Zay Jones has led the Pirates offensively with 7 catches for 48 yards.
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“What I saw in this game is too many penalties”.
The South Carolina Gamecocks face off against the East Carolina Pirates today in a college football game on the third afternoon of the 2016 schedule.
SANS SAMUEL: Deebo Samuel, a former Chapman High standout, did not play because of a lingering hamstring injury from last week and was scratched from the lineup at game time, Muschamp said.
“His long was 15 (yards)”, Muschamp said smiling after he won his home opener with SC. Will Muschamp won’t be able to rely on his defense to make up for bad offensive performances once the Gamecocks start taking on the meat of its SEC schedule.
McIlwain was a respectable 16-28 for 195 yards in his first career start, adding 34 yards on nine carries.
Star of the game: With apologies to all the SC defenders who made critical plays in the red zone, East Carolina wide receiver Zay Jones was the day’s standout.
“I don’t look at the stat sheet and see how many yards they have”.
Caleb Pratt booted the opening kickoff to SC starting running back A.J. Turner, who found a seam in the middle of the field and darted toward and down the Gamecock sideline for an 80-yard return to give his offense a short field.
SC won its opener over Vanderbilt by three points but then went on to lose to Mississippi State in week two by a 27-14 final score to drop to a 1-1 record for the season.
“I’m not really concerned with last week as much as people probably think”, the first-year Pirates coach said. The Gamecocks outclassed the Pirates on offense to the tune of 519 yards to 312.
EAST CAROLINA: The Pirates have no one to blame but themselves.
“I just played”, Jones said.
SC was lucky to escape this game with a win.
East Carolina (2-1) scored on a 4-yard pass from quarterback Philip Nelson to receiver Devin Anderson with 2:29 left to pull within 20-15. “We did a couple tackling drills this week for him and several guys, and he displayed great toughness”, Muschamp said. You have to get it out of your players.
“We’re going into a big-time SEC environment against a big-time SEC school with a big-time SEC coach and some big-time SEC talent”, he said. “That’s my fault, not his”.
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Jones also has one rush for 12 yards. “If he continues to do that, he’s going to get a bunch of snaps”, Muschamp said. “Give David credit. It takes a mature young man to respond and he responded the right way”. “I didn’t want to put our defense back on the field”, he said.
