South Carolina makes a statement with blowout win over Dan Mullen, Florida
With keyboards pecking past midnight and sprinklers spraying across the playing surface at Williams-Brice Stadium, a siren blared off in the distance.
Was it a fire truck off to cool down Florida coach Dan Mullen’s hot seat that has seemingly reached molten levels? Or perhaps an alarm sounding in Gainesville as the Gators could be headed for just their third losing season since 1979?
Those storylines assuredly swirled in the wee hours of Saturday night in the Sunshine State. But make no mistake — USC’s 40-17 annihilation of Florida in Columbia wasn’t about Mullen’s job security or a performance dip at one of America’s blueblood programs. Saturday was about South Carolina.
“Wow,” USC head coach Shane Beamer said through a bated breath. “What a great night to be a Gamecock.”
Nights like Saturday aren’t supposed to happen for teams like South Carolina. After all, this is a Gamecocks squad that hadn’t scored more than 23 points against an FBS foe this year. It recorded just 15 (!!) yards through three quarters two weeks ago in College Station, Texas.
The notion that South Carolina, with a third-string quarterback, an offensive line that’s reached nationally poor performance levels and an offensive coordinator who has drawn message board ire for weeks would turn in an all-time outburst against Florida wasn’t just laughable — it was downright absurd.
Yet, here we are.
“(Defensive coordinator) Clayton White said it on the headphones late in the game, ‘This is why we came to South Carolina,’ ” Beamer echoed postgame. “This is why this is my dream job and (there’s) nowhere else that I want to be. This is why these coaches came here, is for nights like this.”
Florida entered Saturday’s contest as a three-touchdown favorite. It left having gotten spanked by folk hero quarterback Jason Brown and a suddenly productive South Carolina rushing attack that ran circles around a Florida defense that had only twice given up more than 150 yards on the ground this season.
During Friday night’s team meeting, Beamer read off Brown’s stats from his first-ever start at St. Francis: 22 of 37 passing for 293 yards and two touchdowns in a 14-13 win over Lehigh. He was named Northeast Conference Offensive Player of the week for his efforts.
That was the NEC, though. Saturday was his start in the Southeastern Conference. Yes, the mighty SEC. And, oh boy, did Brown deliver.
He evaded a tackler and flipped a deep ball to Josh Vann for a 50-yard completion to find his comfort in the pocket early in the second quarter. Three plays later he scrambled, danced along the line of scrimmage and hit Vann again for a 24-yard touchdown pass.
That’s not to mention the 8-yard touchdown toss he connected on with former Florida commit Jaheim Bell. It also doesn’t count the three other chunk plays Brown hit on to lead a passing game that’s been average on its best nights this fall.
He may not win SEC Offensive Player of the Week honors, but Brown did his part in a 14 of 24, 175-yard, two-touchdown performance that will sit alongside Zeb Noland’s recent heroics in South Carolina football lore.
“Luke (Doty) went down and then Zeb went down with surgery, just like that. Two snaps. I was the next guy up,” Brown said. “At this level there’s no excuses. You’ve got to be ready to play. I just tried to put an emphasis on that, knowing that I’ve got to be ready to play because if I don’t play well, then there’s no excuses.”
For as precise and profound as Brown’s night was, it was South Carolina’s run game that surprised most.
That the Gamecocks hadn’t found a rushing attack given its quartet of talented tailbacks in Kevin Harris, ZaQuandre White, MarShawn Lloyd and Juju McDowell bordered on offensive malpractice.
Saturday, it looked as advertised in the preseason.
Harris bowled over defenders with the hulking 5-foot-10, 220-pound frame that carried him to the SEC rushing title a season ago. His 128 yards against the Gators more than doubled his best outing of the year.
White, a former Florida State tailback and Cape Coral, Florida native, plowed his way to another impressive night with his violent, hard-nosed running-style. The one-time Seminole bludgeoned the Gators front-seven en route to 111 yards on just 13 carries and his second 100-yard game of the season.
Even Lloyd and McDowell combined for 52 yards on 10 carries and a 2-yard touchdown plunge by the latter for the first of South Carolina’s three offensive scores.
“Connor Shaw said, ‘Football is a game of 11 people on the field, but it’s all up to one-on-one battles,’ ” Vann explained. “Everybody executed their job, won their one-on-one battles and it showed tonight.”
South Carolina didn’t just escape Saturday night’s primetime matchup. The Gamecocks eviscerated one of college football’s elite programs — albeit with a limited roster as a slew of Florida players battled the flu.
The Florida team that showed up in Columbia certainly wasn’t the Gator teams of old. It lacked the discipline of Steve Spurrier’s squads. It was devoid of the explosiveness that Urban Meyer trademarked in his time in Gainesville. That doesn’t matter, though.
South Carolina has its first signature win in the Beamer era. It’s above .500 in November for the first time since 2018. The Gamecocks are also just one victory shy of bowl eligibility.
That is a feat worth sounding an alarm over.
This story was originally published November 7, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
