South Carolina Football: Full notes on Florida loss

South Carolina Football vs. Florida:
Other Notes

• The offensive line started, from left to right: Tree Babalade, Trai Jones, Nick Gargiulo, Tro Baugh, Vershon Lee.
  • The new-look offensive line was a little better, but the biggest improvement early in the game might have been the increased playing time for tight end Josh Simon. Listed as the starter, Simon played his most snaps of the year (often in 12-personnel), and he helped spring some good runs. (He also had a really nice play as a receiver later).
• The defense struggled again. The defensive line got pushed off the ball early (they were fine later), the linebackers struggled in coverage and in tackling in the open field, and the secondary had multiple coverage blunders.
  • Perhaps the biggest issues came in man coverage, especially in the slot. Nick Emmanwori, playing out-of-position at nickel, was put into bad situations a lot and struggled when matched up with players like Ricky Pearsall and Eugene Wilson. The other DBs weren’t very good in man coverage, either.
• Between the 1st and 2nd quarters, Shane Beamer lit into his defense during a sideline interview with Gamecock grad Alyssa Lang. He punctuated the tirade with “Do your freaking job!” As it turned out, they did not do their freaking jobs much better in the 2nd half.
• Spencer Rattler was tremendous once again. He had one incompletion in the 1st half, and it came on a throwaway in the face of pressure. He was great again in the 2nd half, too, bringing his season totals to 16 touchdowns and 1 interception at Williams-Brice Stadium.
• Mario Anderson strengthened his stranglehold on the starting running back gig. He continues to be the best back on the team in every facet of the game.
  • Juju McDowell did make the most of one of his carries, following excellent blocking for a 17-yard score, and making one defender miss near the goal line.
• Special teams continued to be very average for the Gamecocks. Carolina did block a field goal (Tyreek Johnson got a hand on the ball), but Kai Kroeger had a pretty bad game, and the Gamecocks looked absolutely lost on defense on a 2-point conversion attempt. The kickoff decisions to try short kicks didn’t pay off, either.
• The loss is a brutal blow to the Gamecocks’ bowl hopes. South Carolina will be favored against Vanderbilt and Jacksonville State. They likely will be underdogs in the other four games on the schedule. Picking up four more wins will be difficult.