’re doing through experience. And I think that was I was probably the best thing about that. So on to week two for those guys.”

Shane was in here yesterday saying that some of the other tight ends besides Michael Smith had been a little bit more efficient in practice last week, leading to more reps. What do you need to see from Michael to have him get more reps, more catches, potentially?

“Yeah, it’s a competitive room. It really is. So you know, he’s getting better each and every day, but you know, there’s other guys that are competing. And you know we talk to all of our guys about it, and Shane, you know, you talk depth chart-wise, but we just ask all our guys to just be ready when your number is called. And you never know and whether or not you’re going to get, you know, 30 plays, or, you know, 15 plays, or whatever.

“So, you know, he’s like a lot of guys that are, you know, he’s still young. We can kind of, you know, forget about. He’s still a young guy. And he’s been, you know, he’s been battling injuries in the past. He’s coming back into it. He’s just continuing to work on getting into that groove that we all want our players to get into. And in the meantime, we’ve got some guys that have had a lot of reps with Brady and Jordan. So keep you know working that mix.”

What’s the balance going into this week after just two receivers catch a pass? How much do you want to just keep on the same thing? And how much are you trying to make sure that, you know, guys touch a ball?

“Yeah, I mean, in an ideal world, they all get, you know, several touches. And, you know, there’s only one football and that’s, that’s a tough thing if you’re, if you’re playing a position that you know, you might not get as many touches. Obviously, the guys only gotta touch every play are the center and the quarterback, you know, and then the running back, you can have the same question for the running back.

“So you want to get them all in the mix as fast as you can. But you also want to, don’t want to pre-determine that and force the issue. And in the meantime, you’re kind of giving up things you’re not exactly in the best play. So we kind of want to let it unfold. We obviously, as you watch tape, you think you can kind of, there’s certain ways you can attack a defense. You try to put guys in that position of what they do best.

“But the meantime, we’re asking our guys, ‘Hey, continue to get better. You know, with everything in your own games.’ And in that way, we don’t, you know, that way you’re not going to just do this or you just do that. So, you know, it just happens each and every week. There’s no predetermining. You don’t want to do that. That’s the thing I’ve heard over the years. But for us, more so than anything, kind of like I said earlier, just, you know, let’s make first downs. Stay out of negative plays, make first downs, and stay on the field.”

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