5 things we learned from South Carolina’s win over Kentucky
South Carolina is suddenly in the driver’s seat of a season that started to veer off the road three weeks ago.
USC downed No. 13 Kentucky 24-14 on the road Saturday night, giving Shane Beamer his first win over an Associated Press Top 25 team as head coach in Columbia.
Here are five things we learned from the crucial victory.
South Carolina stopped the run
South Carolina defensive coordinator Clayton White deserved every cent of the $200,000 raise he received last summer, but his unit this year started to regress against the run.
That stopped on Saturday.
Kentucky running back Chris Rodriguez finished the night with 126 yards on 22 carries, but the numbers don’t quite indicate how well USC stalled him throughout the contest.
Rodriguez recorded just four carries of 10 yards or more. He averaged just 3.5 yards per on his 18 other touches. Point being, South Carolina largely kept Rodriguez in front of its defense.
The Gamecocks need to keep the momentum it found against the run on Saturday through the coming open week — Texas A&M comes to town in two week’s time.
RB MarShawn Lloyd continues to be a weapon
Spencer Rattler was all out of sorts during Saturday’s first half (more on that in a second), but it was MarShawn Lloyd who largely proved a stabilizing presence throughout the night.
Lloyd finished the contest with his second career 100-yard rushing game, racing for 110 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries to go with another 31 yards receiving. He’s now had at least 70 yards of total offense in four of six games, while combining for 359 yards rushing the last three weeks.
Lloyd’s 45-yard fourth-quarter run on Saturday set up the reverse toss touchdown run by Jalen Brooks two plays later that gave South Carolina the back-breaking touchdown it desperately needed. It was the kind of explosive play Lloyd had been sniffing around all night, finally getting it in one of the game’s most crucial moments.
Lloyd should remain a focal point every ongoing offensive conversation the rest of the year.
Spencer Rattler struggled, but he continues to work through it
Rattler still hasn’t been the quarterback South Carolina thought it might be getting, but the second half of Saturday’s contest felt like tangible growth.
Despite completing six of his first nine passes, the former Oklahoma signal-caller looked out of sorts in the first half. He missed receivers. He wasn’t scanning the defense effectively. His second-quarter interception, too, was an egregious under-throw.
Still, Rattler rebounded.
He completed 8 of 10 second half passes. He recorded 138 of his 177 passing yards over the final 30 minutes. He also finished the game 6 of 9 on third-down passes.
Rattler wasn’t perfect by any stretch. However, he made plays when South Carolina desperately needed them. That should count for something, even if he needs to be better across an entire game.
South Carolina is forcing turnovers in bunches
Kentucky definitely wasn’t the same team without quarterback Will Levis on Saturday. That doesn’t change South Carolina’s defense continuing to ballhawk of late.
The Gamecocks forced two turnovers on Saturday — one fumble and one interception — and now have at least two in each of the last three games.
Barion Brown’s bobbled pitch that was recovered by Tonka Hemingway jump-started South Carolina to a 2-yard touchdown plunge by Lloyd 13 seconds into the game. The fourth-quarter interception UK backup quarterback Kaiya Sheron threw also functionally ended the game.
South Carolina ranked tops in the SEC in takeaways a year ago. It recorded only one total over its first three games in 2022. Now, though, White’s unit is creating all sorts of havoc — and helping the offense in the process.
Gamecocks have all kinds of momentum
It’s only been three weeks since the Gamecocks were flattened by then-No. 1 Georgia.
How times change.
South Carolina suddenly feels like its in the best position possible six weeks into the 2022 season. It’s not hard to imagine USC will be favored in its next three games against Texas A&M, Missouri and at Vanderbilt. Extrapolating out even further, Beamer’s team could well be 7-2 when it rolls into Gainesville for a November slate that includes Florida, Tennessee and Clemson.
The Gamecocks are going to enjoy Saturday night — and rightfully so. But a second bowl berth under Beamer appears as close to a certainty as it has all year.
Sure, South Carolina would love to be 6-0. However, sitting at 4-2 and with the way the schedule lines up, the Gamecocks have things in a great spot for the second half of the year.
This story was originally published October 9, 2022 at 6:30 AM.
