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Wes Mitchell
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** Saturday's matchup with Akron is about three things: taking care of business and adding a seventh regular-season win, getting the seniors one last opportunity to play at Williams-Brice Stadium, and getting the young players as many reps as possible against a college opponent.
Two of Will Muschamp's primary messages this week have been that despite a better effort against Clemson than the previous two years, South Carolina did not win the game and winning the game was the goal. In other words, no one in the program needs to be happy with the result of last Saturday. And that the program wants to be playing on this weekend this time next year, but for much different reasons.
South Carolina's offense, led by quarterback Jake Bentley, has shown the ability to go up and down the field against lesser opponents this season and it's going to need to do so again this week and jump on the Zips early to dash any lingering hangover effects from last week's loss to Clemson.
Akron has allowed 27.1 points per game this season and 388 total yards per game, so this is a defense that actually isn't terrible (believe it or not, those numbers put you decidedly middle of the pack national these days, as good as the offenses are), but hasn't been outstanding either.
I think the Gamecocks can win with a similar game plan as they used against Chattanooga where they used tempo and the quick outside passing game to wear down the defense early on and then incorporated more and more of the power running game as the game progressed. The offense is playing with such confidence right now that I suspect they can have similar success as they've had recently and I know that they want to finish the regular season on a high note offensively.
The Zips do have a marque victory over Northwestern this year, a game in which they had two pick-sixes and won 39-34, but they've struggled to put up points since then and average just over 20 points per game.
The Zips are led by dual-threat quarterback Kato Wilson who has 2,151 yards passing, 303 yards rushing and 18 total touchdowns this season.
** The move of A.J. Turner to defense this week is an interesting one and the most intriguing storyline for the game in my eyes. Turner has the athleticism and mindset to potentially excel on the defensive side of the ball and appears very open to the move this week.
Could it be a more permanent move? I think it's way too early to give an answer to that. The move was originally made more because of the need at the position this week in particular. But I do think it becomes a tryout of sorts for the future, too, since the running back position currently has a lot of bodies and three of them are rising seniors, including Turner.
** Much like the Chattanooga game two weeks ago, this should serve as a chance for the Gamecocks' young players to get in the game on both offense and defense.
Defensively, many of the young guys are already rotating in right now anyway due to injuries, but you should again see a lot of snaps from Brad Johnson, Rosendo Louis, Rick Sandidge, Josh Belk, J.J. Enagbare, Ernest Jones, Israel Mukuamu and R.J. Roderick on that side of the ball. It may not be ideal for them to all be thrown into the fire right now, but long-term the experience they're getting now will certainly be beneficial.
On the offensive side of the ball, if Carolina can get a lead, I'd look for Deshaun Fenwick, Josh Vann, all of the freshman offensive linemen, and potentially Dakereon Joyner to grab some snaps at some point in the game.
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Full preview of South Carolina Gamecocks football vs. Akron on today's Gamecock Central Gameday Podcast featuring host Emerson Phillips and South Carolina Insider Wes Mitchell.
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