South Carolina vs. Vanderbilt: Inside the Numbers
By Chris Carey
With their first away game of the season, it’s the South Carolina Gamecocks vs. Vanderbilt Saturday night, and we’re going to look inside the numbers so you can be ready for this SEC matchup. This game could either be the exact matchup the Gamecocks need to really get on track, or it could trip them up like Vanderbilt has done in the past.
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111 vs. 121
– South Carolina’s #111th ranked defense takes on Vanderbilt’s #121st ranked offense. The Gamecocks are giving up a staggering 513 yards per game so far, but that has come against teams who are having a lot of success against everyone they play. Vanderbilt’s offense has actually played some pretty poor defenses (Temple is ranked 84 and UMass is 109), yet is still struggling to get their offense going. Normally a team might be looking forward to playing such a porous defense, but so far Vandy has shown that doesn’t really help them a lot. Vanderbilt changed their starters at quarterback, running back and wide receiver this year, so the Gamecocks will be seeing all new people this time. Fortunately, we don’t have to see any more of WR
Jordan Matthews, who along with
Justin Hardyfrom ECU have owned the Gamecocks the past few years. Without any really big weapons, this could be an offense the Gamecock defense really takes advantage of.
3.1 – the Commodores give up a little more than 137 yards per game rushing, but they are only giving up 3.1 yards per carry with that. It looks like in a couple games the other team got way out in front and decided to run the ball, yet Vandy was at least able to keep that under control somewhat.
3 – the number of quarterbacks who have already played for Vanderbilt this season. They have definitely struggled trying to figure out who will run their offense this year, and look to be going back with sophomore Patton Robinette to start this week. The Commodores also have Stephen Rivers, younger brother of Chargers QB Philip Rivers, as their third string QB behind freshman Wade Freebeck who started against UMass last week and may see playing time this week as well.
13 – number of seconds in which Vanderbilt took to score 15 points in the 4th quarter last year to make the game 35-25 and give the Gamecocks a real scare.
5 – games in a row in which the Gamecocks have won against Vandy. Although the winning streak is good to see, a lot of these games were much closer than they should have been, and definitely seems to cause problems for South Carolina almost every year.
19-5 – overall record of South Carolina against Vanderbilt, with one game in the 1960s, but then every year since 1992.
1922 – Vanderbilt was the first school to build a stadium exclusively for football that year. The stadium has been rebuilt since then, obviously, and Vanderbilt Stadium now holds about 40,000 in Nashville. Vanderbilt is a private research university with approximately 12,000 students.
21 – Gamecocks have not scored more than this in Nashville since 2006. Just like South Carolina seems to play at a different level against UGA, Vanderbilt seems to find a way to play the Gamecocks tough every single year.
21.5– number of points that the Gamecocks are favored by this Saturday against Vanderbilt. This shows people have a lot of faith in the Gamecocks for this game, however, they have not beaten the Commodores by that kind of margin since 2004.