Nick Saban shares why South Carolina may not be 'that far away' from getting back on track
There’s no doubt South Carolina didn’t perform to the level many expected it to in 2023. For a multitude of reasons, injuries being a big one, the Gamecocks finished 5-7 and didn’t make a bowl game for the first time under head coach Shane Beamer.
But at the same time, it wasn’t that long ago when the program was playing some of its best football. It was just two years ago that South Carolina finished 8-4 and managed to beat a pair of top 10 teams in back-to-back weeks.
That’s something former Alabama head coach Nick Saban understands better than most. He recognizes what happened last year wasn’t characteristic and there is a chance to right the ship.
“I don’t think they’re that far away, I do think they have a chance to make significant improvement,” Saban said on SEC Now at SEC Media Days. “I do think they have a difficult schedule. So it’ll be interesting to see how this team develops.”
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One main issue South Carolina faced last season was an inability to run the ball. The offense 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.
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Since last season ended, the Gamecocks addressed this deficiency and brought in a slew of talent to replenish the running game. Rocket Sanders, who ran for more than 1,400 yards at Arkansas in 2022, is expected to be the lead back this season. Also joining him from the transfer portal are Jawarn Howell and Oscar Adaway III.
“When they’ve been able to run the ball effectively at South Carolina, they’ve been able to play pretty well and put themselves in a position to have a chance to win,” Saban said. “They weren’t able to do that last year when they had all these injuries. Now, they’ve got all these guys back. Rocket is a really good back and a good addition.”
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However, there’s more to rekindling success than just running the ball more efficiently. Saban added that the Gamecocks need to be able to “make more explosive plays” on offense.
“I think that’s going to come in running the ball and having great play action passes to throw the ball down the field rather than dropping back. They had too many negative plays last year when they tried to drop back,” he said.
