Spring football practice starts March 17th, which means hope springs eternal for South Carolina fans. Heading into spring practice, the team has a number of questions to answer as it prepares for it's spring game on April 11th.
There's no way around it —- South Carolina's defense was atrocious in 2014 and it lost the Gamecocks the game on a few occasions. However, that is expected to change despite head coach Steve Spurrier keeping Lorenzo Ward —- the defensive coordinator —- as he did bring in a defensive specialist in Jon Hoke to "oversee" the unit. USC also has some concerns on the offensive side of the ball because it's losing several key players.
The offense was the only thing keeping USC in games and winning a few as well. It was enough for a 7-6 record, but what happens now that Mike Davis has left for the NFL and Dylan Thompson graduated? Those two guys were basically the offense, accounting for about 378 of the team's 443 yards per game. Not to mention the transfer of promising wide receiver Shaq Roland and that's another blow. The question at running back has already been answered with Brandon Wilds and Shon Carson taking their turns at being the hot hand. So now who's going to play quarterback?
Enter Connor Mitch and Perry Orth. They combined for eight throws in 2014. Spurrier distrusted them so much that he kept Thompson in a game where he threw four interceptions rather than try his luck with one of those two guys. Spurrier also brought in mobile quarterback Lorenzo Nunez for the class of 2015 and might let him try an offense similar to what he ran with Connor Shaw who was a scrambler as well. Either way, the offense is really going to need to show the Old Ball Coach something this year if the players want to give him a reason to stick around.
