South Carolina vs. Vanderbilt: Gamecocks cruise home for lopsided victory
The State’s Ben Breiner is inside Vanderbilt Stadium for Saturday’s South Carolina road trip to face the Vanderbilt Commodores. The game kicks off at noon on SEC Network. The Gamecocks are playing a 10-game, SEC-only schedule during the coronavirus-delayed season.
FINAL: South Carolina 41, Vanderbilt 7
Reserves poured into the game late as South Carolina cruised to the end of the game for its biggest SEC win since 2013. USC will return home to play Auburn next Saturday.
Joyner TD: South Carolina 41, Vanderbilt 7
Quarterback-turned-receiver Dakareon Joyner made his first splash of the season, scoring a 47-yard rushing touchdown on a perfectly executed reverse.
Harris TD: South Carolina 34, Vanderbilt 7
Kevin Harris has been unstoppable for the Gamecocks through three games. The sophomore broke free for an 88-yard touchdown run on the first play of the drive, scoring his second touchdown of the game. He’s up to 171 yards on 21 carries.
End of 3rd Quarter: South Carolina 27, Vanderbilt 7
The Gamecock offense got going in a big way in the third quarter, putting up 17 points to give Carolina a comfortable lead over a struggling Vandy squad.
White FG: South Carolina 27, Vanderbilt 7
While not a strong offensive drive (26 yards on seven plays), the Gamecocks took advantage of strong field position and padded their lead with a Parker White field goal.
Hill TD: South Carolina 24, Vanderbilt 7
Though not known as a mobile quarterback — especially after three torn ACLS — Gamecocks QB Collin Hill showed some vision on a 10-yard rush for a touchdown. It’s the second rushing touchdown for Hill in the game.
Johnson TD: South Carolina 17, Vanderbilt 7
The Commodores have flirted with the end zone throughout the contest but finally found a way to cross the plane, as quarterback Ken Seals connected with junior receiver Cam Johnson for a 22-yard catch-and-run across the middle.
Harris TD: South Carolina 17, Vanderbilt 0
The USC defense forced another turnover on downs on a fake punt attempt, and the offense took advantage of the field position. Running back Kevin Harris broke free for his best run of the day — a 25-yard touchdown scamper. Harris has scored a rushing touchdown in each of South Carolina’s three games.
Halftime: South Carolina 10, Vanderbilt 0
The Gamecocks hold their first halftime lead of the season, thanks to a missed field goal from Vandy and a goal line stand from USC linebacker Ernest Jones. Senior quarterback Collin Hill, meanwhile, is 11 of 17 passing for 129 yards and a one-yard touchdown rush. Tight end Nick Muse is the team’s top receiver thus far with four catches for 56 yards, while running back Kevin Harris has four receptions for 29 yards and 11 rushes for 36 yards.
Going into the break, coach Will Muschamp said he liked the way the team’s deep balls in the second quarter loosened things up. He also said the defense mostly just gave up two passes and handed over some good field position after the missed kick.
Hill TD: South Carolina 10, Vanderbilt 0
The Gamecock passing offense finally got going, as both tight end Nick Muse and Xavier Legette made big catches, taking some of the pressure off of leading receiver Shi Smith. Muse opened the drive with a 32-yard reception and is up to a team-leading 56 receiving yards. Hill scored on a keeper on 4th and goal.
End of 1st Quarter: South Carolina 3, Vanderbilt 0
South Carolina’s offense is moving at times, but pass protection is still cropping up as an issue. Tight end Nick Muse had another key drop. The Gamecocks defense also had a couple bad plays and shoddy tackling, but survived because of a missed kick.
White FG: South Carolina 3, Vanderbilt 0
Quarterback Collin Hill has yet to get the passing offense going against a banged-up Vanderbilt defense. But the Gamecocks leaned on running back Kevin Harris to drive down the field and set up a first-quarter field goal from 43 yards out by Parker White.
Vandy shorthanded
Joe Rexrode of The Athletic reported that Vanderbilt will be down to just 56 scholarship players Saturday. It would have been “around 70,” Rexrode tweeted, but injuries and COVID-19 issues will limit the Commodores to near the bare minimum of available players, set by the SEC at 53 players total, with certain requirements at different position groups.
No travel roster, starter missing in warmups
South Carolina football will not be releasing a travel roster, which the team’s communications staff typically does an hour or so before kickoff. The change is one coach Will Muschamp announced earlier this week when he said he would no longer provide injury updates this season due to the COVID-19 pandemic — Muschamp said parents had reached out to him to express concerns that their sons could be identified as having the coronavirus if injury reports and travel rosters revealed who wasn’t available.
However, during warmups, defensive lineman Keir Thomas was not present, raising the possibility that he’ll be missing for the matchup. Linebacker Jahmar Brown was also missing as he continues to recover from a knee injury.
ESPN/SEC Network picks for SC vs Vanderbilt
At 0-2 and facing a must-win game to get its season back on track, South Carolina enters Saturday as the 13.5-point favorite — and the analysts at the SEC Network think the Gamecocks will get that much-needed victory. Host Laura Rutledge and experts Tim Tebow, Jordan Rodgers and Roman Harper all picked USC to get this win this afternoon.
Over on ESPN.com, however, David Hale picked Vanderbilt to surprise the Gamecocks as his upset pick of the week. And on ESPN’s College GameDay, analyst Rece Davis went with Vandy as his “Superdog” pick.
Today’s uniform combo for Gamecocks
The Gamecocks will wear a combination of white jersey, a white helmet and black pants in today’s game against Vanderbilt. USC wore all white against Florida and all black in the season opener against Tennessee.
No fans at Vanderbilt game, at least not many
The stands at Vanderbilt Stadium will have a few faces in the crowd, but they won’t be parents of players. The Commodores were set to play all games without any spectators this season because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The school has since softened its stance, allowing in some students. Some parents of USC players told The State they’d still travel to Nashville to get as close as they can to the action, but several also said they’d simply watch the game on TV.
This story was originally published October 10, 2020 at 11:13 AM.
