South Carolina Football: Furman game report card
By Kevin Miller
The South Carolina football team needed a rebound performance on Saturday night against Furman, and after a slow start, that’s exactly what the Gamecocks delivered to a sellout crowd at Williams-Brice Stadium.
USC got behind early but really played well in the 2nd and 3rd quarters to turn an “upset alert” into a Gamecock-favored rout.
Both the slow start and the hot middle of the game will be considered in grading the performance of Shane Beamer’s South Carolina football program. The garbage time at the end of the game will be excluded from the grading as only walk-ons and deep, deep bench players were in the game at the end.
Here are the grades for South Carolina football’s win over the Furman Paladins:
A+. A lot of things were working against Carolina receiving strong fan support on Saturday. The weather was bad, the team laid an egg the week before, and the opponent was from the FCS level. However, South Carolina football fans were awesome as Williams-Brice Stadium was sold out, and the noise level was extremely high until garbage time. When things were bad early, the fans showed their displeasure, but they also rooted their team on viciously as they bounced back into form.. . South Carolina Gamecocks. FANS
B. The Gamecock coaching staff was good on Saturday. Shane Beamer and Dowell Loggains combined for a questionable decision to kick a 50-yard field goal instead of going for it on 4th-and-3, but the game was called well after that. Some of the subbing, especially on the offensive line, was suspect at times, but some of that could have been the product of playing an opponent the coaches believed their team capable of beating soundly.. . South Carolina Gamecocks. COACHING
. South Carolina Gamecocks. SPECIAL TEAMS. C-. This game won’t make special teams coordinator Pete Lembo very happy. Mitch Jeter missed his first field goal ever, Kai Kroeger still hasn’t rounded into form (though he did have one nice punt that was downed at the 1-yard line by Xavier Legette, salvaging this grade), and the return game provided nothing special. A poor 2-point conversion attempt and a botched snap on a PAT cost the Gamecocks points, and a block in the back penalty negated the best punt return of the night.