South Carolina at Mississippi St. Preview: Quick Thoughts on USC's Offense
by Gamecock Man on Oct 12, 2011 10:16 PM EDT
in South Carolina Gamecocks Football
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PrintThis post begins our series of previews on Miss. St.
--The biggest way that Stephen Garcia's dismissal is going to affect this team strategically is that it leaves us without a serviceable backup. (It will also affect it emotionally--we'll talk about that another time.) Listening to Steve Spurrier's interview today, you could tell he's worried that this team is going to be doomed if Connor Shaw gets hurt. This is going to mean a few things going forward. First of all, I would expect that we may not run Shaw quite as much as otherwise, and you better believe that the coaches are telling Shaw to go down before the hit each time he does run. The good news there is that Shaw seems very willing to slide when need be. The second thing it means is that we'll probably run more sets with fullbacks and h-backs in order to provide better protection against the blitz. Shaw doesn't need to be taking many hits from sprinting linebackers. The last thing it means is that we'll likely be running more and more direct snaps to Bruce Ellington and Marcus Lattimore. When we do, I'd like to see us mix it up a little bit. It was pretty clear that each time Lattimore took a direct snap, the Kentucky defense was expecting a run in or off tackle, and that's what they got each time. It seemed to me that there was more than enough room for Damiere Byrd to get yardage off motion on most of those plays.
--To stay on the same topic, the overall key to this game offensively will be again to take some attention off Lattimore. Despite having seen Shaw light up the 'Cats last week, I still strongly believe that you're going to see Miss. St. key in on Lattimore and to try to force Shaw to make plays passing the football. Although the Bulldogs undoubtedly know Shaw can beat them, they also know that Lattimore will beat them unless they focus on him. Shaw is still the unproven commodity here, and he's going to have to pass the ball well for us to win this game. The offensive line will also need to pass block better than it did last week in order to help Shaw do that.
We'll talk a bit about defense tomorrow.
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Im interested to see how that turns out
in the scheme of things, that may be a bigger move than substituting Shaw for Garcia. It’s not the first time its ever happened, of course. But mid-season, and in such a critical position (LT), it is a dose of strong medicine.
My faith in Shawn Elliot is still extremely strong, despite some of the OL’s woes. We’re just not deep enough to lose Nunn. And for his sake, I hope they don’t rush him back. A bulging disc and numbness in the extremities is too severe to risk putting up back in the trenches, in my humble opinion. It’s a bigger decision than a trainer can make – I would hope he’s cleared by a neurologist before he steps back on the field.
Here's a health, Carolina, forever to thee! UNIVERSITAS CAROLIN MERID. 1801 Emollit mores nec sinit esse feros (Ovid)
I'm dealing with a bulging disk right now.
Having numbness in the extremities is more severe than my condition, for which I’m seeing a chiropractor 2x a week. I couldn’t imagine playing any kind of physical sport in this condition. Right now, even golf tends to make my back muscles seize up into a pretzel if the disk hits my sciatic nerve.
Braves.
Falcons.
Gamecocks.
Yeah, I have a friend who went through this last year. It really put him out.
I won’t blame Nunn if he never plays again.
Garnet and Black Attack: A Blog by and for Gamecocks Fans.
by Gamecock Man on Oct 13, 2011 12:38 PM EDT up reply actions
Hard to say about Jerideau.
It will be interesting to see if he plays much this week. Usually, these moves are made solely for emergency depth, but Spurrier made it sound like Byron might see the field a little bit this weekend. I find that a bit surprising, as he’s never played offense before. However, he’s one of the strongest players on the team, so I’d think, at the very least, that he could handle his man on passing downs. Might take longer for him to learn the run-blocking schemes, though.
Garnet and Black Attack: A Blog by and for Gamecocks Fans.
by Gamecock Man on Oct 13, 2011 9:56 AM EDT up reply actions
Interesting, did not know this about Connor Shaw.
Spurrier has turned the quarterback job over to Connor Shaw, a sophomore from Flowery Branch, Ga., who has a crew cut and is the son of a coach. Shaw has idolized Spurrier and his varied offense since Shaw was in elementary school and his bedroom was adorned with the blue and orange of the Florida Gators, whom Spurrier coached for 12 seasons.
Shaw resembled one of Spurrier’s Florida quarterbacks by throwing for 311 yards in a 54-3 rout of Kentucky last Saturday. Shaw is devoted to the game, but Gary Garcia said his son was devoted to football, too, and will prove it again if he gets a chance to play in the N.F.L.
"Stephen was his own guy, I hope he still is," Gary Garcia said. "Coach didn’t want him to be his own guy. That was part of the dilemma. Coach wanted him to be his guy."
Braves.
Falcons.
Gamecocks.
I wonder if Bruce Ellington
will start practicing with the quarterbacks.
Here's a health, Carolina, forever to thee! UNIVERSITAS CAROLIN MERID. 1801 Emollit mores nec sinit esse feros (Ovid)
Ellington does not pass the ball as well as Gilmore did out of the Wildcat. Not that I would be surprised if we throw a pass out of it, but the Ellington Wildcat is mostly a rushing package.
Garnet and Black Attack: A Blog by and for Gamecocks Fans.
by Gamecock Man on Oct 13, 2011 9:57 AM EDT up reply actions
Defense.
I didn’t realize that we didn’t get a single sack last week against Kentucky. Dang. Still a solid performance, but man, that’s surprising.
- FOW
Makes our performance seem even more impressive...
…when you consider that the >100 yards we allowed weren’t skewed by big negative plays like sacks. But, agreed, that game was set up to be a sack clinic. Oh well!
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by Gamecock'n'Balls on Oct 13, 2011 1:33 PM EDT up reply actions
Loving our Defense right now
No sacks against Kentucky and we still held them to under 100…you have to love how they’re playing. Ms St should be a good test of the corners
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