Offense has traditionally struggled against Commodores
South Carolina’s offense piled up more than 400 yards of offense last week against Georgia and scored 30 points in a conference game.
Most weeks, that stat line would have resulted in a win and praise for the offensive production.
But because the defense allowed over 500 yards and 41 points, the Gamecock offense was overshadowed this week.
While the unit did put up nice numbers, they did leave some points on the field.
With the scored tied at 24 and the Gamecocks facing a fourth-down with five yards to go at the Georgia 34 yard line, quarterback Connor Shaw ran for nine yards to get the first down, but fumbled the ball, allowing Georgia to take the lead for good a few minutes later.
In addition, running back Mike Davis was stopped on the goal line on fourth down in the fourth quarter.
“That was a bad call on the fourth and a foot line,” coach Steve Spurrier said. “We should have came up the middle on that one. So we had some mistakes, and hopefully we can correct them.”
One surprise from the early season has been the lack of production from the fleet of tight ends South Carolina uses.
So far this year, the tight ends have a combined two catches. Junior Rory Anderson has one, while redshirt sophomore Drew Owens has the other.
However, there is still time to get things going, Anderson said.
“We’re only going into the third game of the season, so we have a lot of time on our hands to get open and get balls,” Anderson said.
Anderson also said he thinks the tight ends will get more targets this game because of the defense the Commodores run.
There is a good possibility that the Gamecocks will need everything they can get from the tight ends, because South Carolina has historically had a difficult time moving the ball against Vanderbilt.
Over the last six matchups between the teams, the Gamecocks have failed to score more than 21 points against Vanderbilt. The last time they scored more was a 31-13 win in Nashville, Tenn., in 2006.
“We seem to always struggle (against Vanderbilt),” Spurrier said. “We were in there watching Vanderbilt tape, and their defense is very similar year in and year out, and you wonder why can’t we figure it out and move the ball against them. But we don’t seem to ever move it very far.”
Junior wide receiver Nick Jones, or “Nicky,” as Spurrier likes to call him, broke out onto the scene and caught the second and third touchdown passes of his career against Georgia.
While the team suffered a loss, Jones said that game gave him confidence moving forward and that it was finally a reward for his hard work.
“I just feel good out there,” Jones said. “I’m one of the guys that has been working real hard. Everything hasn’t been given to me; I’ve been working for it all my life. Just to have that game on Saturday made me a lot more confident and ready to go.”
Because of the recent rise of the Vanderbilt program thanks to coach James Franklin, Spurrier said that the Commodores aren’t the team of slow athletes that they were four or five years ago. It is also harder to recruit at Vanderbilt because of the stringent academic requirements that the school has.
“They’re fast, and they’re in excellent shape,” Spurrier said. “You don’t see many overweight guys playing for Vanderbilt. If you’re going to play in the SEC, you’ve got to recruit very closely to the standards that everyone else has.”