GAMECOCKFANATICS OFFICIAL PREVIEW & PREDICTION THREAD
Who: South Carolina Gamecocks (1-2, 0-1) vs Missouri Tigers (2-1, 0-0)
When: Saturday September 21st, 2019
Kick-off: 4:00 pm ET
Where: Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium, Columbia, MO
TV: SEC Network Alternate
The 2019 season continues as the South Carolina Gamecocks travel to Columbia, MO to battle with the Missouri Tigers this Saturday at 4:00 pm Eastern Time. This game will be South Carolina's second Southeastern Conference contest of the season, while it is Missouri's first for 2019. The Gamecocks will try to extend their current three-game win streak against the Tigers, on hostile ground in front of Missouri fans at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium.
The Coaches
[SIZE= 14px]USC Gamecocks[/SIZE]
Head Coach: Will Muschamp (age 48), 4th year, 23-19 (51-40 as Head Coach)
Offensive Coordinator/Wide Receivers: Bryan McClendon
Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Backs: Travaris Robinson
Quarterbacks: Dan Werner
Running Backs: Thomas Brown
Offensive Line: Eric Wolford
Tight Ends: Bobby Bentley
Defensive Line: John Scott Jr.
Special Teams/Linebackers: Coleman Hutzler
Special Teams/Nickle Backs/Sam Linebackers: Kyle Krantz
Outside Linebackers: Mike Peterson
[SIZE= 14px]Missouri Tigers[/SIZE]
Head Coach: Barry Odom (age 42), 4th year, 21-20
Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks: Derek Dooley
Defensive Coordinator/Safeties: Ryan Walters
Senior Associate Head Coach/Defensive Line: Brick Haley
Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator: Andy Hill
Assistant Head Coach/Running Backs: Cornell Ford
Linebackers: Vernon Hargreaves
Offensive Line: Brad Davis
Wide Receivers: Garrick McGee
Defensive Backs: David Gibbs
Tight Ends: A.J. Ofodile
The Series Match-up
The Clash of Columbia’s Series currently stand at South Carolina leading 5 wins to 4, with a current win streak of 3 consecutive games. Gamecocks Head Coach Will Muschamp is 4-2 versus Missouri as the top man at both Florida and South Carolina, while Tigers Head Coach Barry Odom is 0-3 thus far versus South Carolina.
The series has been a competitive one, with South Carolina scoring a total 164 points thus far, to Missouri scoring 162. The largest victory by the Gamecocks came in 2012 when Connor Shaw set a program record of 20 consecutive pass completions and an overall 95.2 completion percentage (20 for 21), as the Gamecocks won 31-10. The largest victory by the Tigers would come in 2015 with a 24-10 win.
Key Match-ups In The Game
Both the Gamecocks and Tigers will feature key players that were once teammates at Clemson, but transferred: starting QB Kelly Bryant for Missouri, and #2 RB Tavien Feaster for South Carolina.
Missouri awaits South Carolina with a top nationally-ranked offense: the Tigers have the current 26th-ranked Scoring Offense and 34th-ranked Total Offense, while the Gamecocks bring the 30th-ranked Scoring Offense and 25th-ranked Total Offense. So both teams should be featuring strong offenses this Saturday.
The big match-up here may be how both teams’ defenses perform: the Tiger’s defense has been solid thus far, with a 24th-ranked Scoring Defense and 4th-ranked Total Defense, featuring the nationally 2nd-ranked Pass Defense. South Carolina’s own defense has not fared as well, with the 81st-ranked Scoring Defense and 107th-ranked Total Defense.
Missouri’s own impressive defensive totals come mainly from their last two games, which were versus West Virginia and FCS opponent Southeast Missouri, where the Tigers won 38-7 and 50-0 respectively, and out-gained both opponents 883 to 265. That will help out your team stats.
But obviously the key match-ups here will be both teams’ offenses against the defenses – in particular our own offense and rush offense against Missouri’s defense.
Key Players For The Game
For South Carolina’s offense, freshman QB Ryan Hilinski is coming off his first SEC start, his first ever 300+ passing game, and his first SEC Freshman Of The Week award as a result. Hilinski has passed for 606 total yds in just two games, completing 69% of his attempts, with 4 tds and 2 ints. WRs Brian Edwards (15 receptions for 198 yds and 2 tds) and Shi Smith (13 rec. for 158 yds and 1 td) have been the workhorses in the passing game: hopefully we’ll have others stepping up soon to give those guys and Ryan a helping hand – most notably from Josh Vann (9 rec., 62 yds) and OrTre Smith (4 rec., 42 yds). RBs Rico Dowdle (33 carries for 251 yds and 2 tds) and Feaster (29 carries for 169 yds and 1 td) had strong games against a solid Alabama defense, and hopefully will continue that momentum into next Saturday. Mon Denson (9 carries, 118 yds, 1 td) and Kevin Harris (6 carries, 147 yds, 3 tds – all in one game) will be ready to go.
They will face a dominant Missouri defense led by a pair of LBs in Cale Garrett and Nick Bolton, as well as DE Edge rusher Chris Turner.
For Missouri’s offense, QB Bryant is the obvious focal point, but they also have RBs Larry Roundtree and Tyler Badie who have combined for 484 net yds at 5.7 YPC, and 6 rushing tds. Badie is also a very dangerous receiver out of the backfield, with 11 catches for 81 yds. That’s 1 reception less than the team-leading receiver Johnathan Johnson, who has caught for 96 yds. Those are the receiving workhorses, but Missouri has some big-play receivers in Jalen Knox (9 receptions for 192 yds), Albert Okwuegbunam (7 rec., 138 yds, 3 tds), and Jonathan Nance (5 rec., 84 yds, 2 tds). Okwuegbunam and Nance have accounted for 5 of Missouri’s 6 total passing tds thus far.
South Carolina will counter on defense with leaders Ernest Jones, R.J. Roderick, Javon Kinlaw, DJ Wonnum, Jaycee Horn and Israel Mukuamu. Wonnum has yet to record his first QB sack of the season, although he is tied with Kinlaw with the team lead in tackles for loss, with 3.0 (all 3 of Kinlaw’s TFL have come from sacks). This Saturday would be a good time for him to grab 1 or 2.
South Carolina Will Win If
Our defense must improve to have a chance. The weakness thus far has been towards the interior, with the Safeties and the Linebackers. Team tackling, a nagging issue during what seems Coach Muschamp’s entire time at USC, also needs to improve. Overall communication needs to improve at the back two levels of defense.
The offense under Hilinski’s leadership appears to have settled down a bit. There still are issues with efficiency in the Red Zone, and converting touchdowns instead of field goals. If the offense can continue what started against Alabama, and the defense improves on its execution, the Gamecocks will be eye-to-eye with Missouri all game long, and have a good chance to take the game.
Missouri Will Win If
If Bryant is able to pick apart our secondary like Alabama was able to, and our own defense is not able to apply any better pressure, it could possibly again turn into a track meet on offense, where our offense can’t keep up. Missouri goes for more down-the-field “catastrophic” plays on offense, than our own offense is designed to try, so unless our defense can step up and contain the Tiger offense in this game, Missouri could move away from us, and secure the win.
Gamecock Fanatics Prediction:
[COLOR= rgb(153, 0, 0)]South Carolina[/COLOR] 37 [COLOR= rgb(204, 153, 0)]Missouri[/COLOR] 28
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