There is no doubt South Carolina is going to be an improved football team in 2017. In 2016, they finished the season with a 6-7 overall record, finishing 5th in the Eastern Division of the SEC with a 3-5 conference record. Last season was the first year for head coach Will Muschamp, the team was extremely young, and also injury plagued. This year is Muschamp’s second year in Columbia, the team is one year older, they are relatively healthy, and the Gamecocks have brought in 2 Top-25 classes in the past 2 years.
Offense
During the first 6 games of the 2016 season, the gamecocks rotated between starting Perry Orth and Brandon McIlwain with inefficient results, and decided to make a bold move going into game 7 against UMASS. The decision was to not redshirt then true Freshman Jake Bentley, who was supposed to be a high school senior (even though he was 19 years old), and throw him to the wolves. He’d been impressive in practice, and they hoped he would be in game situations as well, and their daring move paid off. Bentley completed 65.6 of his passses in 7 games, threw 9 touchdowns (4 interceptions), and his passing efficiency was 139.99. South Carolina might have lost to South Florida in the Birmingham Bowl 39-46, but Bentley put on a showcase, completing 32 of his 43 passes for 390 yards and 3 touchdowns (2 interceptions). Quarterbacks tend to make their biggest jumps from their freshman to sophomore year, and I don’t see any reason why that won’t be the case for Bentley.
The most dangerous target that Bentley will be connecting with on Saturday will be Junior Deebo Samuels. Like NC State’s Jaylen Samuels, Deebo is an all-purpose back that leads his team in receptions. In 2016, Samuels had 59 receptions for 783 yards. He becomes a running back once he catches the ball, and is extremely difficult to bring down. Samuels enters the season as a preseason All-SEC selection.
Last season the Gamecock’s entered the season not confident in any of their running backs, but they enter 2017 confident in all three of the names listed on the depth chart. Very similar to NC State’s depth chart heading into game 1, Rico Dowdle, A.J. Turner and Ty’Son Williams all have an “OR” in between their names. I think like NC State, you will not see one primary running back on Saturday, but a committee. In my opinion Dowdle is the most impressive of the three, rushing for 787 yards and 6 touchdowns last season, while averaging 5.7 yards per carry. Ty’Son Williams is a player the coaching staff is high on. He sat out last season after transferring from UNC, and they feel like they have something special in him.
Wide Receiver Bryan Edwards also was thrown into the fire last season as a true freshman, but he took full advantage of the opportunity, snagging 44 receptions for 590 yards and 4 touchdowns.
Junior Tight End Hayden Hurst put up silly numbers for a Tight End, catching 48 passes for 616 yards in 2016.
P.S. Don’t sleep on True Freshman Shi Smith. He’s earned the starting job at slot receiver, and might be the fastest player on the team.
In sum, the Gamecock’s skill position players are really impressive. What was not impressive in 2016 on the other hand was South Carolina’s offensive line. The men in the trenches gave up an audacious 41 sacks last season. The O-Line suffered a lot of injuries in 2016, and they should be stronger, bigger, and more experienced…but 41 sacks though…
Defense
While the Gamecock offense should take a big step forward in 2016, the Defense should improve marginally. This wasn’t an extremely impressive unit in 2016, giving up 411 yards per game. (Attention Nyheim Hines, Reggie Gallaspy, and Dakwa Nichols…South Carolina gave up 209 yards on the ground per game last year.)
With that being said, the Gamecocks were 3rd in the SEC in creating turnovers, stealing the ball from the other team 27 times in 2016 (15 interceptions & 12 fumbles).
One guaranteed improvement to the South Carolina defense will be the return of Skai Moore, who redshirted last season due to injury. As a true freshman, sophomore, and junior, Moore led the Gamecock’s in tackles. He was 2nd Team All-SEC in 2015. In fact, Moore is two interceptions away from owning the record for the most interceptions in South Carolina history…and he’s a linebacker.
They return Safety D.J. Smith who led the team with 80 tackles last season. They also return Senior Bryson Allen-Williams at linebacker who had 75 tackles, with 8.5 of those going for a loss.
Specialist
The Gamecock’s return none of their specialists from last season. New place kicker. New fella booting the kickoffs. New punter. New long snapper. The could be great, but not the way I would want to be entering the season.
Matthew is Co-Owner of Pack Insider. He writes for all sports, with a focus on football and recruiting, and is in charge of business strategy. He is an NC State alum who majored in business. Matthew is also the lead pastor of The Point Church in Cary, NC.
Kennedy III won’t be without a friend. He will be joined by Defensive End Savion Jackson, who also signed an Undrafted Free Agent deal.
Kennedy started for the Wolfpack in every single game this season at Nickelback, tallying 31 tackles, 2 interceptions, 6 pass breakups, 2 forced fumbles and 1 fumble recovery.
His ProFootballFocus grade for the season is 79.7, which is the 2nd highest grade on the Wolfpack defense, and the highest grade of all the Safeties that came out of the Transfer Portal last year.
In his one season in Raleigh, Narveson made 18 of his 23 Field Goal attempts for the Wolfpack, and made all 38 Extra Point attempts. Narveson made some history in his one season at NC State, kicking a 57-yard Field Goal against Duke, breaking the school record for the longest Field Goal.
Narveson ranked 4th in the ACC in Field Goals attempted (23), and 5th in Field Goals made (18) this season. He ranked 9th in conference in scoring (7.1 points per game).
Last season as a Senior, Jackson had 40 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, and 2.5 sacks in 12 games for the Wolfpack. His Run Defense grade on PFF was 80.6, ranking 4th on the team.
