South Carolina Gamecocks Update and Game Preview vs. No. 7 Georgia

Written by James Gray II

Last Saturday South Carolina’s attempted comeback fell short in their home opener in front of a sellout crowd against the Kentucky Wildcats. Things did not go as expected for the Gamecocks as they have now been embarrassed two years in a row by the underdog Wildcats. Here is a brief breakdown of the good, the bad, and a final overview.

The Good

South Carolina linebackers junior Skai Moore and junior Jonathan Walton. Skai Moore had 8 tackles, one for loss, a pass break up, and an interception that Moore took to the 1-yard line. Walton had 11 tackles and one forced fumble.

South Carolina’s defense in the second half. The defense came out of the locker room charged up and pitched a second half shut out. The defensive line was able to get nice jumps off the line and forced UK’s quarterback Patrick Towles into many rushed bad throws.

When sophomore Connor Mitch went down, junior Perry Orth showed very good leadership considering he is a former walk-on and has played in very limited minutes. Orth threw 13/19 for 179 yards, a touchdown, and interception.

South Carolina’s wide receiver junior Pharoh Cooper was able to catch the ball 9 times for 100 yards.

South Carolina’s senior running back Brandon Wilds ran the ball 16 times for 107 yards.

South Carolina’s senior tight end Jerrell Adams finally got involved with the offense and caught a 33 yard touchdown pass, broke a tackle, and brought the Gamecocks within 2 points in the 4th quarter.

The Bad

South Carolina’s defense in the first half almost couldn’t stop anything after Moore’s interception. The defense gave up 156 rushing yards and 153 passing yards which led to 24 first half Kentucky points.

South Carolina’s offense in the first half was worse than a week ago. Quarterback Connor Mitch was unimpressive as he was 4/7 for 43 yards, and suffered a bad shoulder injury from trying to recover a bad pitch. Mitch had successful surgery but will be out for at least six weeks. The only points the offense put up was a 1-yard run that Skai Moore set up.

Landon Ards’ 42-yard field goal miss at the end of the second quarter proved to be costly in the long run. Going into the half with 10 point swouldn’t have forced the Gamecocks to go for a 2-point conversion in the fourth quarter. In the preseason, Steve Spurrier stated Landon Ard might be the best field goal kicker in the nation.

Steve Spurrier’s play calling in the red zone was highly questionable. The Gamecocks had to settle for three straight field goals in the second half which ended up costing the Gamecocks the game. Orth is brand new to playing time and the HBC made calls that put too much pressure on Orth to make almost perfect throws to convert touchdowns.

In continuation to the previous “Bad”, Spurrier didn’t call enough run plays in the red zone. Brandon Wilds said in the postgame that he didn’t get the ball enough down there, and he was right. Wilds had a very successful day on the ground and has the most experience on that side of the ball.

Not running senior running back Shon Carson until late was also another mistake under the play caller. Shon Carson sparked the win against the Tarheels a week ago and had an immediate impact when he finally got some touches. Carson only got the ball in the second half finishing with 5 rushes for 36 yards, a 7.2 average.

Pharoh Cooper’s 2-point conversion was not only a poor play call but a bad fumble at the worst time. Kentucky picked up the fumble and ran it the other way for two points, taking an important 4-point lead in the fourth.

Center Alan Knott’s 15 yard penalty, after a rush to the 1 yard line, in the third, was extremely costly. As it almost would be a given that Brandon Wilds pushes the ball in for six.

Perry Orth’s interception throw in the fourth while driving in Wildcats’ territory ended up closing the door on the Gamecocks. It was a first down play and was the worst pass of the game as it wasn’t even close to a Gamecocks’ receiver.

After the interception the cornerback fumbled the ball on the way down but the official ruled he was down. The official ruled there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn the call. The official made a bad initial call but it was a bang-bang play and a tough one to make.

Overall

South Carolina lost this game in the first half as the offense was nonexistent and the defense after their seven point contribution couldn’t make a stop. Settling for three straight field goals in the second half proved to be too little. It was a very valid effort in the second half on both sides of the ball but you can’t dominate and only put up nine points in those three combined drives.

Spurrier should’ve used his knowledge of his personnel correctly and relied on more experienced guys to get in the end zone.

We learned that the quarterback position will be the biggest issue this season, which was the biggest question mark coming into the year. South Carolina does have a defense this year despite what we saw in the first half. On Saturday the ball didn’t bounce in South Carolina’s way as they forced three fumbles but didn’t recover any of them.

South Carolina vs. No. 7 Georgia

Spurrier will have to put a master game plan together to take down the No. 7 Georgia Bulldogs in Athens. The Gamecocks are big underdogs heading into their eastern rival matchup with Georgia, and rightfully so.

The Gamecocks are going up against possibly the best offensive line in the country as well as the best running back in All-American Nick Chubb. Georgia’s line returns 4 of 5 starters while Nick Chubb has 309 rush yards and two touchdowns after the first two games.

This should cause a huge problem from the Gamecocks defense as they are ranked 103rd against the run, giving up an average of 4.9 yards a carry.

Expect Carolina to stack the box and force transfer junior quarterback Grayson Lambert to pass the ball. A year ago South Carolina did the same thing and still couldn’t stop former Georgia stud Todd Gurley. Lambert, up to this point, has played game manager and for the most part just handed the ball off to Chubb.

On defense the Bulldogs return seven starters led by All-SEC linebackers junior Leonard Floyd and senior Jordan Jenkins. Jenkins already has 3.0 sacks heading into Saturday, while Floyd has 15 tackles and a sack.

On the line Georgia relies heavy on senior nose tackle Chris Mayes and defensive end Sterling Bailey. South Carolina will try to exploit a young and inexperienced secondary that starts three sophomores and one junior.

Though Georgia is expected to win the game, South Carolina has won four out of the last five.

There is something about the Spurrier-Richt matchup that the HBC just gets the best of the Georgia coach, despite all the top recruiting classes Richt brings in.

Gamecocks’ fans have no idea on what to expect on offense as Orth looked decent in the last game, but is still a mystery. Field goals won’t cut it in this game, and the playmakers have to step up. Pharoh Cooper can’t individually lead this team to victory and Jerrell Adams has to improve on last week’s performance. The running backs have to run hard like they did a week ago and even more on Saturday.

An X-factor must appear and change the game

Spurrier has flirted with the idea of getting freshman quarterback Lorenzo Nunez in the game. The former Georgia high school standout had two carries last week for 40 yards.

Or is it wide reciever Deebo Samule’s time to out? The coaches and players raved about him all preseason and he has yet to live up to that hype.

Keys to Victory

This game will come down to can the offense finally wake up and keep up with Georgia’s scoring attack?  I am not sold yet on Orth at quarterback but I expect Spurrier to have something up his sleeve for this game.

I really liked what I saw out of the defense in the second half, I haven’t seen them play like that in over a year.

Even though they are going up against the best in the SEC East, the Gamecocks will be hungry and motivated. They can’t afford to have any sort of let down and missed tackles like they displayed in the first half last week.

Don’t lose full hope Gamecock fans, this is basically a new team, and chemistry takes time to build.

However, this is the SEC and the learning curve has to be fast as teams can’t afford to lose two straight conference games.

Carolina will find out Saturday if they have the gun power and are still under leadership that can make some magic happen.

Game Info

One of the best match ups in all of college football year by year will go down at 6:00 ET on ESPN in Athens, Georgia

Prediction: South Carolina 24, Georgia 30

 

Photo credit: thestate.com; No. 10 Perry Orth is next up under center for South Carolina against No. 7 Georgia in Week 3.