South Carolina vs Texas A&M grades: Even with bye week prep, Gamecocks flunk
South Carolina football was walloped by top-10 Texas A&M at home Saturday night, 48-3. So how did the Gamecocks grade out? Let’s take a look.
Passing offense
Collin Hill completed his first two attempts of the game, both to senior Shi Smith. After that, however, almost nothing went right. He completed just two more passes the rest of the half and threw a bad interception straight into the arms of a Texas A&M safety. But he was also victimized by drops — one from Jalen Brooks on a deep ball early was particularly crushing.
Into the second half, Hill continued to play even as things got more and more out of hand and fans clamored for a change, throwing another interception and completing just four more passes as the Aggie defense got pressure and he simply couldn’t string together any positive plays. Backups Ryan Hilinski and Luke Doty eventually came in during the fourth quarter, but by then, things were far out of reach.
Grade: F
Rushing offense
Kevin Harris entered the game as one of the SEC’s best running backs and South Carolina’s most pleasant surprise of the season. For the first time all year, however, he was bottled up almost completely, gaining just 39 yards on 13 carries — and one run accounting for 28 of those yards. When the Gamecocks went down big, it forced them to pass more, meaning there wasn’t much for the ground game to do, but even so, averaging under three yards a rush, even when adjusted for sacks, is rough. The only thing keeping this grade out of failing territory is a lack of turnovers.
Grade: D-
Passing defense
Texas A&M’s dedication to the run game (more on that below) meant quarterback Kellen Mond didn’t have to do all that much. But when the Aggies did throw, he found a lot of wide open receivers thanks to that running game threat.
South Carolina was already struggling, down safeties RJ Roderick and Shilo Sanders, but there were simply too many missed tackles and blown coverages allowing crucial gains, most notably a 52-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter that really drove home how lopsided this one was. Mond wound up throwing for four touchdowns on less than 250 yards.
Grade: F
Rushing defense
This was coach Will Muschamp’s biggest concern going into the game — he was blunt in his assessment that the Gamecock defensive front had been subpar through the last three games. That, combined with the fact that Texas A&M led the SEC in yards per rushing attempt, spelled trouble.
Sure enough, the Aggies simply rammed the ball down South Carolina’s throat and succeeded. Even when attempts occasionally went nowhere, A&M stuck with it. Sophomore Isaiah Spiller got much of his 131 yards on a 52-yard burst, but he was still steady and got help from his backups. Even Mond got in on the action with some nice runs, and South Carolina simply had no answer.
Grade: F
Special teams
Kai Kroeger shanked a punt early to set up Texas A&M’s first touchdown, Parker White missed a field goal but made one late to avoid the shutout, and the special teams was altogether unremarkable either way on a night when everything else was going up in flames.
Grade: C-
Coaching
Under Will Muschamp, South Carolina had actually been pretty solid coming off bye weeks. Which makes this particular performance all the more galling. The Aggies are a talented, top-10 squad, but the Gamecocks simply had no fight. For two games in a row now, South Carolina has fallen flat on its face against good opponents, making them look like national title contenders. The players bear some responsibility, to be sure, but Muschamp, having already lost much of the fan base’s confidence, seems to be at risk of losing the entire team’s faith as well.
Specifically, decisions like keeping Hill in the game even when things had reached a level that it would only help to get the backups snaps were befuddling. Punting on fourth-and-3 down 31 points smacked of timidity. And getting humiliated at home as badly as USC just did is simply not good enough for Muschamp in his current position.
Grade: F
This story was originally published November 7, 2020 at 10:14 PM with the headline "South Carolina vs Texas A&M grades: Even with bye week prep, Gamecocks flunk."
