Breiner’s prediction: USC must be on point with execution vs Texas A&M

It’s clear: Texas A&M football is vulnerable this Saturday. But that doesn’t mean South Carolina will take advantage.

The Aggies are undoubtedly talented. They rank 15th nationally in terms of total talent by the 247Sports Composite, with 32 four- or five-star players.

That includes a five-star receiver and tailback, plus a young four-star passer. The defensive line lost a ton of talent and just reloaded. Armani Watts anchors the secondary and is one of the best safeties in the SEC.

Now by most measures, all that talent is being somewhat under-coached. The Aggies blew a big lead to UCLA, struggled with teams from the FCS and Sun Belt, all before getting pushed to the limit by an Arkansas team that doesn’t appear to be all that great (the young QB is factoring in there).

To take advantage, South Carolina will have to out-coach or out-execute A&M to a decent degree, and that might prove difficult.

To this point, the Gamecocks defense has cemented into an identity, one that helps overcome some depth/talent issues. The offense hasn’t been consistent in finishing drives and at times in keeping drives alive, often because of mistakes.

That was the key issue in the loss to Kentucky and near-loss to Louisiana Tech.

The Gamecocks are on the road and out-talented, as their roster ranks 27th and is missing three top players in Zack Bailey, Deebo Samuel and Bryson Allen-Williams. That means they have to be on point, making tackles, crisply running offense and coming up with a bigger share of 50-50 balls.

That’s a tall order, maybe too tall in the Lone Star State.

Prediction: Texas A&M 28, South Carolina 14

This story was originally published September 29, 2017 at 9:41 AM with the headline "Breiner’s prediction: USC must be on point with execution vs Texas A&M."