The 3-2-1: Three key plays, two game balls, one burning question from South Carolina's win over Furman

Three Key Plays
1. Trick play
South Carolina’s first drive ended in a missed field goal. A quarterback keeper picked up 14, and then Furman dialed up the trick play. Wide receiver Joshua Harris got the ball and then set to throw. South Carolina’s secondary bit on the misdirection, and Harris fired a pass to a wide-open Kyndel Dean. Marcellas Dial was able to chase down Dean at the three-yard line, but the 51-yard gain set up a one-yard touchdown run. It also accounted for a third of Furman’s total offensive output in the first half and put South Carolina in an unexpected hole.

2. Throw it up to X
South Carolina dug itself out of that early hole and led 20-14 late in the first half. The Gamecocks forced the Paladins to go three-and-out and called their final timeout with 27 seconds left. After the punt was fair caught at the 25, it was 23 seconds, hardly enough time for a scoring drive, but you might as well give it a shot, right? On first down, Spencer Rattler rolled out, planted, and fired a jump ball to Xavier Legette. Legette cleared space and came down with the ball for a 53-yard catch. Three plays later, Rattler found O’Mega Blake in the end zone. The three-play, 75-yard drive lasted all of 20 seconds, but the rout was on.

3. The future’s so bright…
The Gamecocks padded the lead and then pulled the starters late in the third quarter. After junior Luke Doty got a series behind center, it was freshman LaNorris Sellers’ turn. On his first pass attempt, Sellers hit Eddie Lewis with a nice throw for a first down. On his second attempt, Sellers eluded pressure, stepped up, planted, and launched a dime to fellow freshman Tyshawn Russell streaking through the end zone. On a night when Rattler had one of the most efficient passing games in program history, Sellers had the best throw. He added a second touchdown pass to Nyck Harbor to get Gamecock fans salivating over the future.

[Win a Spencer Rattler-autographed football]

Two Game Balls
Spencer Rattler
Rattler went 25-27 for 345 yards and three touchdowns, plus another on the ground. He completed his first 15 pass attempts and finished with a 92.6% completion percentage. It was the second-best in program history, behind only Connor Shaw’s 20-21 against Missouri in 2012. Coincidentally, Shaw was the celebrity starter on Saturday. Rattler has picked up where he left off at the end of last season, and it might be enough to give South Carolina some hope next week against Georgia (okay, maybe not next week but in two weeks against Mississippi State).

Xavier Legette
I wanted to recognize a defensive player, but for the second game in a row, Legette was too good to ignore. He had six catches for 118 yards and a touchdown. His ability to create separation on jump balls (if it were pushing off there would have been a flag), was crucial, and when South Carolina leaned on its screen game early Legette made big blocks on the edge. Legette’s 53-yard catch with less than 20 seconds remaining in the first half, followed by the pass interference penalty he drew, turned an early slugfest into a blowout.

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One Burning Question
Can South Carolina find some balance with the run game?
The Gamecocks put up 571 yards of total offense, but only 108 came on the ground. That’s a big improvement from last week, and South Carolina uses a lot of wide receiver screens that function like runs. But South Carolina averaged just 2.8 yards per carry (2.9 adjusted for sacks). With no threat of the run, opponents are able to focus on stopping the pass. Furman wasn’t able to make South Carolina pay, but North Carolina was, and there are a lot of teams better than North Carolina left on the schedule.

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