South Carolina vs. Texas A&M point spread: Picking Gamecocks vs. Aggies

Texas A&M enters Week 9’s matchup against South Carolina as a 14-point betting favorite, per FanDuel Sportsbook — and Stat Cat aka Clark Brooks joined On3’s Andy Staples to reveal how he will be betting this game and more importantly, why.

“The regression for South Carolina has been expected,” Stat Cat told Staples. “Coming into this year, they were the only SEC program in each of the last two years to finish in the bottom five in rushing yards before contact on offense, and a bottom-five defensive success rate. That is not a good recipe for success no matter how well your punter can throw the ball. That has bled into this season, and of course, you start the year with a really strong opponent in North Carolina, now Spencer Rattler is looking a lot better.

“The offensive line has not progressed and that secondary has some talented names, but has not been a consistent unit.”

South Carolina has two wins to its credit this season and is still searching for its first SEC victory of the year. Meanwhile, the Aggies aren’t doing much better sitting at 4-3 after seven games.

Still, Texas A&M has proven to be the more dominant team in the trenches throughout the season and is expected to put a ton of pressure on Rattler this weekend. The same can be said about South Carolina’s defensive front. Not that they’re dominant — the Aggies’ offensive line has just been that bad this season.

“Texas A&M, they allow a lot of pressure and havoc as we saw last weekend. Max Johnson does suffer from [wide receiver] drops and a high-pressure rate. There are a lot of things out of his control, and again that’s not a recipe for success, even if you are playing a lackluster type of opponent like South Carolina.

“[Le’Veon] Moss has been more consistent running the ball. [Amari] Daniels is the change of pace back for them — and then they have a great group of pass-catchers. I just think there is so much there for them to win fairly comfortably here.”

Staples and Stat Cat agree that this is a must-win game for Texas A&M. South Carolina is floundering toward the bottom of the SEC East — and feel that Jimbo Fisher can’t lose to “the dude that broke his foot.” That type of stigma would stick around and would make his seat just a little bit hotter.

Despite this, both Staples and Stat Cat are taking the Gamecocks to cover the 14-point spread that Vegas has set against them. They’re still picking the Aggies to win the game, but two touchdowns are a lot of points — something neither of them see being scored on Saturday.