Everything Mike Shula said previewing South Carolina's matchup with Alabama

South Carolina offensive coordinator Mike Shula spoke to the media on Wednesday to preview the team’s Week 9 matchup against Alabama. Here’s everything he had to say.

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What was it that you saw before the Oklahoma game to think that runs up the middle would work?

“So, we had a couple hit early. And each week, you look at running the ball, throwing the ball, mixing it up. And sometimes, there’s plays that you hit that, early in the game, might not be good and might open up later. Unfortunately, we weren’t good enough and didn’t have as much success there. They’re good on defense, too.

“There’s been other times where we’ve had runs early in the game that have been that way, and then they popped this season. So, yeah, unfortunately, we didn’t get in a good rhythm in any case.”

Are there any particular calls or situations from Saturday that you look back on and wish you had back?

“Yeah. I mean, you look back every week and probably say that. But there’s a fine line in second-guessing yourself and/or, obviously, looking into it and becoming better. They do a good job on defense where they’ll bring blitzes and drop guys out. The ones that you really look at as a play caller is if you’re looking there, and there’s nothing available either with the first guy or the second guy. And there might have been one play like that, but they’re good, too.

“But yeah, you have to go back and continue to evaluate, depending on the defense. Like this week, too, just making sure we’re giving our guys the best chance to operate, run game or pass game-wise.”

When the protection struggles like it has at times this year, how much does that affect how you play call during a game and change from what you want to do going into it?

“Well, protection involves everybody. It’s not just the offensive line; it’s not just the running backs. It’s the quarterback getting the ball out on time, the receivers getting open on time; it’s all of us, as coaches and players.

“Protection is probably going to be a lot better on first-and-10 than it is on second-and-long or third-and-long. So, staying out of those situations. You try to get a balance each and every week in that regard, to try to stay ahead of the chains. I think, on our drives throughout the year, you would say, when we’re staying ahead of the chains and not getting behind them, you have all those things where you’re protecting better. The ball’s coming out.

“And there’s different kinds of protections, too. So, you look into different protections. You look into making sure that you try your best not to put your guys in a bad matchup situation protection-wise. Different ways you can do that. It’s all hands on deck in regards to having the different protections.”

How do you balance wanting to have some deep shots, but also not knowing how many you can call because you’re not sure how much time LaNorris Sellers is going to have?

“You want to stretch the field; you want to have the defense have to cover the whole field — in regard to down the field, intermediate, short, sidelines, all that kind of stuff. You want to help your lineman where you’re not just saying, ‘Hey, we want to throw the ball down the field, and you got protect, protect, protect, protect.’ Because that’s not advantageous, either. So, you got to have a good mix in that. Running game helps in that, too. There is a balance — a delicate balance.

“The other thing that you have to make sure, as a play caller, is you don’t quite leave things too early in the game and just kind of, like, ‘Hey, we got to just throw it on every down,’ — which is hard if you don’t have the lead and things like that. So, those are things we continue to look at. And we do it based on, ‘Hey, what’s the best thing for our players? What gives them the best chance to operate? Is it throwing it on every down, or is it mixing in runs, mixing in inside runs, outside runs, draws, screens?’ Things like that.”

When you have a year where it seems like you can’t keep an offensive lineman healthy, is there anything you can do as a coach in practice to try to help that?

“It’s hard. I mean, I wish I had the answer to that because I’ve been on teams where you’ve had nobody get hurt, or they’ve been a little bit beat up. But then, I’ve been on teams where you’ve had guys get hurt in pre-game warm ups of the first game of the season and be out for the whole year — or the first game of preseason, first game of regular season. So, that’s why you have to build depth. That’s why you have to coach everybody.

“In college, it’s a little bit different because the guys are younger. So, you have to give some of those younger guys a few more reps than, maybe, you would do in the NFL, when guys are a little bit older. So, because guys are coming right out of high school, and they don’t have a lot of experience, you got to try to give to them the best you can.”

Over the course of seven games, how much have you struggled in making sure that guys are getting put in good positions to succeed?

“It’s hard to it’s hard to say that. I mean, we try to do that all the time. Like I said, there’s a couple plays that you like here and there and/or scheme-wise. But I would say that, again, we’re not saying, ‘Hey, we got to be better, or we’re not doing this.’ We don’t have our head in the sand regarding to, ‘Hey, we’re going to do this no matter what, no matter what, no matter what.’ We want to find out what’s the best thing you do, and then put you on the field doing that thing.

“Sometimes, you try to do that all the time. Sometimes, you can’t, maybe, based on all the different things that come up in a game — injuries, maybe a little different scheme that you got to adjust to because what you thought was going to be really good is not overall good for everybody.

