USC/Kentucky Rewind and Preview of Mississippi State Bulldogs

One week after looking abysmal on offense versus Auburn, the Gamecocks hang half-a-hundred on Kentucky, and in the process rolled up 639 yards of total offense, the most in the Steve Spurrier era. The beneficiaries of the offensive explosion were newly anointed starting quarterback Connor Shaw, the skill position players and the defense. Carolina’s offense tallied 91 total plays averaging seven yards per play. The Carolina offense unveiled several different formations from the Hammer, where the o-line spread out wide like receivers, to the Wildcock with Marcus Lattimore taking direct snaps, as well as Bruce Ellington, who scored on a 61-yd TD run in the 4th quarter and a flea flicker, which resulted in a 25-yard pass completion from Shaw to Ace Sanders. It was vintage Steve Spurrier, and, unfortunately for Wildcats fans, a script all too familiar that they had witnessed from SOS’ days at Florida. Not to be outdone by the offense, Ellis Johnson and his stop troops turned in another brilliant effort against a clawless Kentucky offense. For the second time this season, USC’s defense held an SEC opponent under the century mark for total yards. Let’s look at the Good, the Bad, & the Ugly.

The Good:

→Connor Shaw: The sophomore completed 66% (26/39) of his passes, 311 passing yards, four touchdown passes, and ZERO interceptions! Remember UK entered the game ranked 11th in FBS Pass Defense.

→USC Passing Game: Three Carolina quarterbacks completed 30 passes to 10 different receivers for a total of 351 yards. The Tight Ends caught six passes for 92 yards & one TD; the Wide Receivers caught 20 passes for 245 yards and five TDs, while the Running Backs caught four passes for 14 yards.

→Running Wild: Lattimore had a very pedestrian performance with 22 rushes for 102 yards. With 00:50 left to play in the first quarter, the Duncan, SC native had two rushes for four yards. So over the last three quarters, he had 20 rushes for 98 yards. Bruce Ellington scampered 61 yards for a touchdown; Brandon Wilds had 45 yards on five rushes; Damiere Byrd had a 21-yard run; and the quarterbacks combined for 59 yards on 19 rushes and one TD. USC amassed 288 rushing yards on 48 attempts.

→LattiMORE: Marcus Lattimore recorded his eighth career 100-yard rushing game and Carolina improved to 10-0 when Lattimore rushes 20-plus times a game, per The State.

→Offensive Imagination: It was a pleasant surprise to see Spurrier open the playbook and unveil multiple formations that USC fans have not seen this season. I counted at least three unique formations with different personnel packages. The Hammer was unveiled in the 2nd quarter and led to two touchdown passes (Cunningham & Jeffery). The Wildcock with Lattimore taking the direct snap was utilized early in the 2nd quarter as Damiere Byrd took a hand-off from Lattimore on a Speed Sweep and gained 21 yards for his first career rush. In the 3rd quarter on 4th & 3, Connor Shaw executed the option and pitched to Lattimore for an 11-yard gain. Then early in the 4th quarter, USC executed a flea flicker as Shaw handed off to Lattimore, Lattimore pitched the ball back to Shaw, and Shaw threw a 25-yard pass to Ace Sanders into the red zone. Finally Bruce Ellington took a direct snap in the Wildcock around the right side and scampered 61 yards to pay dirt!

→Season TD Passes Doubled: In a little more than three quarters, Connor Shaw equaled former starter Stephen Garcia’s total touchdown pass production over 15 quarters, as the Flowery Branch, GA native tossed four TDs versus Kentucky.

→Possessions = Points: Carolina’s offense scored on 9 of 16 possessions!

→Half-a-Hundred Margin: USC won by 51 points, its largest margin of victory against an SEC opponent since a 52-14 win (38-point margin) over Vanderbilt in 1995, per The State.

→Half Century Mark: USC has eclipsed 50 points three times under Spurrier [’06 Middle Tennessee State (52 points), ’10 Troy (69 points), '11 East Carolina (56 points) and ’11 Kentucky (54 points)].

→High Five: Five USC players recorded their first career touchdowns on Saturday: Nick Jones, Bruce Ellington, Justice Cunningham, Andrew Clifford and Dylan Thompson, per The State.

