The No. 18 South Carolina Gamecocks (4-1, 2-1) will host the Kentucky Wildcats (2-3, 0-2) in a SEC Eastern Division game this Saturday afternoon at Williams Brice Stadium. Kickoff is set for 12:21 ET and the game will be televised by SEC Network.
Kentucky should have fond memories of the Gamecocks as they came from behind to defeat South Carolina last season 31-28 in Lexington, a week after the Gamecocks knocked off No. 1 Alabama.
"Kentucky is a team that beat us last year," said Head Coach Steve Spurrier. "In fact they beat us very similarly to the game we lost last week. They scored on their last play when they had it. We had a defensive play there. We sort of got in field goal range, but something happened each time and we didn't get an attempt each time."
This season, however, the Gamecocks are coming off of an unexpected loss rather than an unexpected win.
The Wildcats have struggled so far this season and they have yet to play competitively against an SEC opponent. They've lost 48-10 at home to then-No. 15 Florida and are coming off of a 35-7 beat down at the hands of the No. 1 LSU Tigers in a game which they only totaled 155 yards of offense. Kentucky has lost their last three games.
Kentucky features a variety of defensive looks which could pose a problem for Connor Shaw, who is making his second start of the season in place of a struggling Stephen Garcia.
"They (Kentucky) have a lot of stuff," Spurrier said of Kentucky's defense. "They blitz from everywhere - zone blitzes and man blitzes. They have a lot of defenses, which is unusual for Kentucky. These guys are all over the place. LSU had 14 at halftime but they didn't really go up and down the field against Kentucky's defense last week at all."
Kentucky's offense has struggled throughout the season, ranking 113th in both passing yards per game and points per game and also rank 96th in rushing yards per game.
If the Wildcats are going to be successful against Carolina, they must get their play makers involved early and often. WR La'Rod King is the most dangerous weapon that Kentucky has and their offense is at its best whenever he is playing well. With the possibility of Melvin Ingram missing this contest, Kentucky's offensive line has one less thing to worry about and may have a little more success against the Gamecock defense.
The Gamecocks are coming off of a tough 16-13 home loss to the defending national champion Auburn Tigers (4-1, 2-0), in another dismal offensive performance by Stephen Garcia and the entire offense.
Garcia finished the game with 160 yards passing and two interceptions to his one touchdown. The two picks that he threw against Auburn brings his total to nine on the year, which is the most in the nation. Yet another poor performance from the fifth-year senior has cost him the starting job as Spurrier announced Monday night that sophomore Connor Shaw would start this Saturday against Kentucky and try to give this offense a spark as the passing game is ranked 101st in the country in yards per game.
"We're making some changes on offense," said Spurrier at his weekly press conference. "We're going to give Connor Shaw his chance to replace Stephen. I know our offense looks pretty sorry. We're still seventh in the conference in offense like we were last year. We've moved up to sixth in defense. We're obviously not peaking as well as we'd hoped, but again we feel like Connor deserves a shot to see if he can perform at a higher level and get our offense going a little bit."
This will be Shaw's second start of the season as he was benched in week one against ECU and never returned to the field as Garcia led the Gamecocks to a 56-37 win.
South Carolina's defense played well against Auburn allowing only 16 points despite being on the field for 92 plays. Melvin Ingram finished the game with 11 tackles, 3.5 sacks and one interception and was named SEC Defensive Player of the Week for the second consecutive week. The defense also forced four interceptions, two by C.C. Whitlock, and held Auburn's offense on several third down situations.
If the Gamecocks can get Connor Shaw comfortable with the offense this week, give Lattimore more carries, and forget the loss last week, I believe they can get right back into the win column against this struggling Kentucky team.
Prediction:
#18 South Carolina 24 Kentucky 10
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