The Gamecocks became bowl eligible with their win Saturday night against the Vanderbilt Commodores. Which means the Gamecocks have now officially surpassed the expectations that I had for them entering the 2024 football season.
My prognostication prior to the start of the season had the Gamecocks most likely winning 4 games with a 5th win possible if they got a couple of lucky bounces. So far luck has been the only thing not really on the Gamecocks side. If they were lucky they would have won the games against LSU and Alabama, games in which they were the better team but didn’t get the “bounces.”
Entering the season we knew the defense was going to be pretty good especially up front. They proved that early racking up a lot of sacks. We had a lot of questions about the rest of the defense and those questions have now been answered. Clayton White’s defense is a high caliber SEC defense. The last six quarters the Gamecocks have given up seven points. No points in the second half vs A&M and only one touchdown in the game vs Vandy. Teams should also probably stop going for 4th and shorts against this defense that hasn’t seemed to work out too good for the last two teams.
However, the biggest question marks for this team were on the offensive side. We all watched last year as Spencer Rattler was constantly assaulted week after week as the offensive line couldn’t stop running water. This older group is much better. Running lanes are opening and Sellers has been able to stand in the pocket some. Much better than last year. Still some stuff to clean up but much improved.
Obviously the two biggest keys to this offense this year have been Rocket Sanders and LaNorris Sellers. Sanders had another 100+ yard rushing game Saturday night while also having some big catches and scoring 3 of the gamecocks 4 touchdowns. Sanders now has almost 700 yards on the ground and 10 touchdowns for the Gamecocks this year, and after a slow start has been awesome.
Sellers continues to grow and just do amazing things. Like I mentioned last week has ability to escape sure sacks is really unbelievable. Huge defensive linemen and linebackers just seem to bounce off of him or he ducks them and keeps his eyes up field and escapes to make a throw.
The Gamecocks were dominate on the line of scrimmage Saturday on both sides of the ball. No other team has really done that to Vandy all year.
This week the Gamecocks welcome in Missouri for a 4:15 kick at Williams-Brice Stadium. Missouri was highly ranked in the preseason and thought of as a team that could make the CFP. The Tigers have lopsided losses to A&M and Alabama and are currently ranked one spot lower then. the Gamecocks in the AP Poll. You can listen to the game right here on Fox Sports Spartanburg 98.3 beginning at 3:00.
Last year Gamecock football was really hard to watch, even for the most diehard fans. This year its fun. People are noticing Shane Beamer’s team all across the country and the Gamecocks have entered the top 25 for the first time in quite a while. There are still some doubters out there in the media who didn’t have the Gamecocks in their poll this week. Fortunately that poll doesn’t matter anymore we will see what happens Tuesday when the playoff rankings come out. According to experts there is a 14.2% chance of South Carolina making the 12 team CFP and while Gamecock fans shouldn’t hold out hope that it will happen I guess its always nice to say, “So you’re telling me there’s a chance,” even if it feels like it is one in a million.
