South Carolina Football: Report card vs. Jacksonville State

B. South Carolina football fans saw another good game from Spencer Rattler on Saturday. It wasn’t quite an elite day from #7, but he was more than good enough to be considered one of the players of the game. In addition to throwing for 399 yards, Rattler scored three total touchdowns. He left some balls underthrown at times, dinging his grade a little, but he found Xavier Legette over and over again, leading to him almost setting a new record for single-game receiving yardage.. . South Carolina Gamecocks. QUARTERBACK PLAY

B. The South Carolina running game wasn’t good enough against Jacksonville State, but for the most part, that wasn’t the running backs’ fault. Mario Anderson was good again, breaking tackles and running hard. Juju McDowell had a couple of good moments, as well. DK Joyner and DJay Braswell both played sparingly, though Joyner did get some snaps in more of an H-Back role, doing better than most would have thought as a blocker. The entire Gamecock team only rushed for 4 first downs on Saturday afternoon, an embarrassingly low number. Though most of that is on the offensive line, the ‘backs have to take a little bit of the blame. If Anderson or McDowell could have made a few more men miss, the grade might have gotten up to a B+ or A-, but a B feels appropriate for a solid effort.. . South Carolina Gamecocks. RUNNING BACKS

B+. This grade will resemble the format of a group project in high school. One player did most of the work (Xavier Legette), and he had one friend who helped him out (Josh Simon), and the rest of the group got a good grade without contributing much. Legette almost broke a school record for receiving by racking up 217 yards, and Simon added 64 of his own. Running backs Mario Anderson and Juju McDowell did well, too, but the rest of the team had 4 catches for 37 yards. Other than Legette, Simon, and the ‘backs, separation was hard to come by for the Gamecock pass catchers, and perimeter blocking was a struggle at times. The group will get a B+ because of the top-end performers, but the poor showing from the non-Legette receivers brings the grade down from an A.. . South Carolina Gamecocks. PASS CATCHERS

D+. The offensive line is a mash unit of injuries. However, the unit is not graded on a curve because of the long injury report. As has been true in almost every game this season, the South Carolina Gamecocks put forth a poor effort from the offensive line on Saturday. The pass protection was pretty good in the first half but started to fall apart in the second. The run blocking was poor most of the game, as well, and the interior of the line of scrimmage got pushed back by the Jax State defensive line. Nick Gargiulo had some bad snaps again at center, and the injuries (both old and new) forced Carolina to play its 9th different combination of players up front in their 9th game. It showed.. . South Carolina Gamecocks. OFFENSIVE LINE