Going under center is a change for USC’s QBs. Bobo, Hilinski tout the benefits
As a part of a college football offense, going under center seems to draw two strong reactions from those watching a team. If an offense struggles in-season, it’s sometimes floated as a cure or a change-up. In the offseason, it’s often taken as a sign an offense is getting less wide-open.
Regardless of those competing concerns, South Carolina will feature more under-center play in 2020 with new offensive coordinator Mike Bobo running things. The Gamecocks only really broke it out last season for goal line play, and notably had a fumble in a big spot against Alabama on the first under-center snap of the game.
But in getting used to doing it more often, quarterback Ryan Hilinski fell back on some skills he developed long ago.
“I haven’t done a whole lot,” Hilinski said in early March. “I’ll tell you that much. But I know that my sophomore season, if you go back, it’s still on Hudl. If you go on my sophomore season of high school, I remember that whole season we installed the Vikings’ old offense in the NFL with coach Matthew Hatchette.
“I was all under center that year basically.”
If you pull up those old highlights, there Hilinski is, executing old-school play-action footwork and slinging it downfield.
Bobo’s offense is multiple in terms of what it does and the looks it can show, blending shotgun and often single-back looks. The team added graduate transfer fullback Adam Prentice in the offseason, but his presence might not mean all that much pure I-formation as he can be used in a variety of roles.
The new coordinator said he liked some of the under-center looks because they allowed for more balance, as there’s no back placement on one side or the other of the quarterback. (Certain running tracks are more clear from that look.) They also allow for harder play-action looks, especially with an attached tight end in the formation, which get safeties rolling up into the box more aggressively.
He also said there are often better cutback opportunities with those looks.
In the part of practice the team got through before spring practice got shut down, one area coaches usually worry about had not been a problem.
“Well, knock on wood, we haven’t had a lot of fumbled snaps,” Bobo said. “We’ve had some with the freshman center. I don’t think it’s been an issue with our quarterback being able to get the snap. It’s just learning footwork and some ball handling for some of the run front action has been the main focus for those guys. I think they’ve done a good job with it.”
Bobo noted the lack of depth at receiver in the early going meant the team spent much of the first five practices in spring in under-center looks, more than the team likely will come fall.
Incoming freshman Luke Doty was in primarily a shotgun offense in high school. New quarterback commit Colten Gauthier said on an appearance with SportsTalk SC radio that his high school offense isn’t under center much, but his former coach, Jeff Saturday, was an NFL all-pro center and they practice it.
Hilinski played in a shotgun, run-pass option-centric offense through the latter two seasons of his high school years and stepped into one last season as a true freshman starter. He’s got the background and is just getting used to the old steps once more, which could add something different, a change-up as it were, to USC’s offensive look.
“A lot of play-action stuff like that,” Hilinski said. “So I haven’t got a whole lot of experience. It’s been a minute but I could feel that my body just recognizes it and it’s just become more fluid and stuff like that out there. It feels good.”
This story was originally published March 29, 2020 at 9:48 AM with the headline "Going under center is a change for USC’s QBs. Bobo, Hilinski tout the benefits."
