Marquel Blackwell shares his plan for South Carolina's running back room going into camp
There are a variety of reasons why things didn’t go according to plan for South Carolina last season. A big issue was the inability to find a consistent run game.
This led to the offense being one dimensional at times and relying more on the passing to win games. The Gamecocks averaged an SEC-worst 85.1 yards per game on the ground. Mario Anderson was the team’s leading rusher with 707 yards, while the next best was Dakereon Joyner, who only ran for 120 yards.
But now, both of those players have moved on, and South Carolina has entirely reconfigured its running back room, thanks in large part to the transfer portal. The Gamecocks added Rocket Sanders, who ran for more than 1,400 yards at Arkansas in 2022, along with Jawarn Howell and Oscar Adaway III, to address this need.
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All in all, these are three players who were lead backs at their previous schools and ran for a good chunk of yards. Plus, the Gamecocks will have Djay Braswell back and Juju McDowell coming off an injury. Incoming freshman Matthew Fuller also joins the mix. Now the question becomes, can the offense utilize multiple running backs effectively?
“I think we got a lot of different backs that could do a lot of different things,” running backs coach Marquel Blackwell told GamecockCentral. “And I think my experience in this deal, if you could do more is better, but we got to find what we’re really good at what our identity is, and we do it all as a group.”
Blackwell enters his first season at South Carolina, where he’ll work with each of these backs going into fall camp. He’s had a long history of being a running backs coach at multiple schools over the years. And he coached Quinshon Judkins, who ran for 1,567 yards and 16 touchdowns at Ole Miss as a freshman in 2022. So the results are there.
But when it comes to getting the most out of everyone, Blackwell has found success “in a lot of different ways.” It really just depends on how practice goes leading up to the season and who stands out.
“If you can have more than one one or two backs to do it, that’s a good thing. Obviously, that will kind of form itself through camp and see how it goes,” Blackwell said. “I’ve done it with just a workhorse back. I’ve done it with two backs, and I’ve done it with three and four. I talked to them on this, it’s a place for everybody to get touches. You just got to maximize the touches that you get. And obviously, what’s always going to dictates it is how you protect the football.”
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For the most part, though, it will be a collective effort in trying to make the run game more effective. Shawn Elliott, who coached at South Carolina from 2010-16, is now back as the run game coordinator/tight ends coach. Together, him and Blackwell could be able to turn things around in that department this year.
“Obviously, (Elliott) is the lead on everything, but we do it all as a group,” Blackwell said. “I think our offensive line coach Lonnie Teasley has done a great job with his group and getting us ready to go. So we’re all on the same page with what we’re doing. Overall, we’re just all excited and ready to get going.”
