Marcus Satterfield on Gamecocks Offensive Production

Kendall Smith has more from South Carolina’s Offensive Coordinator, Marcus Satterfield, after the Gamecocks week nine loss to Missouri.

MORE: What Marcus Satterfield said about Jaheim Bell’s absence Saturday

By Michael Sauls

The focal point in the aftermath of South Carolina’s 23-10 loss to Missouri has largely been about a person who wasn’t a focal point in the game.

Jaheim Bell, who entered the season with skyrocketed expectations after a stellar bowl performance, wasn’t targeted and left the game playing just nine snaps offensively. It was the first time since the Auburn game last year that Bell was on the field for less than 10 snaps.

During the Missouri game, Bell didn’t receive a single target even though he was on the field for five passing plays.

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Offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield said that he and Bell have had conversations about his recent dip in playing time.

“He’s one of my favorite players on the team like there’s not a morning I don’t walk by him and we hug,” Satterfield said. “I want him to get on the field. I want him to touch the ball a lot obviously.”

The South Carolina offense was in what Satterfield described as “rally mode” with 11 to 12 minutes left in the Missouri game. During this time he said the Gamecocks are moving fast and trying to get chunk plays to make up for the two-touchdown deficit.

Satterfield, using the gift of hindsight, said that Bell was not in those packages during the Missouri game and wished he would have been.

“I should’ve just slowed down, stopped, realized, got him on the field, and gave him a chance to get some balls,” Satterfield said. “He’s going to have chances every game, it’s just whether the ball gets to him or not. And sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t.”

Last year through eight games Bell had played 237 snaps and was averaging 29.6 snaps per game. This year, through the same amount of games, Bell has only been on the field for 148 snaps and is averaging 18.5 snaps per game.

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Bell has seen his snap count number decrease in every game of the season, except for the Kentucky game where it ticked back up slightly before decreasing again against Texas A&M.

Both Satterfield and Shane Beamer have said multiple times that certain personnel packages make it difficult to get the abundance of talented players, like Bell, the team has on the field.

“You try to have a feel for how the game is gonna go and how you’re gonna play the game and then you want to maximize the personnel and who’s out there,” Satterfield said. “Obviously, you have certain personnel groups, certain formations, for different parts and segments of the field, different downs, and distances and sometimes you’re right on and sometimes you’re not.”

During his Tuesday press conference, Beamer said Bell’s lack of playing time ultimately falls on him.

“Jaheim needs to be on the field more than what he was the other night,” Beamer said. “I met with Jaheim on Sunday, we had a great 30-minute conversation downstairs and I told him that. That’s on me, I’m the head coach. So he absolutely needs to be on the field more than he has.”

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Bell is fifth on the team in receiving yards so far this season with 157 and still lacks a touchdown catch. He does, however, have two rushing touchdowns and 64 rushing yards.

South Carolina has an opportunity against Vanderbilt this weekend to get Bell more playing time and Satterfield said going forward he intends to do so.

“We’re going to continue to make sure that we put him in opportunities to get the ball and when he does it’s special,” Satterfield said.

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