South Carolina Football: Report card vs. Kentucky Wildcats
By Kevin Miller
South Carolina Football vs. Kentucky:
Grades for the defense
South Carolina Gamecocks. DEFENSIVE LINE. B+. The Gamecock defensive front had one of its best showings of the year when in the 3-3-5 against the Wildcats. A deep rotation kept the guys fresh, and Jordan Strachan picked up 2 sacks and Tonka Hemingway batted away two passes and recovered the fumble on Strachan’s strip sack near the end of the game. The unit was not good when Carolina switched to a 4-2-5, but thankfully, that only lasted a couple of drives. Other than Strachan, the numbers don’t look great for the defensive line, but their impact was bigger than the box score..
B+. The Gamecock linebackers were pretty good on Saturday. Bam Martin-Scott and Debo Williams continued their recent stretches of solid play, and Stone Blanton had a timely pressure on an A-gap blitz that helped force a Kentucky punt. Pup Howard and Jaron Willis had a couple of nice moments, as well, and outside of a few sloppy run fits, the ‘backers had a nice game.. . South Carolina Gamecocks. LINEBACKERS
B+. Defensive backs coach Torrian Gray had to be satisfied with the overall effort from his unit on Saturday. Nick Emmanwori was great all game (9 tackles, 1 interception, 1 pass defended), Jalon Kilgore had 5 tackles and a huge forced fumble (recovered by DQ Smith), and Marcellas Dial had a pretty good day in coverage. Cornerback O’Donnell Fortune was suspended for an unspecified violation of athletic department policy, and Judge Collier and Emory Floyd had some freshmen struggles filling in, but they held their own (especially Collier). The safeties had a couple of tough moments in the deep passing game, but Kentucky quarterback Devin Leary overthrew some open receivers on several occasions, helping mask those coverage deficiencies. All-in-all, it was a good showing from the defensive backfield, as well, marking a really solid overall day for the defense.. . South Carolina Gamecocks. SECONDARY
You can check out the official box score here.
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