This offense is less diverse than Boise but can be every bit as good, Garcia is no Kellen Moore but Boise didn't have any RB's or WR's that could come close to matching Lattimore or Jeffrey. So, let's just go ahead and say it, we have our hands full. To top that off, driving the bus is none other than the evil genius, Steve Spurrier who has made a coaching career out of beating us. I guess since he took over at SCarolina, we have beaten him 4 out of 6 times, but the last 4 it is 2-2. Plain and simple, the guy knows how to win college football games, he is now recruiting better and better talent to Columbia, the future is pretty bright for the Gamecocks-although I don't think Steve hangs around for more than another 2-3 years-just my opinion.
SCarolina last year basically ran just a few plays against us out of the same formation. We never slowed it down so they never changed what they were doing. Shotgun formation-one back being Lattimore. Garcia runs the spread option essentially, if we crash our end to stop Lattimore, he keeps the ball and runs with it. Every so often, he fakes the handoff and throws to Jeffrey. Last year, we simply couldn't stop Lattimore. The stats don't lie, it was UGLY. SCarolina 23 first downs to our 11. SC with 354 total yards to our 253. Lattimore with 37 carries for 187 yards, Garcia very efficient throwing the ball-12 of 17 for 165 yards, Jeffrey 7 receptions for 103 yards. SCarolina completely in control of time of possession, 35:15 to 24:45. Perhaps the stat I remember the most, 3rd down conversions, SC was 9 of 14.
Lets look at the starting Offense for the Gamecocks.
OT-Kyle Nunn 6-6 295 SR
OT-Rokevious Watkins 6-4 340 SR
OG-AJ Cann 6-3 299 FR
OG-Terrence Campbell 6-3 296 SR
C-TJ Johnson 6-5 316 JR
TE-Justice Cunningham 6-3 265 JR
WR-Ashlon Jeffrey 6-4 229 JR
WR-DL Moore 6-4 203 JR
WR-Jason Barnes 6-4 214 SR or Ace Sanders 5-7 175 Soph
RB-Marcus Lattimore 6-0 232 Soph
QB-Stephen Garcia 6-2 232 SR
They certainly are a bigger more physical line than was Boise but maybe they are not as good-we shall see. For years a weakness for the Cocks was the OL, last year they appeared much improved but was that the line or just having such a great back in Lattimore. I seem to remember the UGA OL was a LOT better when Moreno was running for us. You notice the size of the Carolina WR's, they have 3 guys at 6-4 but no question Jeffrey is the main target. The main goal for our offense should be to stop Lattimore at the LOS, do not allow him to break the first level of tackling. If he does that, as he did last year, we are likely to get shredded yet again. I would NOT be surprised in the least to see Spurrier come out throwing the football to try to spread us out a bit and open things up for the running game. NO doubt all our D players have been hearing this week is about what Lattimore did to us, I have a feeling early on, Jeffrey is going to be a big factor or maybe one of their less known WR's. Keep an eye on Ace Sanders, small but QUICK and makes plays when he is in the lineup. I still say our best bet is try to take away the run game and hope our secondary can cover man. I look for Jarvis Jones to once again be a big force this week, along with Geathers/Jenkins. They gashed us up the middle last year with Tyson trying to play the nose, I suspect Geathers and Jenkins play will have a big impact on how well we slow down the run game. We need Cornelius Washington to also step up, along with Christian Robinson and whoever ends up taking "Tree's" spot in the middle. I also look for Sanders Commings to try his best to cover Jeffrey. He is really the only guy we have that is close to Jeffrey in stature, he is big and he has enough speed to hang with him.
SCarolina no doubt is going to look at the Boise film and notice a few things, we did a decent job stopping the run but give up a lot of cushion to WR's, also the middle of the field last week was wide open. If their TE is halfway decent, I suspect they will try to drag him across the middle, they had huge success against us two years ago with the big TE Saunders catching a ton of passes against us. I suspect Spurrier is going to be a bit more balanced with his offense than he was last year, but then again, if we still can't stop the run, expect him to keep going to it. While I don't think Garcia is in the same category as Moore from Boise, he has played well against UGA during his career. I already mentioned last year, a very efficient day, he did have a fumble when he was sacked but otherwise, managed the game very well. Two years ago, in a rare offensive shootout in the UGA-SC series, Garcia was 31-53 for 313 yards, 2 TD's and one INT. He was a Rennie Curran fingertip away from leading SCarolina to a win against us in the final seconds. My point being, this kid has played well two years in a row against us, I expect him to have another good game this year. If we can't play solid D this week, I fully expect another result much like last week against Boise. Let's face it, with our offense, especially early this season, the D is going to have play some good football. Of course now we are missing perhaps our best overall defensive player in Ogletree, but this is where Grantham sure needs to earn his money. Last year it was pretty embarrassing and last week mirrored that to be honest, as it just appears Grantham is NOT the master or adjustments like we all hoped, he is not proving to be the next Van Gorder to this point. Let's just hope that he has our D well prepared and we can get off the field this year, unlike last year. It all starts with tackling and swarming on defense. I saw some of that last week and we actually didn't do a bad job against the Boise run. That being said, to me SCarolina is a MUCH better running football team than is Boise, and Lattimore is a far better back than anything Boise threw at us. This is going to be a TOUGH task on Saturday. Are we up to that challenge, we shall see.
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