Commentary: Talk of Gamecocks changing QB starter is all about chasing hope
The comment probably shouldn’t have elicited too much reaction.
South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp was asked about the thought process that goes into making a quarterback change “whether it’s when the game gets out of hand or otherwise.” Muschamp responded that he trusted offensive coordinator Mike Bobo on that front. And beyond that …
“We’ll have that discussion when it’s appropriate,” Muschamp said after the 52-24 loss to LSU.
To translate from coach speak, that means roughly, “I’m not revealing anything.”
His starting quarterback, Collin Hill, was not good Saturday, taking a set of sacks when he held the ball too long and generally struggling to get the USC offense to the efficiency it needs. His backup, Ryan Hilinski, has recruiting pedigree and starting experience, but never saw the field against LSU.
Social media isn’t always the best barometer, but Muschamp’s comment hit a nerve for a number of fans.
Asked one fan: “Down 52-17 and your 5th year QB is 46% comp, held the ball too long and had 5 sacks and threw a pick six. When is appropriate?????”
“Define appropriate,” suggested another.
When a quarterback struggles, it’s natural folks will ask (often demand) the backup go in. Sometimes the breadth of that sentiment is limited to consistent complainers — other times, like this week, it broadens out to more casual fans.
And all this serves as a reminder: Benching a QB doesn’t often help things all that much.
Simply put, starters are usually starters because — across a long sample size — they’ve done football things better than the players who aren’t starting. The coaches see all of that at practice and in meetings. We see what we can see on gameday. Beyond that, the coaches know what a quarterback is supposed to be doing on a given play. Fans watching from home usually can’t even see who is open downfield on the TV broadcast.
What’s interesting is that South Carolina arguably has the most experience with how this plays out of any fan base in the country. Steve Spurrier, the longest-tenured Gamecocks coach in recent memory, might have had the quickest trigger in making a change at the position of any longtime successful head coach.. If there was a coach who thought, “Well, maybe the backup can give us a spark,” it was Spurrier.
When the quarterback indecisiveness was at its worst, however, South Carolina’s offense wasn’t at its best.
Spurrier waffled between players for most of his first five years at USC, cycling through Blake Mitchell, Syvelle Newton, Chris Smelley, Tommy Beecher and Stephen Garcia. And those offenses ranked 75th, 44th, 71st, 96th and 102nd nationally in points per game, peaking at 26.6 going between Mitchell and Newton.
He settled on Garcia as a junior in 2010, and the offense was quite good at nearly 31 points per game. The next year he benched Garcia at the start (Connor Shaw struggled in the opener and Garcia saved the day). Garcia then struggled (51.7 completion percentage, four touchdowns and nine interceptions) and got benched before being dismissed from the team.
Shaw flourished slowly at first, then rapidly. He had to weather calls for Dylan Thompson to replace him through maybe the first half of Shaw’s senior season.
And Spurrier’s run ended in 2015 with three quarterback changes (one because of injury) in six games for an offense that struggled.
The simple reality is, if there’s talk of benching a quarterback, it’s because of problems along the offense — and a new QB is more likely going to provide a burst of hope and excitement to burn through.
Jake Bentley ascended to the starting QB job during 2016’s bye week — and after a 2-4 USC start in Muschamp’s first season. It was the third quarterback change of the season, following Perry Orth getting benched for Brandon McIlwain and then McIlwain getting benched for Orth.
Bentley was the most gifted of the three options and more ready than most as a freshman. He then spent his junior year with fans calling for the backup (Michael Scarnecchia) and might’ve spent his senior year the same way had he not broken his foot. Instead, four-star backup Ryan Hilinski came in and South Carolina went on to a 4-8 record and one of its worst offensive seasons in a long time.
That’s not to say Hilinski shouldn’t at some point get a chance, only that people calling for it are mostly doing so from in-the-moment dissatisfaction. One can debate whether Hilinski, or true freshman Luke Doty, deserved a little action late in a blowout just to get reps, but that’s likely not going to spark a larger change.
Chances are, quick fixes don’t solve wider-reaching problems. The team would still have the same issues on defense, in pass protection and with depth of play-makers.
Some of the calls for a new QB also play on an approach many fans want to see: planning for the future.
The logic goes that an older quarterback might be better now, but throwing in a young guy speeds him along his development curve and will pay off down the line. And for the most part, it doesn’t work that way.
Bentley got a mess of reps early in his career. It didn’t make fans any happier with him. McIlwain was thrown in early, and he ended his college career elsewhere as a running back. Garcia played forever and produced some iconic moments, but his last year wasn’t a significant payout from all that buildup.
Simply put, football teams usually can’t function if they’re punting on the present to chase hope two years down the line.
Collin Hill has had moments running the show for the Gamecocks. He was a bit flashier against LSU, both in good and bad ways. Maybe a change comes. Stranger things have happened.
But chances are, unless that change is well-earned with strong play behind the scenes, it’s not going to solve the larger problems. And it will just leave the same subset of fans asking for someone else, sure that someone who couldn’t outplay the starter in practice just has to be able to when the lights go on for real.
This story was originally published October 27, 2020 at 11:35 AM with the headline "Commentary: Talk of Gamecocks changing QB starter is all about chasing hope."
