South Carolina football: 3 bold predictions vs. Kentucky Wildcats

Bold predictions for South Carolina football

Kevin Harris finally gets his 100-yard performance.

We spoke earlier about Chris Rodriguez and the Kentucky rushing attack, but the Gamecocks have a couple of reliable options in their own backfield, too.

Kevin Harris is one of those talented backs, and he actually outrushed Rodriguez last year in the Gamecocks’ 41-18 loss. Harris averaged 10 yards a carry and totaled 210 yards on the ground against the Wildcat defense on his way to leading the conference in rushing for the regular season.

This year, he’s gotten off to a slow start, though. There are a few reasons for that, with one being the fact that he didn’t see heavy action until last week’s matchup against Georgia. Harris was bottled up on that 16-carry night, totaling only 31 rushing yards, but we think he’ll break out against Kentucky as he continues to knock the rust off.

Another reason for South Carolina’s lack of rushing success has been an inconsistent passing attack. Opposing defenses have been able to load the box and key in on Gamecock tailbacks as they haven’t really been forced to respect the pass. That could change with Luke Doty making his first start of the year.

We’re really expecting South Carolina to get creative with play calling to jump out to an early lead so that they can lean heavily on the rushing attack late to wear the Wildcats down. Kevin Harris will be a big factor, and we’re thinking he finally eclipses the century mark in front of 80,000 fans at Williams-Brice Stadium