 "Photo: Katie Kirkland / The Gamecock")
USC's football team has found itself in quite the quandary four games into this early season: What is the best way to mix and match a bevy of offensive line candidates into one effective, cohesive unit?
Well, for coach Steve Spurrier and the rest of USC's coaching staff, the answers are slow in coming, and the results are downright frustrating. The statistics speak for themselves, as Carolina's offensive line has been largely unable to establish any kind of dominance at the line of scrimmage, resulting in a meager running game and poor time of possession.
Through four games, USC has gained 19 first downs on the ground, while the opposition has accumulated 45. The discrepancies get even worse, as the Gamecocks have racked up only 262 yards of positive rushing, while allowing opponents 796 yards. USC averages 2.4 yards per carry, but has also lost 152 yards and has only three rushing touchdowns.
While these paltry numbers aren't encouraging, Spurrier has said his teams never typically worry too much about ball control and time of possession.
"I used to not worry about (time of possession) that much, because we were, hopefully, a quick-scoring team. It's important to us now because our defense is not as strong as we hope it's going to be some day," Spurrier said. "We are giving up a ton of yards rushing and we are not making many rushing, so our time of possession is not going to be very good. It would be helpful if the offense could stay out there awhile and give the defense some rest. If you have a real strong defense, time of possession is not all that important, if your offense can score quickly."
The result is an offensive line unit subjected to constant shuffling. The coaching staff made many depth chart decisions last week against Troy, and the effects have been felt by players.
"The coaches are just trying to find the best ones to go out on the field, the ones that play hard every play," said junior starting center Chris White. "Every week it's a different guy (plugged in), so we have to go out there and give it all we got."
The offense is hoping that with starting quarterback Blake Mitchell sidelined with a high ankle sprain, the substitution of mobile Antonio Heffner will jump-start the ground game. Heffner, a redshirt freshman from Memphis, Tenn., was the starting quarterback for the Garnet team in last spring's Garnet and Black game. His skill-set combination of a strong arm and agile, quick legs has Spurrier hoping that he can avoid Auburn's talented pass rush, keep the defense second-guessing itself and create some changes on the ground.
"He's a quarterback, but you have to utilize his running ability as well as throwing. We'll try to get him free running the ball as well as handing it off and throwing," Spurrier said. "It will be a little different style offense than I'm used to coaching. We've been actually practicing a lot of these plays all year, and we might have a chance to use them in this game."
With Saturday's primetime matchup against Auburn on the Alabama plains, White said he only hopes the line can begin to gel and work together better as a unit, one with heightened familiarity among the starting five players, and one that can hopefully stick together throughout the season.
"We're all a team, we all practice together, but it is good to be in there with a guy that you have constantly been playing beside every other snap," White said. "But the coaches put who they want out there, and you just have to roll with it."
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