South Carolina Football: 7 questions for the Gamecocks as spring practice begins
By Kevin Miller
South Carolina Football's 7 Spring Practice Questions:
Will the offensive line be better?
As good as Spencer Rattler and Xavier Legette were in 2023, the Gamecock offensive line sabotaged any opportunity USC had of having a consistently good offense.
Between injuries, poor play, and youngsters being forced into early action, Lonnie Teasley's unit struggled in a mighty way. Carolina posted its fewest rushing yards per game in team history, and Spencer Rattler was one of the country's most sacked quarterbacks. Things have to improve up front or there will be a lot of uncomfortable folks around Columbia this fall.
What will be seen from the offensive line this spring that can instill a little bit of hope into South Carolina football fans?
The injury bug started biting the Gamecocks in the spring last year, so just making it through spring practice with a healthy 2-deep on the offensive line would be an improvement.
Plus, with the amount of players with starting experience on the roster (Vershon Lee, Trovon Baugh, Torricelli Simpkins, Jakai Moore, Kamaar Bell, and Ni Mansell have starting experience on the interior; Vershon Lee, Jakai Moore, Tree Babalade, Cason Henry, Jaxon Hughes, and Sidney Fugar have started games at tackle), the Gamecocks have a lot of candidates for the top-10 up front before even considering freshmen like Josiah Thompson, Kam Pringle, Blake Franks, Markee Anderson (redshirt freshman), or Jatavius Shivers (redshirt freshman).
With Teasley now in year 2 as the offensive line coach and former offensiv line coaches Shawn Elliott and Greg Adkins (off-field role) on staff, the coaching should be improved from a year ago, as well.
It seems impossible that the unit won't be better in 2024, and the first (hopeful) proof of that will come over the next month.