“So, I couldn’t put a number on it. But yeah, when you’re not playing well and having success, those are all things that… You know, we look at those whether or not we’re scoring on every drive or not. Those are things we evaluate each and every week.”

When you’re getting deep into the red zone, how much thought goes into having LaNorris Sellers run the ball, considering you know what he can do in that regard?

“Yeah, we have those. We’ve done that. And he’s a weapon, both running the ball and throwing the ball. But you also don’t necessarily want to, like… He ran the ball, I think, 22 times a couple games ago. And I don’t know if that’s the best thing for him. He’s physical; he’s tough and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, you want to use him as a weapon. And when you do, have a scheme up where, it’s not necessarily what you might have our normal running backs run. You want to have him run things that are just maybe a little bit, so to speak, cleaner. Those running backs are used to those dirty runs, so to speak — those ones where they just got to halfway run through somebody. So, you don’t want to do that for him.

“But there’s different ways you can do that. There’s quarterback draws; there’s counters. There’s outside runs and a couple other ways to do it.”

Have you lost any self-confidence in yourself? Do you still believe in your philosophies, principles and everything that you’ve grown to know over the years?

“Yeah, you have to have confidence. What do we ask our players to do? We ask our players to have confidence, believe in themselves, keep working hard, and trust in what they’re doing and their guys around them. And so, if we, as coaches, ask that our players do that, we have to do the same thing.

“Plus, there’s so much each week to have to dial in and be really good in preparation. You don’t have time to think about being down on yourself or what’s being said. You you sign up for this, coaching and playing, because you love football. And you sign up because you love to compete. If I take time away from preparing to help our football team compete and go win games, then I’m cheating everybody around me. And I won’t do that.”

Are there any changes you’re hoping to implement going into these next few games to spark some more production/consistency?

“Sure, yes.”

There are plays where it seems like you’re trying to get things going quick, but it doesn’t seem like LaNorris Sellers always hits those, whether it’s the pressure coming or he doesn’t see them. Do you have to run more quick plays, or is that something you can coach and say, “Hey, this is open. We just need to hit it?”

“There’s things that, in an ideal world — and that’d be a great question for an offensive lineman — you want to get the ball out fast as much as you can. Defenses know that, too. So, there’s certain things that they play that doesn’t really allow you to get the ball out fast on every play, where you’re gaining yards down the field. So, you try to tie those in with different looks, whether or not it’s from the running game, whether or not it’s a similar look where you’ve thrown the ball down the field — and now, it comes out fast.

“But yeah, those decisions, as a quarterback, is, ‘Yes, make decisions that keep us out of long yardage and, obviously, keep the ball moving forward. We’ve talked about this before — with a guy like LaNorris, yes, you want to get ball out fast. Don’t take sacks. Get ball fast. Don’t take sacks.

“And then, all of a sudden, he makes a guy miss in the pocket — maybe because of, for whatever reason, it’s a little bit off schedule, and the guy gets pressure a little bit earlier than what we thought — and then, he runs for 20 yards. So, you have to live with that a little bit.

“We just got to do a better job overall. And yes, mix those quick games and continue to do that with the other stuff, and just have good balance. And then, make good decisions that keeps out of long yardage.”

What does this game mean to you personally, given your background with Alabama?

“Yeah, I played there and coach there. And have a lot of memories there, and have a lot of friends from both there — from the state and from the school. I have some really, really dear friends in Birmingham that are kind of like brother and sister to me. So, there’s a lot of those things that go through your mind during the course of a week like this. But you got to stay focused.

“The number one thing is, we’re playing a really, really good team — and a really, really good defense. Our guys are excited for it. We’re excited for it. The guys love to compete. Yes, we know we’re not where we need to be. We got to pick ourselves off the floor. But it’s been so consistent.

“I know you guys are kind of like, ‘Oh yeah, he’s just saying that.’ But Coach [Shane Beamer] just said the same thing. Our guys work hard. They practice hard. In meetings like this, they’re looking you in the eye, and they’re willing to do everything and anything. They’ve done a good job. Sure, they’re frustrated, but they’re not discouraged. And they want to do whatever they can to get better individually and as a team.

“And to go back to [the question about chances to improve production and consistency], I didn’t mean be short with my answer. We’re looking into that, with all that stuff — with different personnel, looking at different combinations of players, whether or not it’s skill players, like running backs or wide receivers or tight ends.

“And on the offensive line, you don’t see it as much, but we’ve had a lot of guys play this year. Actually, that’s the one position where we’d like to try to be a little more consistent. And in the meantime, we’re still finding out about guys — even guys that played last week — that, maybe, we never saw on the field before, and they did a good job. So, maybe see some of those guys too.”

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