After watching South Carolina get boat-raced at Florida, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where there’s another scoreboard with way too many numbers on one side and not nearly enough on the other. At this point, it feels like the only thing there is to debate is the manner in which it happens, whether or not they start slow as hell on offense and need a few drives to figure out how to get a stop on defense or…just worse.
It could always be worse.
Given the state of things on offense, there’s not a lot of confidence in that changing. It’s certainly plausible things will not go well from start to finish. We’ve seen it before, plenty of times, not just last week and two weeks before that either.
Since Tennessee is so explosive on offense, they’ll probably move the ball pretty easily for most of the night, since that is pretty much what’s happened against everybody but Georgia to this point in the season. The Gamecocks do have some good, experienced cornerbacks, so there’s a reason to believe they can keep things reasonably competitive, regardless of whatever grudge Jaylin Hyatt apparently has.
Ten games into 2022 and South Carolina’s worse against the run, which is very disappointing when you consider how much of an issue it was last season. This is my biggest matchup concern for Saturday.
What’s crazy, at least to me, is that Tennessee is fourth in the league in rushing, and they don’t have anybody on the team who’s top 10 in the league in yards per game. Three guys do damage (Jaylen Wright, Jabari Small and Hendon Hooker).
After seeing three guys from Florida do SERIOUS damage last week, it’s hard to see this week being markedly better. To win this game, it has to be, but just don’t envision it happening. Again, this isn’t a product of the most recent moments. This has been a trend for the last two seasons.
Plus, well, Tennessee is a really good team. Obviously, South Carolina has played quite a few of those over the years, and those games usually don’t go well. This has been a trend for the last seven seasons.
The Gamecocks can’t afford to be on the receiving end of another bully beatdown. Otherwise, it could add another layer of anxiety, doubt and fuel to the fire that is the offseason in college football. Tennessee 42 – South Carolina 21
