The South Carolina football team will be looking to capture its second win of the season when it travels to Lexington, Kentucky, to face the Kentucky Wildcats on Saturday.
The Daily Gamecock spoke with Cole Parke, the sports editor for the Kentucky Kernel, to gauge his thoughts about the Wildcats' opening weekend and the pivotal SEC opener for both programs. The two teams are set to kick off in Kroger Field at 3:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ABC.
The Daily Gamecock: Coming off a weather-shortened season opener, what’s the mood around the Wildcats program right now?
Parke: “I feel like the mood's pretty solid. Obviously, the game was cut short … but it was a shutout victory. I think the consensus is, if Kentucky could score 31 points with nine minutes left in the third quarter, it could have been a lot more than that.
“There was a few things that were concerning, starting off the very first drive, and interception was one of them. But overall, a 31-0 win, it's hard not to be pretty happy with that.”
With it being early in the season, what improvements are you hoping to see out of the Wildcats from last season to this season in its first SEC game?
“I think the biggest thing with time is just going to be how the team gels … and it's tough with a new transfer quarterback pretty much every year, it seems. But comfortability with your receivers (and) knowing their tendencies even better than themselves sometimes is going to be really key for getting this offense going, and I think it's going to help limit some of those interceptions — like the one you saw on the first drive there, and some that arguably should have been an interception that was dropped by Southern Miss.
“South Carolina didn't look as great as some fans hoped in week one, but (they're) still a significantly better opponent than Southern Miss. (They're) an SEC school that's got the better of Kentucky two years in a row now, so I think that it's going to be one that is going to be a really good test, especially going into, God forbid, a really tough one against Georgia right after that.”
What are Kentucky's keys to the game to not drop a third straight to the Gamecocks?
“So the biggest thing, I think, is going to be limiting those third down conversions, making sure the defense is sturdy … Limiting those big gains from the Gamecocks and for the offense is just keep consistency … Keep operating the way you know you can operate. Don't stall out and don't let one bad drive or one bad play completely stagnate the entire team."
What does Kentucky need to improve on from the 2023 season heading into its first conference game?
“I think some of the reads need to be a bit better. I touched a little bit on that one play that (junior quarterback Brock Vandagriff) had that really should have been intercepted, arguably could have been a pick six had it been intercepted, but it wasn't, luckily for the Wildcats. I think that that's kind of those little mental mistakes and silly mistakes are ones that you can't have happen against a quality opponent from the SEC.
“South Carolina has beaten Kentucky. They have proven that they can win those big games ... They're going to punish you for those mistakes a lot more than Southern Miss will — no disrespect to the Golden Eagles, but there's levels to this.
“Last year, there was some penalty issues, depending on the game … It's hard to win a game if you're shooting yourself in the foot every other play, so you can't be doing that.”
Is there anything else you wanted to add about the game or Kentucky football?
“I would just say that (South Carolina head football coach) Shane Beamer has done a very good job of getting under the skin of Kentucky fans these past few years ... it's one that is a lot bigger than just a regular SEC game.
“They really want to win this one, and they really want to, shall we say, shut Beamer up a little bit.”
What's your score prediction for Saturday?
“I'm going to be honest with you, I have the Wildcats winning this one back at home. I think they're much better than they were last year. I didn't predict them to lose last year, and they did, so that's unfortunate for my personal record, but I really do think that the Wildcats will win this one.
“If I was to give you a score ... give me 16-10 Wildcats.”