The Scar Rushing Attack

Don't be bashful asking questions, we all do it (I think Dr. B even asked me a football strategy question once and I can't even try to count the times others have helped me. The best is The Wagons pa-in-law who had me taking snaps, illustrating proper drop back techniques, and working on eye positioning in the middle of wedding preparations. )

The Gamecocks don't do anything particularly unique in their running game. You will see a bunch of "standard" running plays. They feature both zone and assignment-based blocking schemes. They like to run draw plays in situations you would expect to see the draw and like to get their quarterback involved in their base running game. You will see Carolina run the Power, the Iso, and variations of the Buck Sweep. They have also flirted with the option at times this season and use Conner Shaw on some inverted veer plays out of the gun. Carolina will do each of these things both under center and out of the gun. They will feature both single and dual back formations and aren't scared to run out of either. Personally, I believe Marcus Lattimore was much more comfortable with the blocking back in the football game. They also seem to fall back to base runs out of the I formation when they become flustered or want to emphasize the running game (the second half of the Kentucky game is an excellent example of this).

We have discussed all of these concepts at length here in the past, so I won't waste everyone's time getting into the nuts and bolts of these plays but will recommend you look through our archives and view articles on these items. As always, please ask questions and we will try our best to give you a good technical answer for the questions.

I understand that Lattimore will not be on the field when Scar faces Clemson. That being said, Carolina will not change their core rushing plays/strategy this far into the season so expect to see the same stuff they've shown all year even though there has been a personnel shakeup.

South Carolina is comfortable running the football out of the Gun formation. The use of the gun allows the quarterback to be much more of a running threat than under center as well-which plays right into Conner Shaw's strengths.

I will be honest, I do not know as much as I would like about Kenny Miles or Mike Davis. I do know that than Miles had a nice game against our Tigers last season. I also understand that Mike is not quite the bruiser that James was at Clemson but does have extra speed/quickness. As I have stated before, both are very capable and will break you off if given the opportunity, so don't discount the Gamecocks' rushing attack just because their top back is out.