South Carolina run game seeking improvement against Commodores

South Carolina is off to a 2-0 start heading into Saturday’s kickoff of SEC play. However, that hasn’t come without struggles in multiple areas.

One of those areas is the run game. Through two games, the Gamecocks are averaging just 3.3 yards per rush. While it’s a faster start than 2024, where, after 2 games, the Gamecocks averaged 2.7 yards per carry, it’s not where they need to be. By the end of 2024, though, South Carolina averaged 4.5 yards per carry.

“Yeah, we need to be better. We haven’t been good enough,” head coach Shane Beamer said Thursday during Carolina Calls. “It’s been a point of emphasis, like it is every week, and there’s a standard at our place about how we want to play football and run the ball, and it hasn’t been good enough.”

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South Carolina faces a Vanderbilt team that gave up 214 yards on the ground to the Gamecocks in 2024. However, 126 of those yards were to now-Cleveland Brown Raheim Sanders.

Replacing Sanders’ production is a challenge, but Beamer said it’s something the Gamecocks need to do on Saturday. Depth in the room between backs like Isaiah Augustave, Jawarn Howell, Rahsul Faison and Oscar Adaway helps in that department.

Against South Carolina State, the Gamecocks had five running backs take carries, alongside quarterback LaNorris Sellers and wide receivers Nyck Harbor and Jared Brown.

There isn’t one specific glaring issue in the run game, Beamer said. While the team isn’t trying to make excuses, the backed-up field position against South Carolina State and Virginia Tech’s good defense are factors in the early-season struggles.

“Having said that, we have to overcome that,” Beamer said Tuesday. “We’ve been close; we haven’t been consistent enough.”

Offensive coordinator Mike Shula also believes the lack of consistency has played a huge factor in the Gamecocks’ struggles running the ball.

“Yeah, I think it’s kind of like a little bit with everything,” Shula said. ” … And that’s not just communicating, but you know, all the little things that you do in the run game with offensive linemen on double teams, when to come off onto a backer, the quickness of reacting to certain things.”

For offensive lineman Cason Henry, he said it comes down to communication and execution issues on the line and not creating holes for the Gamecocks’ running backs.

“I think the biggest thing is there’ll be four guys doing their job, one guy not. (There’ll be) three guys doing their job, two guys not,” Henry said. “And that boils down to communication and using your technique the correct way. As I said, offensive line is a five-as-one kind of game.”

You’re unable to block well when mistakes like that are made, Henry said. Everyone must do their job.

“That’s when the run game really starts to roll, so that’s what we’re harping on this week,” Henry said.

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