5 lessons we learned from South Carolina’s upset win over Auburn
South Carolina football took advantage of three turnovers and a strong second half to rally and defeat No. 15 Auburn at Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday by a score of 30-22. Here are five of the most important things we learned from the victory.
1. Jaycee Horn reaffirms his lockdown status
Appreciate junior cornerback Jaycee Horn while you can, Gamecock fans. It seems very likely he’ll be NFL bound after this season, and Saturday reminded everyone why.
Opposing offensive coordinators have been reluctant to throw to receivers covered by Horn since last season. As a result, he has typically posted stats that don’t quite jump off the page — you can’t make tackles, break up passes or snag interceptions if the ball isn’t thrown your way. Auburn, though, decided it was worth testing Horn, as he was tracking their top receiver, Seth Williams.
That was a mistake, as Horn intercepted a pair of passes, broke up four more and generally won his matchup. After the game, he noted that it can be frustrating when other teams deliberately avoid him, leaving him with limited opportunities. But considering what he did when the Tigers challenged him, don’t expect future opponents to give him many chances to burn them.
2. Keir Thomas makes a world of difference
Coach Will Muschamp revealed after Saturday’s game that senior defensive tackle Keir Thomas missed the Vanderbilt because of a “COVID situation.” What exactly that entails, he declined to say. Regardless, the Gamecocks were surely relieved to have him back on the field against Auburn.
Thomas led the team in sacks and tackles for loss (with two) and also finished second in total tackles with eight. Particularly in the passing game, Auburn QB Bo Nix faced a decent amount of pressure and made a number of mistakes while on the move. Thomas was key in disrupting the pocket, and while the Gamecocks do have a lot of talented players behind him, he’s clearly a step above them and crucial to the entire defense playing well.
3. Ground and pound
Sophomore running back Kevin Harris’ hard-running, powerful style seemed to rub off a little bit on his backup, redshirt sophomore Deshaun Fenwick. Both guys inflicted punishment on would-be tacklers and seemed to relish the contact.
And offensive coordinator Mike Bobo’s dedication to the ground game paid off Saturday, as USC went from 41 rushing yards in the first half to 112 in the second. Harris was solid at 83 yards and two scores on 25 attempts, while Fenwick was an effective change of pace with 68 yards on 12 attempts.
4. Some momentum
For the first time in a year, South Carolina has beaten a team not named Vanderbilt. What’s more, they took down a top-15 opponent at home — the last time they did that was in 2014. And they’ve tied their longest win streak since 2017. And they got Will Muschamp’s third win over a ranked opponent since coming to Columbia.
All of that doesn’t guarantee anything moving forward — the disaster that followed the Gamecocks’ 2019 win over Georgia is a painful reminder for USC fans of that. But sitting at .500 near the middle of the coronavirus-affected season is better than many projected this team to be. The Gamecocks are at least trending in the right direction ahead of a road game against an LSU team that’s looking more vulnerable as the season goes on.
5. Punt game improving
Freshman punter Kai Kroeger didn’t have the smoothest transition to the college game, averaging 35.2 yards per kick in his debut against Tennessee. And Will Muschamp didn’t let him off the hook either, publicly noting the punting game’s struggles in the aftermath.
The contest against Florida wasn’t much better. Since then, Kroeger has been averaging more than 48 yards per punt, and on Saturday, he downed three of his five kicks inside the 20-yard line, including a pair inside the 10.
This story was originally published October 18, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
