What Appalachian State’s coach said about the Gamecocks
Eliah Drinkwitz stepped into a challenging spot this season.
The Appalachian State head man inherited a program that won 41 games across the previous four years. He started 7-0, including a win against UNC, and this week brings his Mountaineers to face South Carolina.
Drinkwitz worked a Gamecocks camp in the summer and faced USC as the offensive coordinator for North Carolina State in 2017. What he said Monday about the Gamecocks:
On the Gamecocks overall:
“A tremendous SEC opponent who’s got multiple blue-chip recruits, great scheme, great coaches, beat the No. (3) team at the time, Georgia. ... A great opponent to work toward.”
On takeaways from a common opponent in North Carolina:
“Every team is so much different than the first game they played in the year. For South Carolina, they lost quarterback, their starting quarterback got injured the last play of the game. Now they’re playing a true freshman, Ryan Hilinski, who is an outstanding player and one of the top quarterbacks in the country coming out of high school last year. And so they’ve kind of meshed their identity. They play two quarterbacks. The also play a young man named Dakereon Joyner. They’ve now become a different style of offense. They’ve got a tremendous wide receiver in Bryan Edwards. He’s an NFL player for sure, probably a first or second, third-round pick. They feature their running backs. Rico Dowdle, who is a North Carolina kid, is planning to be back. Tavien Feaster is a guy who transferred from Clemson. So they’re got a tremendous staple of backs. Point being, they have now created a new identity offensively than they had that first week. They are a different team in terms of offense. Defensively, they played really well except for the last two drives of the game vs. North Carolina. I think it was a 24-21 ballgame. I don’t know if there is a lot you can take away.”
On USC’s style:
“I know Coach Muschamp has challenged them to be more effective in the passing game the past two weeks. But they are still a team that is built on running the football. Specifically, they’ve got a really good offensive line that is big and physical. They like what we call it a G scheme where they are pulling two offensive linemen, let the tight end down block and they do a nice job of creating an extra gap. So you have to overflow there. Then they have RPOs off of it. Ryan’s got a really quick release, sees the field. If you leave Bryan Edwards one-on-one, just ask Vanderbilt, you’re going to give up 140 yards and a touchdown, no problem. That’s what happens. You have to pick your poison. If you give corner or safety help to Bryan, then you’ve given them a gap in the run game with their pull schemes. If you take away the extra gap with the pull scheme, then you’re leaving him one-on-one. They do a nice job of putting you players in conflict, you defensive scheme in conflict. We have to destroy blocks, run to the football. We’ve got to be physical at the line of scrimmage and we’ve got to make tackles. We can’t let a missed tackle turn into a 60-yard gain, which is what happened to us in the past. Which has happened several times on our explosive runs. We have guys that are there and designed to fit and we’ve missed tackles.”
On South Carolina’s pass rush and man coverage:
“That’s the DNA of a Will Muschamp coached defense. They’re going to have a tremendous front four. All four of them are returning starters from last year. They have two linebackers back. One of their starting corners is back, Jaycee Horn. So they have a lot of experience within the scheme. They are going to deny the ball playing man-to-man coverage. The’re going to try to out number you in the box. It’s going to be a physical game. I believe Javon Kinlaw is one of the best defensive linemen in the SEC, which means he is one of the best defensive linemen in the country. He’ll be a first-round draft pick; there’s no doubt. He was a wrecking ball in that Georgia game and has been a very significant factor in their defensive scheme. So he’s a guy we have to contend with. The thing is they have four returning starters up front. All of them make plays, penetrate and cause havoc. We definitely have our hands full and have got to do a great job of handling the defensive line and controlling the line of scrimmage.”
On how the Gamecocks topped UGA:
“I think their defensive front was extremely havoc-making, caused a lot of negative-yardage plays. They had two turnovers, one for seven points. ... Ten of the points came off turnovers, so the ability to turn the ball over and the ability to score with those turnovers. The quarterback got knocked out and they played Dakereon as the primary quarterback who, he did a nice job in the second half, an outstanding job of coming in and running the offense, running the football, throwing the football, doing what he needed to do, controlling the clock. I think the biggest thing when you watch that game is the defensive line, the way they were able to handle Georgia’s offensive line and then their corner making the two interceptions.”
This story was originally published November 5, 2019 at 10:05 AM with the headline "What Appalachian State’s coach said about the Gamecocks."
