COLUMBIA — Three hours before kickoff at Williams-Brice Stadium, South Carolina’s quarterbacks sat around a conference table in a meeting room, thick binders open in front of them. Co-offensive coordinator Kurt Roper went over sets and routes and hand formations, and then he posed a question.
“Are you do everything to get yourself in the mindset to compete the way you need to compete?” he asked from the head of the table, urging his quarterbacks to approach Saturday’s spring game as the real thing. At least in Brandon McIlwain’s case, the answer appeared a definitive yet.
The true freshman didn’t win the Gamecocks’ starting job for the 2016 season, but he certainly put himself in position to do just that with a breakout debut Saturday.