Five South Carolina football predictions for the Vanderbilt game
As South Carolina football matches up against Vanderbilt on Saturday night, GamecockCentral.com staffers take a stab at how the game against the Commodores may play out inside Williams-Brice Stadium.
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CHRIS CLARK: There has been so much talk about Jaheim Bell the entire season, and it reached its peak after the Missouri loss, a game in which he played nine snaps and did not have a touch.
Bell’s season-high in both touches and total yardage came in the opener against Georgia State. He had 11 touches and 57 yards.
My prediction for this game is that Bell is certainly more involved than the past few weeks, but also that he has his highest yardage total of the 2022 season.
WES MITCHELL: The South Carolina passing game will have one of its better games. Football is a game of matchups and the South Carolina offensive line should find itself on the better side of the matchup with its opponent’s defensive line than it was last week when Missouri caused havoc up front
This doesn’t appear to be a Vanderbilt d-line that can get after the passer or create negative plays at the same rate as some of the other units Carolina has faced this year. In a vacuum, you’d think this might be the week that the running game gets back going. But with MarShawn Lloyd potentially limited or out, the Gamecocks will need either one of the other backs to step up or for the passing game to have a big night.
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KENDALL SMITH: Vanderbilt has been better this year than in years past, and South Carolina knows at this point it’s a tough bet to rely just on the offense to be productive from a points-scoring standpoint.
I think we’ll see a score this week from the Gamecocks on either special teams or from the defense, as South Carolina will need to be good on both of those fronts to aid an offense that’s struggling.
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COLLYN TAYLOR: This one is a little tougher. Vanderbilt is scrappy and South Carolina is coming off arguably its worst performance of the season. But, despite Spencer Rattler’s performance against Missouri, I think he’ll throw for 250 yards and multiple touchdowns.
Vanderbilt’s pass defense ranks last in pass yards per attempt allowed (9.0) and opponent completion percentage (66.8). The ‘Dores have allowed 21 passing touchdowns, too. With a banged-up MarShawn Lloyd, Rattler will have the ball in his hands a lot and think he could have a big day.
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MIKE UVA: South Carolina will get the run game going before taking advantage of the second worst pass defense (130th) in FBS. Spencer Rattler hasn’t thrown for over 200 yards in a game since September.
That will change as he’ll throw just his second 300+ yard passing game against Vandy in a week that the offense desperately needs to show some type of progress.