→Garnet & Black “D” Attack: Since halftime of the Navy game, spanning 14 quarters, the USC defense has surrendered 29 total points (16 to Auburn), which equals about 8.25 points per game (including Navy second half), 645 total yards, 255 passing yards (Kentucky 17 total passing yards), which averages about 73 passing yards over 3 ½ games. The run defense has surrendered 390 total rushing yards (Auburn recorded 246 rushing yards & Navy accumulated only 61 rushing yards in the second half), which includes holding Vanderbilt to four rushing yards and equates to 111.5 rushing yards over the last 3 ½ games.

→Ballhawks: Over the last 14 quarters, USC’s defense has forced 14 turnovers (10 Interceptions & four fumble recoveries), which equates to one turnover per quarter.

→3rd-Down Conversion Rate: Kentucky only converted 2/13 third-down opportunities (15.4%)!

→Linebackers Lead: USC’s linebackers were the top four tacklers on Saturday, combining for 18 tackles.

→Half-a-Baker’s Dozen: The Gamecocks forced six turnovers (4 INTs & 2 Fumbles).

→ < 100: For the second time in three weeks, Carolina’s defense held an SEC opponent under 100 total yards of offense.

The Bad:

→Special Teams Miscues: USC only lost one fumble when Bruce Ellington fumbled the opening kickoff. But on two punt returns, the Gamecocks put the ball on the ground – fortunately, they were able to recover the pigskin both times. Moving forward, Special Teams Coach John Butler is going to have to clean up the mental lapses on Special Teams or the gaffes could come back to bite USC.

→Penalties: Carolina continually put itself in bad situations with undisciplined play. The Gamecocks had seven penalties for 45 yards. This must improve as Carolina begins a three-game road trek over the next four weeks.

→Sackless: Surprisingly, Carolina did not register a single sack versus Kentucky.

→Kentucky Offense: I thought Vanderbilt was bad, but Kentucky is right there with the Commodores when it comes to offensive ineptness! Six first downs, 17 total passing yards, four interceptions thrown by three different passers and two fumbles! In the first half, the Wildcats managed 1.7 yards per play, three turnovers, nine passing yards, four first downs and 57 total yards!

→Putrid Passing: Kentucky completed four passes in 26 attempts for 17 yards the entire game. UK quarterback Morgan Newton threw 12 straight incomplete passes during one stretch of the game from the latter stages of the first quarter, until the first play from scrimmage of the third quarter. Newton ended the game throwing five straight incomplete passes.

→Half-Dozen: UK ran only six plays in USC territory and those six plays were a result of Bruce Ellington fumbling the opening kick-off and Kentucky recovering at Carolina's 26-yard line. UK kicked a 26-yard FG.

The Ugly:

→Maxwell’s House of Horrors: Freshman Maxwell Smith entered the game in the 3rd quarter and promptly threw two interceptions on his first two pass attempts. He nearly threw his third INT on his third pass attempt, but DaMario Jeffery couldn’t corral the pass. So of Smith’s three total passes, two-thirds ended up in the hands of Gamecock defenders. Not very strong!

Mississippi State Preview:

Mississippi State came into 2011 with a lot of lofty expectations and ranked in the preseason Top 25. After opening the season impressively versus an underwhelmed Memphis team, the Bulldogs lost a heart breaker at the goal line against Auburn on the road. Mississippi State has since lost two more conference match-ups, 19-6 loss at home to LSU and a 24-10 setback at Georgia. This past Saturday, MSU found itself trailing 3-0 to UAB on the road before reeling off 21 straight points to win. The Bulldogs had to retool their front seven this year after losing five of seven starters. Chris Relf is a load at quarterback, and Vic Ballard is an impressive running back. So the Bulldogs will be seeking their first SEC win of the season and snap a five-game losing streak to USC on Saturday afternoon. After a successful start at home in conference play, Connor Shaw faces a whole new challenge (cow bells) in StarkVegas as the new trigger man for the Gamecocks.

My next blog will be Wednesday when I take a look at coaches on the Hot Seat, USC mid-term grades, my SEC Power Index and a little football recruiting update.

Go Gamecocks!