South Carolina vs Missouri grades: Gamecocks fall short, but defense improves
The South Carolina Gamecocks football team lost its fourth game in a row Saturday night, falling 17-10 to the Missouri Tigers under the lights at Williams-Brice Stadium its first game since head coach Will Muschamp was fired. Here’s how the Gamecocks graded out.
Passing offense
Star senior receiver Shi Smith went down with an injury early in the first quarter and never returned — without him, the Gamecock passing attempt flailed through the first half, as senior QB Collin Hill wasn’t helped by drops and poor pass protection and didn’t do a whole to help himself either.
After halftime, freshman Luke Doty took over under center, and the switch seemed to jolt Carolina awake, as the Gamecocks exceeded their first-half yardage in the third quarter alone. And while a lot of Doty’s impact came from his legs, he also connected on more passes downfield than Hill did, more than tripling his counterpart’s yardage and improvising in and outside the pocket to make things happen. There were some freshman mistakes, to be sure, including a game-ending interception, but all in all it was an encouraging performance for the youngster.
Grade: C- in the first half, B- in the second
Rushing offense
With South Caroina’s passing game doing little to distract Missouri’s defense early, the Tigers were able to stack the line of scrimmage and consistently beat the Gamecock offensive line in the first half. Sophomore running Kevin Harris was consistently meeting tacklers in the back field and was effectively bottled up.
Into the second half, Doty’s threat helped open things up for Harris, though he wasn’t anywhere near as explosive as he was against Ole Miss. But Doty provided some electric runs on scrambles, averaging 5.4 yards per run to keep the offense moving. And redshirt sophomore Deshaun Fenwick rumbled in for a late touchdown to make things interesting.
Grade: C+
Passing defense
The Gamecock passing defense was severely depleted before kickoff Saturday with the decisions of Jaycee Horn, Israel Mukuamu and RJ Roderick to opt out of the rest of the season following coach Will Muschamp’s dismissal.
Going up against a redshirt freshman quarterback in Conor Bazelak, though, USC’s young defensive backs were solid. Redshirt freshman Cam Smith was beat for a touchdown pass early, but made up for it later with an interception. And Bazelak came nowhere near the level of Carolina’s last three opponents in picking apart the secondary — his final line of 203 yards on 33 attempts was average at best
Grade: B-
Rushing defense
South Carolina needed a solid performance up front to stand up to Missouri’s main offensive weapon, running back Larry Rountree. And for the most part, the likes of Keir Thomas, Kingsley Enegbare and Zacch Pickens delivered. Rountree had just 58 yards on 21 attempts, and the Tigers averaged just 3.2 yards per rush. All in all, the defense was not the reason the Gamecocks lost.
Grade: B
Special teams
Parker White drilled his only field goal attempt of the day, a 47-yarder that he made with plenty of distance. Kai Kroeger got plenty of work and hit a pair of 50-yard punts. But Mitch Jeter sent a kickoff out of bounds late, helping Missouri get better field position and setting up a punt of its own that was downed at the one-yard line.
Grade: C-
Coaching
Mike Bobo, making his SEC head coaching debut as the Gamecocks’ interim leader, couldn’t get much of anything going without any playmakers on offense. It was clear a change was needed, and Bobo made that change with Doty, who not only provided some excitement down the stretch but got some valuable experience moving forward in his career.
On the other hand, one could debate whether Bobo should have made that switch sooner, and the Gamecocks did fail to win against a middling SEC East team depleted by COVID-19. Still, to be competitive and show some fight after a tough week all around for the program was mildly encouraging.
Grade: C+
This story was originally published November 21, 2020 at 11:12 PM.
