First look: Top story lines, betting odds for South Carolina vs Missouri game
Coming off three straight blowout losses and the dismissal of head coach Will Muschamp, the South Carolina football team returns home to face the Missouri Tigers on Saturday.
Missouri (2-3) at South Carolina (2-5)
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, SC
TV: SEC Network Alternate Channel
Line: Missouri by 6
This week’s SEC betting odds, TV times
College football point spreads, according to VegasInsider.com.
▪ Noon: Florida (-31) at Vanderbilt, ESPN
▪ Noon: LSU at Arkansas (-2.5), SEC Network
▪ 3:30 p.m.: Ole Miss at Texas A&M (-12), 3:30 p.m., CBS
▪ 4 p.m.: Kentucky at Alabama (-30), SEC Network
▪ 7 p.m.: Tennessee at Auburn (-10), ESPN
▪ 7:30 p.m.: Mississippi State at Georgia (-24), SEC Network
Mike Bobo coaching the Gamecocks now
The Gamecocks will have a new face in charge for this game as interim coach Mike Bobo takes over for Will Muschamp, who was fired Sunday evening. Bobo is a longtime friend of Muschamp’s and is the Gamecocks’ offensive coordinator. Bobo was head coach at Colorado State before coming to South Carolina. The next three games might serve as an audition for Bobo if USC wants to consider him as the next coach.
Missouri football and its COVID issues
The game is scheduled to be played as of now, but Missouri had its game postponed last week because of COVID-19 — a “combination of positive tests, contact tracing and subsequent quarantining of individuals within the Missouri football program, consistent with Southeastern Conference COVID-19 management requirements.” Missouri hasn’t played since Oct. 31 against Florida.
There were four games in the conference postponed or canceled last week. Because of that, SEC officials approved measures that would provide flexibility to the schedule. The weekly schedule can be revised if multiple teams have games postponed because of another team’s virus issues, though the SEC says “the games subject to rescheduling would only be those on a team’s original schedule and against opponents that a team has not yet played.” The league also said teams that don’t make it to the SEC championship can play a makeup game on Dec. 19.
USC defense in great need of improvement
The South Carolina defense needs to get things together. The Gamecocks are giving up 53 points a game over their last three contests. USC’s defense has given up more than 500 yards of offense in each of the last three games, including 708 against Ole Miss in the last contest. Missouri has a freshman quarterback and doesn’t have the offense that LSU, Texas A&M and Ole Miss have, so that might help USC to get right this week. The Tigers rank eighth out of 14 teams in the SEC in total offense at 384.2 yards a game.
Three Missouri football players to watch
1. LB Nick Bolton — Was on preseason Nagurski and Butkus award watch lists and is the Tigers’ top defensive player. Leads Missouri with 53 tackles,
2. QB Connor Bazalek — Four-star recruit tore his ACL last year and began the year as backup quarterback. But Bazalek gave the Tigers a spark when he came in against Tennessee and has been the starter ever since. The Ohio native was 29 of 34 for 406 yards for 406 yards and four touchdowns against LSU. For the season, he has completed 69% of his passes for 1,101 yards and four touchdowns.
3. RB Larry Rountree — He is the third leading rusher in Missouri history and already has accepted an invite to the Senior Bowl. Rountree has 432 yards and four touchdowns in five games this season and 3,180 yards and 30 touchdowns in his career. In three games against USC, he has 191 yards and two touchdowns.
