The South Carolina football team (5-3, 3-3 SEC) will travel to Nashville, Tennessee this weekend to take on the No. 24 Vanderbilt Commodores (6-3, 2-2 SEC) in another SEC matchup.
Coming off an upset against the then No. 10 Texas A&M Aggies last Saturday, the Gamecocks are excited for another ranked opponent on the road, head coach Shane Beamer said.
The Gamecocks beat the Commodores last year 47-6 and have won the last 15 matchups against them. But the Commodores now lead the league in time of possession and are second in the SEC for turnover margin, Beamer said.
“With the way they are playing, they are doing the things...that teams have to do in order to win football games,” Beamer said. “They are the least penalized team in the SEC, so they are doing a great job at not losing football games, playing winning football.”
The Commodores are led by quarterback Diego Pavia this season, who just came off a 17-7 win against the Auburn Tigers, and threw for 143 yards and two touchdowns.
“He’s just a dynamic player, dynamic athlete, dynamic leader. Their team goes as he goes,” Beamer said. “A lot of their better players from last season...when we played them last year, a lot of those guys are back...particularly on the defensive side of the ball.”
One of the Commodores' defensive strengths this season is their size and pass rush ability, Beamer said. The team discussed perimeter blocking in the Tuesday morning team meeting, as the Gamecocks will be facing a Commodore defense with height and strength.
“It’s going to be a challenge this week in Nashville. When I talk about those defensive backs, that's a challenge for our receivers because we’re not very big at the receiver position,” Beamer said. “They've got a nickel, 6-foot-2, 220 pounds out there in space and...they’ve got safeties that are 6-foot-4, 200 pounds, so when you talk about perimeter blocking, that's going to be a challenge for us this week.”
During the game against the Aggies, redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Cason Henry said that he and the rest of the offensive line were able to blow the Aggies off the ball as the game went on.
Redshirt sophomore quarterback LaNorris Sellers threw 244 yards without getting sacked. Henry said this success came from complementary football, where the defense has big stops and the offense capitalizes on those plays.
“Vandy is a really good team this year. They've got a really skilled defensive line. They've got great linebackers,” Henry said. “We need to bring the exact same mentality last week into this game to be successful.”
Beamer said another challenge the Gamecocks will have to face is the Commodores' physical offense players.
Beamer said he showed the team film from previous Commodore games where their receivers and tight ends would get physical with other SEC defensive backs creating a better run for their offense. Senior linebacker Debo Williams had big fourth-down stops against the Aggies and is aware of the Commodores' potential.
“We know we have to get better. Like I said it's not good enough...our offense shouldn’t have to worry about anything,” Williams said. “As the defense we have to continue to get better and there's more we got to do.”
Despite these challenges, Beamer hopes to leave a message for other teams about how the Gamecocks hope to perform throughout the rest of November.
“I’m sure there's a lot of people that think ‘man (they played) great against Texas A&M, there's no way they can do it two weeks in a row against another good team’,” Beamer said. “It's a challenge for us to see if we can.”
What's Next?
The Gamecocks will take on the No. 24 Commodores in Nashville on Nov. 9 and kickoff is at 4:15 p.m. The game will be streamed on the SEC Network.