South Carolina’s Fenton Island weathers the storm vs Vanderbilt

Rashad Fenton has justifiably built his reputation as one of the better corners in the SEC. The Florida product has grown into a star this season, becoming a lockdown corner for South Carolina's football team.

But even the best have rough days, and Fenton, nicknamed "Fenton Island," had to weather the storm in a 34-27 win against Vanderbilt.

Fenton twice got called for pass interference, once to convert a third and 10 to keep the Final Commodore touchdown drive going. He was also targeted on gains of 36, 16 and 47 yards, the last a jump-ball Kalija Lipscomb touchdown where he had good position and the wide receiver made a play over him.

That was actually the theme on the night, as just about every big ball completed his way was a great catch or tough play.

"They caught the 50-50 ball on him in a situation where their guy wrestled it from him," Will Muschamp said. "You've got to give (Trent) Sherfield credit, he's a really good player."

Sherfield had 59 yards on his four catches.

And it didn't seem as if Vanderbilt was shy about throwing the ball Fenton's way. He held his own for much of the game, getting four pass break ups.

He notably did a good job defending a fade on Vanderbilt's second-to-last play, holding up against Sherfield in tight one-on-one coverage. USC gave up big play to Commodores passer Kyle Shurmur, with eight passes longer than 16 yards, but there wasn't much consistency with fewer than 6.8 yards per attempt.

Fenton had some bad spots, but considering the way things went, Will Muschamp wasn't too mad.

"If they target him a lot, that's fine with me," Muschamp said. "We'll end up winning a bunch more of those than they will."

This story was originally published October 29, 2017 at 11:53 AM with the headline "South Carolina’s Fenton Island weathers the storm vs Vanderbilt."