The game that got away? How Florida loss clouds outlook for rest of USC’s season
The Gamecocks are 2-4 and two games under .500 for the first time under head coach Shane Beamer. They need four wins to reach bowl eligibility. Those four wins might be hard to find.
The 41-39 loss to Florida on Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium might prove to be the game that got away.
After expressing overall disappointment after the loss, Beamer summed the night up simply and succinctly: “In the end, we just didn’t do enough good things today to finish the game.”
South Carolina (2-4, 1-3 SEC) had the toughest first half schedule in the country this year, opening against then-No. 21 UNC in Charlotte, battling No. 1 Georgia in Athens and taking on then-No. 21 Tennessee in Knoxville — losing all three games. But things don’t get much easier after Saturday’s homecoming snafu.
The Gamecocks are on the road for the next two weeks, where they’ll take on the Top 25 ranked Missouri Tigers (6-1) and Texas A&M Aggies. Then USC heads back home to play newly minted FBS team Jacksonville State, Vanderbilt, Kentucky and Clemson. To secure a postseason berth, South Carolina will have to win either all four of those home games in November, or ace at least one of those road tests.
The start to 2023 comes after back-to-back bowl appearances in Beamer’s first two seasons. USC started 2022 at 5-2 overall and finished the season 8-5, with 2021 a more grind-it-out effort that ended with a 7-6 record.
On Saturday, USC’s good couldn’t overcome the bad:
▪ Quarterback Spencer Rattler continued to play lights out (23-30 for 313 passing yards, four touchdowns and one interception from a late attempt to play hero).
▪ The run game is finally coming around (a season-high 183 yards led by Mario Anderson, who had 103).
▪ The Gamecocks defense and special teams weighed them down like an anchor against Florida (5-2, 3-1). These are units that were winning USC games in the not-so-distant past.
Heading into the Florida game, South Carolina’s defense ranked last in the SEC in passing defense and tackles for loss (3.8 per game, which ranked 126th in the NCAA). USC’s total defense ranked second-to-last in the league. It’s hard to imagine that pass defense ranking improved after allowing Graham Mertz to throw for 423 yards and three touchdowns — two of them in the game’s final five minutes.
“When they have 81 plays for 494 yards and 423 of those are in the air, it’s gonna be a tough night,” said Beamer, in this third season as the Gamecocks’ coach.
The defense’s keys to success in the week leading up to the game, Beamer said, were third-down stops and red-zone stops.
USC did a decent job on third down, allowing UF to convert 50% of the time in the first half and not at all in the second. The Gamecocks also did a decent job in the red zone, limiting the Gators to five field-goal attempts.
Fourth downs proved to be the unit’s kryptonite. Florida converted on three of four attempts, with one of those coming on UF’s game-winning touchdown drive.
“Disappointing that in situational football like that, we weren’t able to get it done,” Beamer said.
Part of his message to the team in the locker room was that “every single week in this league is a war. And you’ve got to prepare.”
The Gamecocks have a lot of preparing to do this week. The season hangs in the balance.
South Carolina’s 2023 football scores, schedule
- Sept. 2: North Carolina 31, South Carolina 17
- Sept. 9: South Carolina 47, Furman 21
- Sept. 16: Georgia 24, South Carolina 14
- Sept. 23: South Carolina 37, Mississippi State 30
- Sept. 30: Tennessee 41, South Carolina 20
- Oct. 14: Florida 41, South Carolina 39
- Oct. 21 – at Missouri, 3:30 p.m. (SEC Network)
- Oct. 28 – at Texas A&M – TBA
- Nov. 4 – Jacksonville State – TBA
- Nov. 11 – vs Vanderbilt – TBA
- Nov. 18 – vs Kentucky – TBA
- Nov. 25 – vs Clemson – TBA
This story was originally published October 14, 2023 at 9:47 PM.
