With the opening game of South Carolina’s 2018 campaign in the books, victory over the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers marks the fourth year in a row where the Gamecocks open the season in the win column.
Lead by an efficient performance from the Carolina offense and the starting quarterback/running back duo of Jake Bentley and Rico Dowdle, the Gamecocks rode the momentum of scoring a touchdown on their first three drives and ended the first half with its most points scored in a first half of a season opener since 1998.
Hitting on all cylinders, Jake Bentley completed 22 of his 29 pass attempts for 250 yards and 4 touchdowns. His backfield counterpart, Rico Dowdle put up 105 yards and two touchdowns (one rushing, one receiving), while only toting the ball 15 times on the ground.
“I thought he ran really well. He got the ball vertically running north and south,” head coach Will Muschamp said. “He got some tough yards and did great getting yards after contact. He ran extremely well and that is the Rico we are used to seeing.”
The two led an all-around offense that drove down the field at will against the Chanticleer defense. Whether it be with lengthy drives that take multiple minutes off the play clock, or a quick hit, hurry up style play-calling attack that kept everyone on the field running at all times; the Gamecock offense showed versatility in what they put on the field at any given time.
Under the revamped offensive leadership of first-year offensive coordinator, Bryan McClendon, the Gamecocks were able to spread the ball out evenly and created large amounts of space for a player with the ball in his hands to work with.
Each player that took the field played a role and had an opportunity to showcase what they can contribute to the offense, and the results showed to be positive. Bentley was able to find receivers with a plethora of open space to work with, which led to him having the high completion percentage that he did on the day. All three starting receivers had at least four catches in the game.
“I think it's more comfortable with [McClendon], more comfortable with me,” Bentley said of the offensive scheme. “A lot of times out there, we were on the same page. Before the play was even called I was kind of thinking ‘hopefully he calls this play’, and he ended up calling it ... that’s what you want as a quarterback ... today it just felt like he called a lot of good plays that put us in the right position and a lot of guys made some fantastic plays.”
The system appears to be a free-flowing philosophy that molds to the players and their particular playing strengths instead of fitting any given player into a strict structure.
“There was never any question in the first half of what we were going to do because of the experience of our quarterback, being at home, [the] experience of our skill players on the outside and the offensive line,” Muschamp said. “We put the ball in the guys hands and let them play. That’s all a situational deal before the half on how aggressive you want to be. We’re going to be aggressive.
The Gamecocks hope to maintain aggressiveness and yield the same result next weekend as they face a top-notch SEC defense when the No. 2 ranked Georgia Bulldogs come to town.