South Carolina vs. Vanderbilt final score: Gamecocks hold off Commodores, 48-34

Well, it wasn’t a perfect game for the South Carolina Gamecocks vs. the Vanderbilt Commodores in Nashville, but the Gamecocks were able to come out with a 48-34 win just the same.

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And the beginning was less than perfect: Vandy’s

ran back the opening kickoff 91 yards (one of

two

kickoff returns for touchdowns on the night, the first player in school history to achieve that) to draw first blood. It became 14-0 as

hit

from eight yards out late in the first, as we got a glimpse of the bad Gamecocks, the ones that drop easy catches or can’t haul in overthrown balls by their QB.

The middle of the game belonged to the Gamecocks, however. After Elliot Fry nailed a 45-yarder, Damiere Byrd hauled in a touchdown pass with under six minutes left in the 2nd to make it 14-10. Then, late in the half, Brison Williams tacked on a pick six–a 53-yard interception return–to give the Gamecocks a 17-10 lead heading into the locker room.

So the second half would be a little easier, right? Well, it started that way as the Gamecocks got a break on a Pharoh Cooper fumble that he touched as it went out of bounds, keeping it with Carolina. Next play: Dylan Thompson found Shaq Roland from 29 yards out to get it to 24-10. (It was actually the second dodged bullet on that drive as Nick Jones fumbled earlier, only to see Jerell Adams somehow recover it and keep it with the offense.) But Mr. Sims from Vandy, who opened the game with a kickoff return for a score, outdid himself by running it in from 100 yards to cut it to 24-21.

Both teams traded field goals before Nick Jones stretched the lead four and a half minutes into the 4th, and after Tommy Openshaw‘s 30-yarder for Vandy following a fumble on a Thompson handoff, the Gamecocks shut the door–a 69-yard Wildcat run by Pharoh Cooper to set up a Thompson keeper to make it 41-27, followed by a short David Williams run, set up by a Vandy muffed kickoff, to get it to 48-27.

Despite the win, Steve Spurrier wasn’t too thrilled with his team’s performance, expressing displeasure with the poor special teams play in particular.

Quick note from this one: Vandy’s Patton Robinette had to leave the game in the first after his head struck the turf and never returned. Wade Freebeck took the reins the rest of the way.