South Carolina Football: Quick hits following the Gamecocks’ win over Mississippi State

In what was as close to a “must-win” as possible in week 4, Shane Beamer’s South Carolina football team did what they needed to do to bring their record back to .500 with a victory over Mississippi State.

Two somewhat controversial turnover replays went South Carolina football’s way, but both close calls (a David Spaulding interception on the sideline and a Jordan Strachan forced fumble) appeared to be the correct calls. However, as big as those two plays were in the game, the Gamecocks did enough to earn the much-needed win.

The Gamecocks and Bulldogs both had some struggles defending the pass in the first half as South Carolina had a 76-yard score from Xavier Legette, and Mississippi State had a 66-yarder from Tulu Griffin. Griffin added two more long catches and finished with 205 yards in the first half.

Spencer Rattler finished the first half a perfect 13-13 passing for 162 yards and 2 touchdowns, and Will Rogers was 11-17 for 259 yards (including three 40+ yard completions), but his red zone interception was the difference in the 20-17 Gamecock lead.

After the halftime intermission, the offensive fireworks continued as the two teams finished the game with a combined 775 yards passing and over 900 total yards during the back-and-forth affair.

Despite the high-scoring nature of the game, the Gamecocks and Bulldogs each had opportunities in which they could have crossed the goal line even more, but turnovers and inopportune sacks ended drives for both teams.

In the end, Shane Beamer’s South Carolina football program improved their record to 2-2 with the hard-fought victory.

BOX SCORE

South Carolina football will travel to Knoxville, Tennessee next week to take on the Tennessee Volunteers in Neyland Stadium. The Vols will be out for revenge after last year’s 63-38 beatdown in Columbia.

A full story on the Gamecocks’ win over Mississippi State will be published on Sunday.