In their 50-7 win over Akron, South Carolina relied on several new faces on the offensive side of the ball to come away with their third win of the season on Saturday night.
Even with several starters out for the game, the Gamecocks maintained a dominant presence throughout the contest.
“We’ve got depth and everybody has each other's back, and there was no panic this week in practice when it looked like Robby was gonna be the starter," Head Coach Shane Beamer said. “I feel like I know at every single position we have more depth than we’ve had.”
Redshirt senior quarterback Robby Ashford started while redshirt freshman quarterback LaNorris Sellers was out with an ankle injury he suffered in the loss to LSU last week. Ashford entered the LSU game and finished with 42 passing yards and 11 on the ground.
The Akron game was a different story for Ashford. He went 15-21 (71%) with 243 yards and two touchdowns through the air. Ashford showcased his ability to hit the deep man downfield, including a 44-yard pass to senior wide receiver Gage Larvadain.
“I can’t say enough about Robby and the way that he played, and prepared and performed tonight,” Beamer said.
In the fourth quarter, South Carolina swapped out quarterbacks and put in sixth-year quarterback Davis Beville. The transfer from Oklahoma went 4-6 (67%) with one touchdown to sophomore tight end Connor Cox.
South Carolina took advantage of Ashford’s ability to run the ball, after senior running back Rahiem “Rocket” Sanders left the game with a foot injury in the first quarter.
Ashford finished with the lone rushing touchdown and 133 rushing yards on 16 carries, which led the team. On the Gamecocks' second drive of the night, Ashford broke off a 38-yard run against the Akron defense. In the fourth quarter, he had another lengthy run, this time for 36 yards and a touchdown.
He was not the only new Gamecock to have success on the ground on Saturday.
Sixth-year running back Oscar Adaway III ended the game with 42 yards on 14 carries, including two touchdowns, tying his career-high set at North Texas, where he transferred from this offseason
It wasn’t just Adaway who stepped up in the absence of Sanders, as sophomore running back Jawarn Howell played a key role. The South Carolina State transfer rushed for 33 yards on just five carries including a 23-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter to extend the Gamecocks lead.
Freshman running back Mathew Fuller also contributed to the run game, as he rushed eight times for 25 yards.
“We obviously hated to lose Rocket, that wasn’t what we wanted to see, but we had a plan tonight to play those other backs more anyway,” Beamer said. “Regardless of the score and regardless of how the game’s going, we wanted to get Jawaron and Matthew some work tonight. ”
The Gamecocks used senior running back Juju McDowell in the rushing game. McDowell ran the ball five times for 29 yards, the most since Nov. 11, 2023, in a win against Vanderbilt.
McDowell was a threat in the passing game as well. He scored his first touchdown this season on a 12-yard reception thrown from Ashford. McDowell would be one of 12 different Gamecocks this game to catch a pass from either Ashford or Beville.
The leading receiver was Bennett, who caught five passes, with one of them being a 30-yard touchdown. The true freshman leads the team in receptions, yards and touchdowns. He attributes this early season success to the unselfishness of the rest of the team's wide receivers.
“Everybody wants to see everybody eat in the wide receiver room and that's something I love about our room,” Bennett said.
Amongst those wide receivers are Gage Larvadian and redshirt junior Eriq Rice who both had their first career catches in a Gamecock uniform.
Despite being without redshirt junior Jared Brown, the team was still able to put up 276 passing yards, the first time the Gamecocks crossed the 200-yard mark this season.
The Gamecocks will have a bye week to get several of its starters back before taking on No. 5 Ole Miss on Saturday, Oct. 5, in Williams-Brice Stadium.
Even with the bye week, sixth-year linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr says the team wants to continue to build on this performance.
“Even as we go into the bye week we're not going to relax, can't put the towel down, we got to keep raising the standard,” Knight says.