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South Carolina

South Carolina confident protection issues can be cleaned up

On3 imageby: Collyn Taylor04/01/22collyntaylor
On3 image
Greg Adkins (Photo by Chris Gillespie)

The offseason gives coaches, including the ones at South Carolina, a chance to self scout.

The Gamecocks used that time to their advantage this offseason, and offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield made a noticeable discovery when trying to solve South Carolina’s pass protection issues.

“When we went back and reviewed the tape there were 14 times our offensive line was responsible for the sack. The rest of those were the quarterback and running backs missing blitzers,” Marcus Satterfield said.

“We gave Zeb a hard time because Zeb’s scrambling and can’t get back to the line of scrimmage. We have all our O-line guys back and some of those guys played last year when they shouldn’t have because of injury. Now they have experience.”

The Gamecocks last season gave up 31 sacks last season.

South Carolina ranked 13th among 14 teams in the SEC last season, allowing a quarterback pressure on 35.1 percent of dropbacks during the regular season.

It was a season with some good moments but largely inconsistent play. Now that group returns every starter from last year’s unit along with some other reserves who logged snaps.

“We played four different quarterbacks last year, we didn’t anticipate Tyshawn Wannamaker playing as much as he did last year. It all goes hand in hand,” Greg Adkins said. “Ultimately we are in charge of that—the O-line and the quarterback—to set the protections and make sure everyone’s on the same page. So far so good this spring.”

Getting an experienced quarterback in Spencer Rattler—who’s played nearly 1,000 snaps over his career—to pair with Eric Douglas at center should help.

Pair that with the Gamecocks’ running backs a year deeper into the system. And they feel the protection issues will improve.

“A lot of the sacks were on the QBs running out when they could have stepped up. I’ve caught myself doing that too. We have to rep and rep and rep stepping up in the pocket,” Rattler said. “If it ain’t there, tuck it and go and make a play.”

The Gamecocks did improve as last season ended—most notably against Florida, Auburn and North Carolina—albeit slower than maybe they would have liked.

Now, as the offense tries to take step forward after a tough season, protecting the quarterback is step number one.

“First thing that Spencer said when he came in, ‘I heard a lot of good things about you and your protections.’ I was like, ‘I got you. You ain’t’ got to worry about that. I’m going to put us in the right spot,” Douglas said.

“All I need you to do is cue up the band for us. that’s all.’ Protection-wise, that’s my job. I take pride in that. Putting us in the right position for us to execute.”

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