As the Gamecocks head into week five of the 2018 season, they travel on the road to face a familiar opponent that has been a thorn in their sides for quite some time: the Kentucky Wildcats.
Having lost the last four attempts against the Wildcats, South Carolina has yet to find a game plan that will render them victorious over their SEC east rivals, and this year’s Kentucky team looks to be one of the stronger units they have fielded in recent memory.
In the first four games this year, Kentucky has already had an historic season for their program. After ending a 31-game losing streak against the Florida Gators, the defeated Mississippi State to start the season off 2-0 in SEC play for the first time since 1977. It's easy to see that this Mark Stoops-led Wildcats team is a different team from the years past.
That spells trouble for the Gamecocks, as they haven’t been able to capitalize on past Kentucky teams with less talent and far less momentum than they have now. Now facing a hot team, at home, with a 7:30 p.m. kickoff on SEC Network, the threat of extending an already embarrassing losing streak looms over the heads of the Gamecock program. Kentucky will have all reasons to believe they continue to have the number of their division rivals.
Without taking away from anything Kentucky has done over the last four years in this game, it is safe to say that the Gamecocks haven’t put their best product on the field when they’ve played the Wildcats. Most recently, the 2017 edition of the game featured three missed field goals and a missed extra point attempt.
Cleaning up the sloppy mistakes is the basis behind winning any game, and the Gamecocks have failed to do so recently. This part of the game looms even larger after South Carolina had some careless mistakes that led to a few easily avoidable penalties in their last matchup against Vanderbilt.
The most significant key to this game is stopping Kentucky’s junior running back, Benny Snell Jr., a task the Gamecocks couldn’t complete last year in Columbia. Snell is coming off a monster game that propelled the Wildcats to beat No. 14 Mississippi State, where he racked up 25 rushing attempts for 165 yards and accounted for all four of Kentucky’s touchdowns.
Snell has had 125 plus yards in three of the four games Kentucky has played this year and is the workhorse that produces the majority of the Wildcats’ offense. Limiting his impact will go a long way in limiting the damage Kentucky is able to do as a whole.
Offensively, the Gamecocks should be able to use their plethora of weapons to attack the Kentucky defense from all angles on the field. Sophomore receiver Shi Smith had his number called often against Vanderbilt and could be in for another big game Saturday night in Lexington.
Despite the mundane score the Gamecocks put up last year in this matchup, Jake Bentley had a decent game from a statistical standpoint, throwing for over 300 yards and two touchdowns against the Kentucky defense. Moving the ball wasn’t the problem, capitalizing on those drives was.
The Gamecocks will have no choice but to do that this year, and if they don’t, they risk falling to 0-5 against Kentucky in the last five years and picking up a second SEC loss on the year.