South Carolina's Offensive Line looks to keep improving through SC State
After a tough start to the year, the South Carolina offensive line has shown signs of improvement as the season progresses.
The Gamecocks struggled against Georgia State and at times against Arkansas and Georgia. But the veteran unit found its grove against Charlotte. The run game found its identity. The Gamecocks ran for 295 yards, double what the team generated the previous two weeks combined.
“Just getting out and moving, we like to move people as an O-line and I feel like that’s our opportunity to go out there and just move people,” Jakai Moore said.
South Carolina’s offense has been a heavy dose of their gap scheme run game. The scheme allows South Carolina’s big men to get out and move in open space.
“It just shows you how nasty you can get. You get a double team at the point of attack then you get a nasty puller. Then you get the tight ends involved, too,” Eric Douglas said.
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Quarterback Spencer Rattler has also found himself on the ground a lot fewer thanks to his O-line. South Carolina allowed nine sacks after the first two weeks.
The group responded against Georgia by not allowing a sack to the reigning national champs and also allowing only one sack against Charlotte.
Despite the injuries early on in the year, the group is gaining chemistry as the year goes along. With guys rotating in and out it is hard to maintain momentum as a group. Adkins is forcing the players to be comfortable at every position to eliminate any confusion on game day.
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“I feel like we’re getting used to each other like no matter who comes in like we’re getting used to all of us just playing beside each other and moving from certain positions,” Moore said. “In practice, we literally switched to other positions so we learned how to play everything not just one single position.”
Consistency is beginning to take shape for the group at exactly the right time. It always is a process for the offensive line’s growth throughout the year. Yet still, Douglas says that’s all according to plan.
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“Just consistency you know what I mean just got to keep continuing to get one percent better each week,” Douglas said.
The message seems to be clear for Greg Adkins’s offensive line. Stick to the plan and trust the process. Improvement is a gradual thing, especially on the offensive line.
“I would just say just sticking to it. Yeah, Georgia State we didn’t have the best game but our plan was just to stick to it and just keep going,” Moore said. “Even though we didn’t have the best game like we still had way more room for improvement.”
