South Carolina had the ball and the lead.
There was 3:51 remaining on the clock and the Gamecocks led by four points. If they could get a couple of first downs, they’d bleed the clock and secure the victory without giving Old Dominion the ball back.
Instead, South Carolina called three-straight run plays, wasted about a minute of clock and the Monarchs got the ball with 2:50 left and a timeout.
Luckily for South Carolina, safety Jalon Kilgore picked off a pass to seal the game. But the Gamecocks created a potential disaster.
To offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains, there are three different ways to operate in a situation like that: Call three run plays and drain some clock. Call a run play and see where to go from there. Or just call your three best plays to get a first down.
He chose option No. 1 because, well, “the passing game wasn’t where it needed to be,” Loggains said. “At that moment, we ran the ball better than we threw the ball.”
Redshirt freshman quarterback LaNorris Sellers, to Loggains, was sped up. Sellers was making his first career start and the speed of college football was getting to him, resulting in poor footwork and multiple missed throws.
He finished the game just 10-of-23 passing for 114 yards and threw for just four first downs.
“If I was critiquing us as an offense, we weren’t explosive enough in passing game,” Loggains said. “We had seven explosive (plays) total. Five of those were in the running game.”
Now, that’s not to say the Gamecocks didn’t have chances.
In the first quarter, Sellers unleashed a 67-yard dime downfield that surely would’ve been a touchdown had wide receiver Jared Brown not dropped it. Early in the third quarter, receiver Nyck Harbor was wide open along the sideline and Sellers rushed the 18-yard throw, Harbor leapt to grab it and stepped out of bounds.
So often on Saturday, even the passing plays that were schemed well weren’t executed well.
It was the reason Old Dominion was able to hang around and eventually take a fourth-quarter lead. If those struggles through the air continue — especially this week at Kentucky — it will likely result in a South Carolina loss.
“For us to continue to get better, that’s where our improvement is going to gave to go from Week 1 to Week 2 and Week 2 to Week 3,” Loggains said. “We have to be more explosive in the passing game because that’s how you score points.”
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Publish date : 2024-09-05 01:00:00
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