W
Wes Mitchell
Guest
** Whatever struggles you feel like the Gamecocks have had during their 3-3 start during the first half of the season is nothing compared to the issues that this Vanderbilt team and program have had. South Carolina enters this game with 12 straight wins over the Commodores, who haven't experienced an SEC win since the 2019 season when they won one conference game. Not that Vanderbilt has ever been among the Blue Bloods in football, but the Vandy teams I remember would fight you, and were good for at least a couple of scares per season and usually even an upset along the way. That hasn't been the case in recent years, though as they've fallen on even harder times. This is a game that South Carolina absolutely should win and will have an opportunity to win in a convincing fashion.
** As many of you know, each week we have a writer who covers South Carolina's opponent on the podcast to talk about the matchup. This week, we had VandySports.com's Chris Lee on. Chris is known for not only being tied into Vandy athletics but also calling it as it is. When I asked Chris what some of Vanderbilt's strengths have been this season, he literally struggled to give me a viable area of strength, just to give you an idea of how bad this start has been for the Dores.
** If I'm looking at this game from a matchups standpoint, this is one of the few SEC games where you can look at and say the Gamecocks will have a true talent advantage in probably just about every matchup.
I really liked what I saw out of quarterback Ken Seals last season, all things considered, but he's not gotten much help around him this season and he's, as you would expect, struggled.
Vandy has some size at receiver but they're not really explosive there. You can almost always count on them having a solid running back, but their top back is hurt and their second back may be out too - so they're incredibly thin at this point.
On offense, they tend to do a lot of horizontal type stuff and at this point have failed to really attack the middle of the field or stretch the defense vertically.
** If there's an area that I really believe the Gamecocks should have success it's in their defensive line vs. the Vanderbilt offensive line. Vandy has struggled both in running the football and protecting the passer, which should open up an opportunity for the Carolina d-line to take over this game. I really don't expect many points from Vandy on offense - it's just a matter of if the Gamecocks will have to win one of those grind it out type games or if the offense will get it going this week against a defense that's also struggled to stop teams.
** I expect Cam Smith back in action today after missing the UT game and part of the Troy game. I think this is a game for South Carolina to possibly get some of its backups some playing time and that would be especially important for overall team morale. I think it's important for Carolina to be able to start feeling comfortable playing some of its reserve linebackers more as well because they've had to ask too much to this point from Damani Staley and Brad Johnson in terms of snaps played.
I thought there were some positive things from Tyshawn Wannamaker and Vinny Murphy when they played some of in the second half last week and I wouldn't be surprised if we see them continue to get some snaps. I wouldn't be surprised to see Wannamaker even potentially get a start at some point soon. I was always high on that kid out of high school, and he's one of the stronger dudes on the team.
** The staff wants to continue to get Jaheim Bell involved more and I think we saw signs of that last week as his role continues to expand. Bell told us earlier this week that he hasn't been involved on special teams but I wouldn't be surprised to see him get to use his skillset on 'Teams at some point as well.
** Last week was the first time that I've seen South Carolina have some success in the running game against an SEC opponent by lining up and actually executing its base runs. There were still too many negative plays allowed, but there were also successful runs off the inside zone, outside zone, pin-and-pull sweep, and counter, a concept that I'm shocked we haven't seen more of prior to the UT game, because it's a HUGE staple of the Lincoln Riley system.
Even in the week prior to that against Troy, I felt that any running game success we were seeing was more based on smoke and mirrors (two chunk play runs from Vann on an end around) rather than just lining up and running it. So as ugly as the UT game was in the first quarter, I'll be curious today to see if the running game can build on some of that success and actually create some consistency with its base runs. If there was ever an opponent to do it against, it's this one.
It seemed apparent to me that Vanderbilt lacks some speed on defense, especially in the secondary, so that could open up some opportunities down the field in the passing game as well.
FINAL PREDICTION: South Carolina is a huge favorite in this one for a reason and I don't think the Vanderbilt offense can score enough to win the game. The question is, will it be more of an ugly, low scoring game that Carolina still controls or will the Carolina offense be able to show some signs of progress against a Vandy defense that has also struggled? Not that I think the offense will necessarily roll, but I think they've got a chance to play one of their better games and that there's an opportunity for another defensive or special teams score too. South Carolina 38, Vanderbilt 13
------------
Today’s Carolina Confidential is brought to you by Herring Insurance Services. Call, email, or PM Gamecock Central member Brent Herring today to discuss your home and auto insurance needs.
Located in Lexington but serving all of the Carolinas
803-356-0763
Brent@BrentHerring.com
@BHerring06
