Gamecock mailbag: The future of QB1 Jason Brown as South Carolina heads to Missouri
South Carolina’s postseason aspirations received a major jolt Saturday.
Throttling Florida 40-17, USC notched its first major win under Shane Beamer and needs just one more victory in its final three games to reach bowl eligibility.
With Jason Brown’s surgical start, the defense’s dominant performance and a rocking Williams-Brice Stadium, there’s plenty to break down from the week that was before South Carolina heads to Missouri on Saturday. Let’s dive into some questions.
Jason Brown is clearly the best QB that we have. Why was Saturday’s game the first time he started? — Joseph H.
Allow me to offer a mea culpa to open up this week’s mailbag. I absolutely thought the Jason Brown experiment against Florida was going to be a complete train wreck. Boy, was I wrong.
Brown’s numbers weren’t otherworldly, but he was efficient and effective. He completed 12 of his first 15 passes and finished the night 14 of 24 for 175 yards and two touchdowns. There were a handful of throws — like the spin-out and resulting 50-yard completion to Josh Vann — that made you wonder why he hadn’t started all year. It wasn’t the most dominant quarterback performance of South Carolina’s season, but it sure was close.
Why Brown hasn’t been given an opportunity till now is a fairly simple explanation: Luke Doty and Zeb Noland had outperformed him in practices up until this point.
Tuesday, though, Beamer announced Brown will be South Carolina’s QB1 at Missouri on Saturday. He added that Noland is expected to be available and that he practiced on Tuesday.
Given the way he played on Saturday, Brown deserved another shot to start for the Gamecocks this weekend. Now he’ll get a chance to back up his performance against Florida.
When was the last time before the Florida game that the Gamecocks, or any SEC team, were penalized 5 yards or less in a game? — Reid T.
This took a little digging, but I got close to what you were looking for, Reid.
The last time South Carolina had 10 penalty yards or less in a game was actually just last season. USC had five penalty yards against Texas A&M and only 10 penalty yards against Georgia. Before that, it’d been a little while.
South Carolina was dinged for only nine penalty yards in the 2018 game against Tennessee. It also accounted for just six penalty yards in the 2014 game at Clemson.
I couldn’t find the last time USC had less than five yards in penalties, but your point is a good one. The Gamecocks had averaged 7.5 penalties for almost 62 yards per game entering Saturday. It turned in its most disciplined performance of the year against Florida with just one penalty for five yards.
South Carolina has had its share of issues with penalties this year, but Saturday was one clean performance.
What’s with some of the crazy play calling? Just run the football and forget the trick plays! — Wallace B.
Say what you will about the play calling the last few weeks, but South Carolina got creative on Saturday.
The flea-flicker on the first play of the game was a thing of beauty. It looked like the ball that went to ZaQaundre White behind the line and was fumbled was supposed to be a double-pass, too.
If you’re South Carolina, games against the Georgias, Texas A&Ms and Floridas of the world entail pulling out all the stops.
Granted, the Gamecocks were able to bludgeon the Florida defensive front with its run game on Saturday to open things up, but it’s worth throwing a few wrinkles in there when one can. Saturday, those wrinkles made South Carolina fun to watch.
What is the strategy going into Missouri to keep this team focused after a big win? We have seen teams in the past fall short of riding big game win momentum, will that change with this team? — Spencer B.
This is the magic question, Spencer.
South Carolina has been plastered all over television screens since Saturday’s upset of Florida. Beamer was on SEC Network on Monday. The USC video department got in some extra trolling on Monday evening. The Gamecocks are certainly celebrating, and rightfully so.
That said, the trip to Missouri screams letdown opportunity.
Eli Drinkwitz’s squad has taken a step back statistically in 2021 after a 5-5 debut campaign against an all-SEC schedule amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Tigers defense has been a borderline travesty, allowing almost 500 yards of total offense and more than 270 rushing yards per game this fall.
Missouri, to its credit, has steadied the ship offensively and currently ranks No. 40 nationally in total offense at 433 yards per game.
South Carolina still needs one win to get bowl-eligible and it may not get there if it doesn’t beat Missouri on Saturday. I’m not sure what variation of Michael Jordan’s secret stuff (Where my “Space Jam” fans at?) the Gamecocks drank before the Florida win, but they’ll need more of it in CoMo on Saturday.
Ben’s best
I was alerted to the fact South Carolina closes its season with three consecutive games against Tiger mascots in Missouri, Auburn and Clemson by friend of the mailbag Cam Gaskins.
With that, let’s rank some Tigers!
- Tiger Woods
- Princeton Tigers
- Ty Cobb — Detroit Tigers legend
- Tony the Tiger — Frosted Flakes
- Tigger — Winnie the Pooh
Honorable mentions:
- Joe Exotic — Tiger King
- Mike Tyson’s Tiger in The Hangover
- Hobbes — Calvin and Hobbes
- Shere Khan — The Jungle Book
All other college football mascot Tigers (LSU, Auburn, Missouri, Clemson, etc.)
