Remember how we speculated in the preseason about whether Boom would remain committed to his new hurry up offense if the going got a little tough? Well, guess what.
In the first half against Texas A&M last week, South Carolina’s running backs averaged 6.8 yards per carry. In the second half, those backs got a combined six carries.
That was not the plan, which is becoming something of a problem for the Gamecocks offense. South Carolina offensive coordinator Bryan McClendon called eight run plays that turned into pass plays because of the team’s new run-pass-option scheme in the second half of that 26-23 loss to the Aggies, head coach Will Muschamp said on his weekly “Carolina Calls” radio show.
“We’re calling runs and we feel like we’re running the football and we end up throwing the football,” Muschamp said…
That reality has convinced Muschamp to tinker with South Carolina’s offense during the open date. The Gamecocks will remove some of the passing options from their RPO scheme for the second half of the season, he said.
“We are looking at having more run-to-run and taking some tags off the RPOs,” he said. “We’re going to still do the RPOs, that’s been very good for us, but sometimes we’re getting too far away from the run game and not sticking with it.”
Either one of two things is happening here — either Bentley is doing a terrible job reading what opposing defenses are giving him on the RPOs, or Boom wants to play more Boom-style offense, regardless of what opposing defenses are giving South Carolina on the RPOs. I’ll leave it to you to choose which.
Get The Picture 
At least Muschamp had a back lined up in the backfield. Baby steps.
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Maybe Boom can hire the Genius as his offensive coordinator after the Trade School fires him.
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Hard to imagine going away from the run when it’s producing great results.
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Well played sir!
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Much as I hate saying it, I think our O is having the same issue. Do we know how often Fromm checks out of run plays, especially in the second half of our last game?
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I was about to post the same thing 92. When I first saw the header, I thought it was talking about us. Has anyone asked Kirby this week how many of the second half passes were RPO’s which Fromm called pass. Were these reads wrong or was LSU D that good, where they were able to defend both. What ever it was, I’m sure Kirby is putting in the adjustments.
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An RPO is not the same thing as an audible.
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I know. But in an RPO, Fromm decides whether to hand the ball off or pass.
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That’s the weakness of the RPO IMHO. The D can force the QB to throw by aggressively pursuing the potential runner. Therefor you actually can have the opposing D decide whether your O runs the ball or passes during the play. If the QB is having an off day, make him throw. That may be what LSU did to the Georgia O last week.
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Seems the RPOs should be thrown out of that analysis as they are neither run, nor pass, as a call. Just evaluate the QBs decisions on those, then judge the balance of plays that are specifically called runs or passes. I don’t think you should have a preset % of what end ups a run or pass. It is why your playbook is so thick, you take any edge you have when the defense gives you a better chance of succeeding. As with UGA last week, if you see your offense move away from what has been successful earlier, you have a talk with your OC. I would take an imbalance of runs or passes every game if we continually move the ball forward. What the hell is Boom talking about? They haven’t looked good moving the ball on anyone this year.
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I guess he was talking about the first half of A&M game.
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I’m not convinced this same thing isn’t happening with us. I think smart DCs are making Jake throw when our better play would be to run.
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