Gator Chomped: Florida smacks South Carolina as mistakes doom Gamecocks
Whatever joy South Carolina found last week in Nashville, the Gamecocks forgot to pack it for Saturday’s trip to Florida.
The Gamecocks looked overwhelmed, outmatched and flat out disorganized defensively in the Gators’ 38-6 drubbing of Shane Beamer’s squad.
“Unacceptable. Disappointing to say the least,” Beamer said Saturday night in a briefer-than-usual opening statement at the postgame press conference.
The fast starts South Carolina (6-4, 3-4 SEC) mustered in recent weeks went by the wayside Saturday in The Swamp as Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson ran up, over and around the Gamecocks defense.
Richardson paced the Gators (6-4, 3-4) to 362 yards in the first half — 281 of which came on the ground — helping Florida to touchdown drives on its first three possessions.
The Gators finished with 374 rushing yards Saturday and outgained USC 515 to 237 overall.
Billy Napier’s bunch bludgeoned the Gamecocks defense from the get go, rolling 75 yards on 14 plays in just under six minutes its opening possession. Richardson put the exclamation point on the Gators’ first scoring drive of the night when he followed a pair of blockers off the right edge and plunged three yards for a touchdown.
Florida added two more first-half scores via a dime from Richardson to receiver Ricky Pearsall and an 85-yard touchdown run by tailback Trevor Etienne. The younger brother of ex-Clemson running back Travis Etienne, Trevor’s second-quarter score marked the second-longest run by a Florida player since 1988.
“Honestly, that surprised me,” Richardson said of Florida’s 281 rush yards over the opening 30 minutes. “We had a lot of rushing yards in the first half and I didn’t even realize it was that many.”
South Carolina mustered its few blips of life Saturday on special teams. Punter Kai Kroeger reeled back and connected with Dakereon Joyner for a 48-yard fake punt touchdown pass before the end of the first half — boosting Kroeger’s career passing numbers to 5 for 5, 150 yards and two scores.
The Gamecock special teams followed that up in the second half, first blocking a 36-yard field goal attempt by kicker Adam Mihalek before tackling Florida holder Jeremy Cranshaw on an errant snap two possessions later.
“We’ve been telling (the field goal block team) that they’re that they’re due for one,” Beamer said. “And it was good to see those guys play with effort tonight. That was a positive — special teams-wise — but we want to be good in all three phases and we weren’t good in all three phases tonight.”
Yet for each momentary glimpse of a pulse, the Gamecocks slipped as the Gators circled for the kill.
South Carolina received the ball out of halftime down 24-6. It fumbled on three of its next four plays from scrimmage, Florida finally cashing in the knockout blow on a four-yard pass from Richardson to Jonathan Odom.
“We did some great things last week in the running game and the pass game,” quarterback Spencer Rattler said. “We expected to do the same stuff this week. But we didn’t get it done. We just didn’t get it done in anything, I felt like.”
South Carolina entered the week with momentum. Its offense looked suddenly explosive in a win over Vanderbilt — which beat No. 24 Kentucky shortly before USC and Florida kicked off on Saturday. The Gamecocks defense, banged up as it’d been, had largely held together.
Beamer a week ago told the “doom and gloom” fans to “find some joy.”
Saturday, there was far more of the former than the latter.
First down
South Carolina was without its top two running backs in MarShawn Lloyd and Christian Beal-Smith on Saturday.
Lloyd continues to rehab from a thigh contusion he suffered in the loss to Missouri. He didn’t play last week against Vanderbilt.
Beal-Smith missed his fourth game this season on Saturday. He was spotted with a boot on his foot ahead of the trip to Gainesville and did not travel with the team. Beal-Smith had previously been recovering from a lingering foot issue.
Key Stats
2 — the number of times South Carolina has won in Gainesville, both of which happened under Steve Spurrier
3 — South Carolina fumbled three times in four plays to open the second half
281 — Florida’s total rushing yards in the first half of Saturday’s contest
Next USC game
Who: South Carolina vs. Tennessee
When: 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19
Where: Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia
TV: ESPN
This story was originally published November 12, 2022 at 7:26 PM.
