Marcus Satterfield shares excitement about Gamecock offense
South Carolina football struggled offensively at times last season. Under first-year offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield, the Gamecocks finished No. 111 in the NCAA in total offense. Satterfield, who faced plenty of criticism for his play calling, understands nothing happens overnight.
“You’re going to have a certain amount of people that think you’re an idiot and there’s a certain amount of people that see what you’re doing,” Satterfield said. “I have full confidence in what I know and what I do. I’ve been through this many times before. I know the process it takes and very few times have we turned an offense around where we just came in and it was perfect day one. We had to go through some really tough things and what that did was hard on me, hard on our coaches, hard on our players-toughen up all of us and allowed us through the next couple years to have great success.”
Fast forward to 2022, Satterfield is gearing up for his second season in Columbia. For the Gamecocks, it’s been three years since an offensive coordinator lasted more than one season.
“I think it’s huge for the receivers, it’s huge for the offensive line,” Satterfield said. “I think for the o-line to not have to change all their calls every single year for three years—for them to have all the consistency with offense from last year through the spring and summer—they’re going to show very big improvement.”
With the addition of new playmakers and return of veterans, Satterfield is confident about the offense this season. He even called it a “luxury” to have a surplus of weapons at his disposal.
“If you live through what we lived through last year where you went into games just trying to figure out who you were going to get the ball, how you were going to get the ball to them. I think to have the ability to have this many guys that can do things when they have the ball in their hands, it’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s going to allow us to be very creative offensively and put people in places where they can be successful,” Satterfield said.
South Carolina brought in a trio of pass catchers with Antwane Wells Jr., Corey Rucker and Austin Stogner coming from the transfer portal. While Satterfield worked with Wells during the spring, he didn’t have the same opportunity with Rucker and Stogner. Rucker transferred from Arkansas State in early April while Stogner finished courses at Oklahoma. With fall camp starting this week, Satterfield is excited about working with them.
“Stogner’s got an unbelievable catch radius, he’s a very good route runner, great length obviously. He’s very smart, works at it up in the office all the time. I think he has a great grasp of what we’re doing in the passing game,” Satterfield said. “Ruck’s cool because he knows every single position and he’s like a savant. He can play anywhere and he’s got that size so he can play outside, inside, move around, do certain things.”
Just as importantly as receivers is who’s throwing the ball to them. This year, Oklahoma transfer Spencer Rattler looks to be the new signal caller for the Gamecocks. Satterfield said it’s lucky for him that Rattler’s quarterback coach, Mike Giovando, shares the same philosophy in throwing the football.
“(Rattler’s) tightened up his motion even more, his footwork is getting where we need it to be. Very light on his feet at his base and having the foundation in which we try to throw the ball. Gio and him have been working on it, I think it’s going to be very good,” Satterfield said. “You can tell he’s happy. There’s something to be said about that. He’s happy to be at South Carolina. He’s got a lot of energy and confidence and he’s ready to go.”
While Satterfield said he’ll keep it simple for the Gamecocks, he wants to use as much personnel as possible.
“Any time that you have the amount of tight ends like we have four guys right now that can go out, play and do certain things, I think that you gotta be ready to use your personnel and try to mess with people that way,” Satterfield said.
