Five weekly thoughts: Stewart and Clowney, wrapping Kentucky, previewing LSU

What a difference a week makes for South Carolina football.

The Gamecock fan base entered the 2024 season a blend of excited, skeptical, and hopeful. Fair, since Shane Beamer’s team had some questions to answer against a loaded schedule.

While a shaky win against Old Dominion in week one was far from awe-inspiring, now look at where the team is.

USC needed to be 2-0 heading into a home tilt with LSU. That’s where they are after smothering Kentucky in Lexington. College GameDay is now heading to Columbia for the matchup with the Tigers.

There’s still a tough road ahead, but good things happened in the last week.

Here are some thoughts from the weekend around Gamecock football and nationally.

Perception of the schedule may be starting to shift

— Not in a big way, because South Carolina’s state is still extremely challenging.

There’s one game in particular that looks more winnable than originally thought.

Oklahoma beat Houston at home, 16-12, in an ugly contest that Sooners head coach Brent Venables said the Sooners deserved to lose.

Perhaps it was a one-game aberration. But in an important year – Venables just got a nice extension this offseason – Oklahoma has a very difficult schedule. Beginning in two weeks, here’s what the Sooners have on the SEC front. Tennessee, at Auburn, Texas, South Carolina, at Ole Miss, at Missouri, Alabama, and at LSU.

That’s tough. Could Oklahoma be reeling a little bit by the time the Gamecocks head to Norman?

— On the flip side, Vanderbilt looks much improved this season and just finished off a 55-0 win over Alcorn State. The Commodores haven’t played a conference game yet, and like many others, their schedule is comically difficult. But they’ll be a tougher out than originally thought, and that contest for the Gamecocks is being viewed differently than before the season.

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Around the college football world

— Texas looked really good against Michigan. I thought heading in that the Wolverines lost a lot from last season and that the team’s ranking was mostly due to winning the natty last season. That game was a combination of how good the Longhorns are and Michigan being at least a bit overrated.

— Oregon’s survived a couple of scares in the top ten. It started with a 10-point home win over Idaho that was closer than anyone expected. Then, the Ducks knocked off Boise State by kicking a field goal as time expired.

— Missouri and Ole Miss are really good, it looks like. Neither has played anyone particularly good and won’t for a while. The combination of the quality of those squads plus their very favorable schedules is why many have them ticketed for the playoff in 2024.

— Tennessee looks legitimate and destroyed NC State last week. That offense is humming, and it will be interesting if the Vols can unseat one or more of the SEC teams currently ranked above them.

— Penn State, another top 10 team, looked very shaky against Bowling Green at home. Their schedule makes things manageable, although they do travel to Southern Cal and host Ohio State. I would say those are the critical games, but they have to get a lot better than last week or they will lose others, too.

[Win two tickets to the South Carolina-LSU football game]

It’s unbelievable how good Dylan Stewart is

— Anytime South Carolina recruits a talented defensive lineman, we push back – strongly – against anyone who brings forth a Jadeveon Clowney comparison.

Clowney was as close to a “one-of-one” as it gets in this game, both in impact and physical talent.

It’s only been two games, but Stewart has officially broken my rule. He’s the closest thing we have seen to Clowney, and I’d actually welcome comparisons at this point.

As has been documented, Clowney was not a huge weight room guy at South Carolina. He was blessed with an inordinate amount of God-given talent, a bona fide athletic freak. His natural strength and twitch was simply much greater than just about everyone else around him. When the ball was snapped, he could do things that made your head spin.

Stewart is evoking some similar reactions, and like Clowney, making some of those plays as a true freshman. He also has freak athleticism, but in a bit of a different way. One thing we’ve noticed is that Stewart is well advanced beyond his years technically. I certainly did not anticipate the array of pass-rush moves and counters that he’s already put on tape in two games. Nor did I see him bullrushing grown-man offensive tackles and beating triple teams this early.

I expected an impact, and everyone around the program raved about Stewart from spring through preseason. To see what he’s done so far is still impressive. And it’s not normal for a freshman.

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Leftover thoughts from the Kentucky game

In case you missed it, I published some thoughts on Sunday morning regarding the Gamecocks’ performance in the win over UK.

Let’s put a bow on the performance by looking at how South Carolina performed in some crucial moments.

This game was expected to be close going in and the thought was that it would come down to a handful of big plays. Well, the Gamecocks made those big plays, but ended up blowing out the Wildcats as a result.

A few of the big plays were a combination of hustle and good fortune. LaNorris Sellers fumbled three times, but didn’t lose any of them. One bounced straight up into a tight end’s hands, and the other rolled around on the ground, with offensive lineman Kamaar Bell somehow coming up with it.

To be fair, Kentucky also lost four fumbles, and the Gamecocks didn’t get any of those, either. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game with seven fumbles and none of them lost.

Back to Sellers: he showed growth not only from game one to game two, but even within that contest. After a pick and some shakier moments in the first half, he came back out and played better in the second.

With the Gamecocks facing a third and 14, up just 10-6, Sellers evaded a blitz, rolled left, and found Mazeo Bennett wide open down the field. The next play was a touchdown strike to Josh Simon to give USC some breathing room.

On the next scoring drive, Carolina had a third and 11, and Sellers stayed in the pocket and delivered a ball just beyond the sticks to Jared Brown for a first down.

We said going into the game that Sellers would have to grow and that USC had to throw the football down the field. While it wasn’t a perfect performance by any means, they did enough and both fronts, and more than in game one.

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Opening thoughts on LSU

A huge opportunity awaits the Gamecocks on Saturday with Brian Kelly’s Tigers coming to town.

A few early things I’m thinking about going into the game:

This will be a fun matchup between the LSU offensive line and South Carolina’s defensive line. The Tigers haven’t given up any sacks in 2024 through two games, and USC has 10 so far. Will Campbell, LSU’s left tackle, may be the best in the country.

LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier has been quite good so far. But the LSU rushing attack only produced 64 yards against Nicholls State. That has to be alarming. As dangerous as LSU’s passing game is, it seems like having to go that route plays a bit more into USC’s hands.

I was alerted by someone in Baton Rouge that there’s not as much confidence on the LSU defensive front right now. That’s a weird thing to say about LSU, but it’s the feeling right now. Nicholls had a back that went for 145 yards on 25 carries and 2 touchdowns. Can Rocket Sanders get loose in this contest?

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