South Carolina vs. Vanderbilt: Five plays that led to the big win

If things continue to trend this way, there are going to be plenty of what-if moments to talk about with this South Carolina football team after the season ends.

There may not be a hotter team in college football right now than the Gamecocks. Since suffering a heartbreaking loss to Alabama around a month ago, they’ve won three games in a row, including a 28-7 win over Vanderbilt on Saturday.

South Carolina did plenty of good in Nashville to win convincingly and become bowl-eligible for the first time since 2022. Now, let’s look at five plays that led the way to the team picking up their sixth win of the year.

A turnover for a turnover

LaNorris Sellers looked to have just put South Carolina in a real bad spot with a fumble inside the 15-yard line. In a scoreless game, this would be a catastrophic mistake, let alone in the first quarter. However, let’s not forget which team is on the other sideline, even if they are slightly better this year.

Two plays after the fumble, Vandy quarterback Diego Pavia gave the ball right back to the Gamecocks with a fumble of his own at the SC13. In fairness, it did come by way of a Kyle Kennard strip sack.

Either way, the Commodores wasted a golden opportunity, and South Carolina made them pay the price by driving down the field in 12 plays to score the first touchdown of the game on an 81-yard drive.

This gave the Gamecocks the first score of the game and the lead for the rest of the way. There’s no telling what might’ve happened if Vanderbilt didn’t fumble and instead scored first. But it just speaks to how good this defense has been all year.

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Sellers pulls a rabbit out of his hat

Throughout the game, Sellers had many opportunities to make up for his early mistakes, which he certainly did. But for a moment, it looked like he had another big one coming his way.

After a Cason Henry holding penalty pushed the Gamecocks back on the first play of the second half, the redshirt freshman quarterback faced a heap of pressure on the next play. It looked like he was about to be taken down for his first sack of the game. But like all great magicians do, he had a nifty trick up his sleeve.

Sellers, nearly being yanked down, managed to break out of the potential sack and rolled out to his left with room to run. With it being 1st and 20, he wouldn’t have been able to run for the first down. Realizing this in the moment, he made the wiser decision to throw on the run to a wide-open Jared Brown for a 51-yard gain.

“Once he grabbed me, I mean, it’s pretty much like, I know I turned the ball over a lot so I was just don’t turn the ball over,” Sellers said. “And then he let go of me and then I seen green grass, and at that point, it’s just football, so just made a play.”

Two plays later, South Carolina scored on a 33-yard touchdown run from Rocket Sanders to take a 14-0 lead in the third quarter. Without this great play by Sellers, it’s hard to imagine the Gamecocks scoring in just three plays like they did.

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Go for launch

If there’s one thing to be said about this game, which there are many things to say, South Carolina’s offense did a great job responding. Specifically, in the third quarter, after Vanderbilt finally got its first touchdown on offense, the pressure was on the Gamecocks to do something about it.

But with Sanders having an electrifying day, he made the big plays when he needed to put the Gamecocks in good positions to score. After a 39-yard run where he found a hole and made a few nice cuts, South Carolina moved inside the 10-yard line with a chance to score again.

After Sellers ran towards the pylon and came up short of a diving touchdown, Sanders scored from one yard out on the next play to take a 21-7 lead.

“When I see green grass, I’m like, ‘Man, lovely,’” Sanders said, who scored three touchdowns in the win.

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An unsung hero steps up

Right after Sanders’ second touchdown of the game, Vanderbilt was on the move again and back in Gamecock territory. But the ‘Dores started to stall out and suddenly faced a critical fourth-and-8 situation at the SC36.

On the big play, Pavia threw in the direction of his leading receiver Eli Stowers, but backup defensive back Peyton Williams laid out to get a hand on the ball and deflect the pass for a turnover on downs.

It wasn’t sure thing that Williams would even play on Saturday. But when Shane Beamer learned DQ Smith was going to be out, Williams was forced into action and made the most of his opportunity. He finished the game with seven tackles and two pass breakups, including his fourth down stop.

“Kudos to Peyton Williams coming in and playing,” Beamer said. “We come off the field from warmups and Clint (Haggard) tells me that DQ is out. DQ is out? How is DQ out? He obviously aggravated something in pregame warmups and wasn’t able to go which is disappointing. Kudos to Peyton Williams being able to come in and play like he did and really play well.”

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Here comes the BAM!

In what felt like do or die for Vanderbilt, the ‘Dores were back in Carolina territory with just over nine minutes left in the game. Down by two scores, they desperately needed a score but faced another critical fourth-down situation.

Before Pavia could even scan the field to throw, Bam Martin-Scott flew in and threw his hands up in the air to get a hand on the incoming pass. The ball went high up into the air and fell incomplete for another turnover on downs, with this one essentially putting the game on ice.

Martin-Scott did a great job of getting to the quarterback on this play. He basically got to Pavia untouched. It looked like Vanderbilt’s center had no idea the sixth-year linebacker ran past him as he continued to look for somebody to block. But by that point, Martin-Scott was already all over Pavia to make the play.

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