3 Reasons for South Carolina Football Fans to Panic
There are some real reasons to be concerned about what happened on Saturday. The three biggest reasons for fans to sound the alarm are that the problems on the field aren't new problems, most of the schedule will be much tougher than Old Dominion, and the offensive line is still suspect.
Patterns Emerging
Unfortunately, some of the biggest negatives from the Gamecocks' closer-than-expected game against Old Dominion are not new.
Outside of a few games here and there, offensive playcalling has been a problem for the program for years, and the ODU game might have been the worst for Dowell Loggains in his 13 games with the Gamecocks. There didn't seem to be much of a plan, and quarterback LaNorris Sellers was called on to run too often and called on to pass too infrequently. Loggains has to be better moving forward.
The offensive line and receiver position groups struggled just like last year. Other than a standout 2023 season from Xavier Legette, the Gamecock wideouts were the worst in the conference a year ago, and the offensive line was horrible. While neither group were quite that level of bad on Saturday, there were not many reasons to feel encouraged by how the team played up front or out wide on the offensive side of the football.
The defense played pretty well for most of the game. However, as they started to wear down from fatigue (largely thanks to the offense's struggles), defensive coordinator Clayton White was slow to adjust. When he finally did, he began using the 3-3-5 more frequently. It was the 3-3-5 that produced Jalon Kilgore's game-sealing interception. The adjustment was good, but it was late, something that was a major theme for White in 2023.
It Only Gets Tougher
The South Carolina Gamecocks face a difficult schedule every year, and 2024 is no different. Old Dominion should be the third-easiest game on the slate this year, only ahead of games against the FCS Wofford Terriers and the MAC bottom-dwelling Akron Zips.
That means the rest of the schedule will be much tougher overall than what Carolina played against on Saturday. A road trip to Lexington, Kentucky is next up and could be the season's most important game as Shane Beamer and his team desperately need to make it back to a bowl game this winter.
As things stand today, the Gamecocks likely will be an underdog in 8 of their remaining 11 contests, and a game most believed to be an easy win—a November game @ Vanderbilt—appears to be much tougher than originally thought as the Commodores had a nice win over Virginia Tech this weekend.
What About the Offensive Line?
Last year, because of poor offensive line play, South Carolina football fans felt sorry for Spencer Rattler and the Gamecocks' stable of running backs. When the offense tried to keep it on the ground, they only averaged 2.8 yards per attempt as Mario Anderson, DK Joyner, and company were hit as soon as they got the football on far too many occasions. When Rattler dropped to pass, he often was running for his life thanks to leaky pass protection.
Many attributed the poor play to the ridiculous amount of injuries the team suffered up front last year, and there certainly is some truth to that analysis. However, because the unit struggled again against Old Dominion, some fans are worried that 2023's offensive line results will be copied and pasted onto the 2024 results.
To be fair, there wasn't nearly as much domination in the trenches against Carolina in week 1 as there was for most of last year. Lots of the blocking problems against the Old Dominion Monarchs came from miscommunications and/or missed assignments, especially against disguised or delayed blitzes. Those problems (theoretically) are easily fixable. However, they are still problems, and if they are not addressed, the Gamecock offense will be fighting uphill all season.