Opponent preview: Vanderbilt looks to challenge South Carolina in Nashville

South Carolina has shown a lot of promise this season, but a bad performance last Saturday has changed that optimism.

The once-ranked Gamecocks were upended by a struggling Missouri squad, losing 23-10. It was a day to forget for the offense, which scored 10 points and amassed 203 total yards.

“There’s a lot of plays that we had called that we didn’t get executed like we did in practice on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday,” Shane Beamer said. “That was the frustrating thing about the other night—some things that were just a little off for whatever reason, and again that starts with me.”

Fortunately, all of the team’s goals are still attainable. They’ll have a chance to get back on track against Vanderbilt, who the Gamecocks haven’t lost to since 2008.

The Commodores, normally at the bottom of the SEC standings, haven’t skipped a beat this season. After starting 3-1, they’ve dropped four straight games.

Three of those losses came against No. 6 Alabama, No. 11 Ole Miss and No. 3 Georgia. Those games weren’t particularly close, but Beamer liked seeing how they battled.

“I think Clark (Lea) has done a phenomenal job with his football team,” Beamer said. “They’re recruiting to a certain skillset size that they’ve identified, and you can see it. I mean, they’re playing really hard. They’re really well-coached. They present a lot of challenges in all three phases.”

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After averaging 15.8 points per game last season, Vanderbilt’s offense has progressed tremendously. It is scoring 26.6 points per game. The Commodores are last in the SEC in passing and receiving but have found some success running the football.

Senior running back Ray Davis is having a bounce-back campaign after playing in three games last year. He’s accounted for 564 yards, seventh-most in the conference.

Davis hasn’t been as productive recently, with 57 combined yards in his last two games. That’s not to say he can’t get back to performing at a high level, though. South Carolina is allowing 4.2 yards per rush and 165 yards per game.

The Gamecocks are hopeful they can slow down Davis and force Vanderbilt to become one-dimensional.

“Hopefully, when they put their foot in the ground I’ll be right there to make a strip or a big hit,” Zacch Pickens said. “I’ve always wanted one of those but they keep going.”

Earlier this season, Lea made a quarterback change, opting to start freshman AJ Swann over Mike Wright. The decision has looked to be the right one. Swann has thrown for 1,068 yards with eight touchdowns and one interception. He did, however, exit his last outing against Missouri with an unknown injury. Wright stepped in and played well, completing 9-of-15 passes for 127 yards and a touchdown.

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Lea believes Swann will be ready to go for South Carolina.

“AJ is gonna be battling back,” Lea said. “I think he’s in a good place right now and on course. Obviously, these things take time, and so I feel like we have time. My expectation is he’ll be playing against South Carolina. Obviously, we have to give him a chance to heal and demonstrate that he is ready, but I feel like there’s time to do that. I feel like he’s on course to do that.”

Regardless of who’s under center, Will Sheppard will be a name to watch out for. The junior wideout has been one of the most productive receivers in the SEC, with 41 catches for 525 yards and eight touchdowns. He’s also averaging 12.8 yards per catch.

“They’re a pretty good offense,” Devonni Reed said. “In the SEC, every game is going to be a tough one. We can’t overlook these guys right now. There are a lot of talented players on Vanderbilt and they can easily take it to a four-quarter game if we let them.”

While Vanderbilt’s offense has made adjustments for the better, the defense is still struggling.

With a passing defense that ranks second to last in college football, it could become enticing for the Gamecocks to let Spencer Rattler air it out. The redshirt junior quarterback hasn’t truly settled in yet, with a 5-to-9 touchdown-to-interception ratio. So trying to get him back on track could be beneficial before playing tougher opponents in November.

But that’s a decision Marcus Satterfield will be left to make.

“It all goes back to the offensive coordinator,” Xavier Legette said. “Whatever he feels, that’s what we have to go with.”

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South Carolina could opt to expose Vanderbilt’s weakness but at the same time, the run game has been the bread and butter all season.

The only problem with that is Missouri was able to hold the Gamecocks to 32 yards on the ground. And it impacted the way in which the offense couldn’t gain momentum.

“If you can’t run the ball, you can’t win,” Marshawn Lloyd said. “I don’t care who you are. The SEC is the best conference in the world. So if you can’t run the ball you won’t win and that’s what we’ve been able to do—we’ve been running the ball and then it opened up our pass game.”

For as bad as the Commodores’ defense can play at times, they’ve done a nice job of creating turnovers. They’ve recovered the second-most fumbles in the conference (8) and have intercepted four passes.

Even with this in mind, Lloyd believes the offense has to run the football to win this weekend.

“Every team in the country can tell you the same thing, running the ball helps out a lot,” he said. “You have to keep defenses honest so being able to run the ball pretty much is the biggest main point for every team, honestly.”

No matter what plays are drawn up, though, it won’t do the Gamecocks any good if they can’t carry them out at an efficient level.

“If you’re not executing anything, it’s not going to work out,” Lloyd said. “Execution is our number one goal. Just being able to execute plays from the beginning to the end. Execution is the problem we’ve been having. … Once we get that figured out, we’ll be a hard team to mess with.”

South Carolina will travel to Nashville for a 7:30 p.m. matchup at FirstBank Stadium Saturday night. The game will be televised on SEC Network with Dave Neal, Deuce McAllister and Andrya Carter on the call.

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