What Dowell Loggains looks for when building South Carolina's opening script
Dowel Loggians has an idea in mind of what not only the first play call is going be but also the first few drives for South Carolina to start the 2023 season.
“We like touchdown plays and no negative plays,” he said, smiling.
Typically every offensive coordinator knows the first few plays for the game–scripting the first 10 to 14 plays of a game–but each play caller looks for something different.
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And Loggains has a few things that he and the Gamecocks are looking for from North Carolina defensively when he draws up his openers.
“There’s a feeling out process that goes into that. You need to figure out how they’re going to play different formations. You need to figure out how they’re going to play different personnel groupings. We know about them the same they know about us,” Loggains said.
“There’s stuff from last year. Their defensive coordinator has a resume. I have a resume. There’s tape. You watch that stuff and be ready to adjust. You can’t wait until halftime to adjust.”
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The ultimate goal of the script is to start fast and score. South Carolina reps those first few plays nearly every day in practice leading up to the game so players feel comfortable with them and understand them like the back of their hands.
They do it in walk-throughs on Friday and again on Saturday before heading over to the stadium. So Loggains and the Gamecocks–first and foremost–are looking to move the ball and score the first time out there.
The next thing coordinators like Loggains look for are tendencies from the opposing defense and a glimpse into the defensive coordinator’s game plan.
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Adjustments come, but Loggains will call plays and design calls to make sure the Gamecocks can see just how Gene Chizik and North Carolina will defend certain schematic things.
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“You better be ready in the second and third series to adjust. There are things you put on the field to see how they’re going to play this,” Loggains said. “What are going to do versus this formation? What are they doing against this personnel grouping? You build openers that way so it reveals some stuff to you.”
Chizik–the former head coach at Auburn–has more experience as a college coordinator with stops as a defensive coordinator at UCF, Auburn, Texas, Iowa State and now in Chapel Hill.
He’s entering his second year with the Tar Heels after what was a tough 2022 season on that side of the ball.
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Loggains will try and take advantage of that early while also seeing how Chizik plans on defending a newly installed South Carolina offense.
Scripts can be tough for a defensive coordinator, though, with the offense largely the aggressor given how much prep time went into the opening few drives.
But that doesn’t mean they can’t learn a thing or two from it.
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“I had a dream of my first couple of calls last night, too. I’m obviously not going to say it. The main thing for us is to understand the adjustments in the defense. We understand we don’t know the formations we’re going to get the first 15 plays,” Clayton White said. “Our job is to play our rules, read our keys and play with the right leverages. Play in our right gap, get a feel for what’s going on then adjust to that.”
