Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Gamecocks Game 2 Prediction (Vandy)


South Carolina might have over looked Vandy last year, but this year is a whole different story. The game will be a tail of 2 defenses that both are looking to make a statement to open up SEC play. D.J. Moore a Spartanburg native grew up watching USC play and last year showed Coach Spurrier why he should have been recruited by the gamecocks. South Carolina has some top players in the secondary as well, watch for Caption, E.Cook and Carlos Thomas to have big games against Vandy. I would expect Coach Johnson to stack the box and make Nickson beat the gamecocks with his arm and not his legs. In games like these look for Norwood and Jasper to have a field day laying hits on Nickson. I wouldn’t be surprised if by the end of the 3rd quarter Mackenzi Adams isn’t under center.

The key to beating Vandy will be ball control, and amount of turnovers. Last year turnovers and offensive line play killed Carolina. Look for Spurrier and the coaching staff to have the O-line ready this week for a battle in the trenches.


Key Match up. Kenny vs. Moore (both are 1st team all SEC players, should be a good one)


Offense advantage: Vandy

Defense advantage: USC

Special Teams advantage: USC



USC 24
Vandy 17

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

24-17 Carolina sounds about right. Vanderbilt's clearly an underdog, and although the 9-point line seemed like a lot at first, I have to consider that one possibility is just that Miami was a lot worse than expected. If we're in it with a chance to win in the 4th qtr., it's probably better than we have a right to expect given all the offensive personnel we lost.

Incidentally, regarding the Goff quote on the other post, I don't think we're really the fastest defense in the SEC of course. But we might have the best secondary.

Anonymous said...

I agree with your post except for "Look for Spurrier and the coaching staff to have the O-line ready this week for a battle in the trenches." We have known about our O-line troubles for 2 years now and still nothing changes. I think the line will still struggle untill we can get Jamon back in there with maybe King as our two tackles.

Moose said...

i have a feeling the line will be motivated to play better tonight. After last years performance against Vandy, and Spurrier riding their asses all week about false starts. I agree with Jamon back next week, that gives Carolina a pretty solid left side of the line.