South Carolina Gamecocks: Can They Live Up To Their Lofty Pre-Season Ranking?
So far, The South Carolina Gamecocks have lived up to their sixth ranking in college football. Although Connor Shaw had a unremarkable season opener against North Carolina when he threw for only one touchdown and completed only 55% of passes, the Gamecocks as a whole have proven to be a well balanced collegiate program. Even when the Gamecocks star defensive player Jadeveon Clowney failed to intimidate the opposition (only 3 tackles against the Tar Heels), the rest of their defense not only stepped up to fill the void, they played with a vigor and merciless zeal that all but stifled the Tar Heels offense. Although the Tar Heels managed to put together nearly 300 yards of offense against the Gamecocks, they only managed to score one touchdown throughout the entire game. While this may not be a monumental factor against more experienced SEC opponents, it gives the Gamecocks an encouraging foundation to build off of until Clowney finds his unstoppable explosiveness.
Although the Gamecocks have a challenging opponent to face this week when they play the Georgia Bulldogs on the road, the rest of their regular season schedule is fairly soft considering the Gamecocks don’t face any top 10 ranked SEC opponents (they avoid competing against Alabama (#1), Texas A&M (#7) and LSU (#9)). Instead, South Carolina has a fairly easy schedule, as Georgia will be their last ranked opponent until November 16th when they face the Florida Gators at home. Initially, this may come as a relief to the Gamecocks as they will avoid being overwhelmed by top tier opponents that could hurt their chances of participating in the BCS championship game. At the same time, the Gamecocks will lack a formidable opponent to sharpen their skills against thereby dissolving any chance of the Gamecocks competing for a national title.
However this is not to say that the Gamecocks shouldn’t have aspirations of attaining such a prestigious accolade. Even with their weak schedule, the Gamecocks should still be able to fine-tune some of their weaker aspects, specifically their quarterback situation. Although the Gamecocks have found some success using the two-quarterback system by utilizing junior quarterback Dylan Thompson, it ultimately is an archaic game plan that will prevent their senior starter Connor Shaw from truly developing into a sensational passer. Although Michigan had great success when they used two passers, they didn’t have to contend in the toughest conference in all of college football. Looking at all of the prestigious SEC teams, one commonality becomes immediately apparent; they all utilize one distinguished passer to get the job done. While having two passers allows an offense to run a variety of plays and prevents them from being predictable, it ultimately disallows both quarterbacks from being the leaders they should be in the first place.
Yet, even with these conventional issues, the gamecocks still have a stout running attack that was able to consistently penetrate the Tar Heels defensive line. As a result, the Gamecocks running game were able to garner 228 yards of offense (more than half of their total offensive yards) along with a 75 yard touchdown run by running back Mike Davis. Although this hard nosed running attack won’t fool more formidable defensive fronts in Alabama and LSU, it at least gives them a reliable form of attack to fall back on should their passing game fail to shine.
In the end, the Gamecocks find themselves in an intriguing predicament. On the one hand, they have the benefit of having an easy schedule that will allow them to be just as successful if not more so than they were last year. On the other hand, the fact that the Gamecocks lack a legitimate challenger until near the end of the regular season is somewhat disconcerting. However, if the Gamecocks can defeat the Bulldogs on their home turf handedly, it won’t matter how easy their schedule is. For now though, the Gamecocks are simply waiting for their moment to prove that they compete in their own conference while vying for a shot at the national championship game.