South Carolina Football: Report card vs. Georgia
By Kevin Miller
The Gamecocks put the ‘Dawgs on upset alert early with a 14-3 halftime lead before Georgia scored 21 straight points in the second half to squash the hopes of South Carolina football fans everywhere.
The entire game was pretty competitive, but some of the late possessions for the Gamecocks were in relative desperation. These drives will still be considered in the grades for South Carolina’s game against Georgia, but the context matters, as well.
Here are the grades for South Carolina football’s loss to the #1 Georgia Bulldogs:
FANS . B+. The Carolina fans at the game were loud early, especially on the first Gamecock touchdown when Juice Wells gave USC a 7-0 lead. The game was in Athens, so most of this grade stems from fans who did not watch the game in person. Fans online were generally very supportive of the Gamecocks despite the lack of expectations heading into the contest. When USC took a lead into halftime, Gamecock Twitter was in a frenzy. Unfortunately, there was more than a handful of fans who turned on the team as the Georgia Bulldogs started playing like the #1 team in the country.. . South Carolina Gamecocks
B-. The South Carolina football coaching staff was good for most of the day against Georgia. The team came out motivated and focused, and offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains called a brilliant first half. Defensive coordinator Clayton White had a pretty good plan in place that limited the ‘Dawgs to just 3 points in the first half. On the negative side, the defense had no counter punch to Georgia in the second half, the offense couldn’t get much going as UGA got pressure on Spencer Rattler, and special teams coordinator Pete Lembo’s unit was just okay once again. A very questionable 4th-and-15 conversion attempt failed with almost 8:00 left in the game despite USC trailing by only 10 points.. . South Carolina Gamecocks. COACHING
South Carolina Gamecocks. SPECIAL TEAMS. C+. Once again, the South Carolina special teams unit was nothing special against Georgia. Mitch Jeter had a good day on kickoffs and was 2-2 on extra points, but the other parts of the game were not great. Kai Kroeger continued his uncharacteristic struggles, and Xavier Legette unwisely took a kickoff out of his own end zone before getting smacked short of the 20 also leading to a holding flag. There were not many other opportunities for Gamecock special teams. The good news is, though, Carolina won the battle of special teams as UGA kicker Peyton Woodring missed two field goals..