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Seven things to know about South Carolina

Will Muschamp enters year two in Columbia and the Gamecocks are off to a fast start in 2016. After big wins over N.C. State and Missouri away from home, South Carolina will be returning to Columbia to play in front of a sold out crown at Williams-Brice Stadium. CBS analyst Gary Danielson recently stated Jake Bentley is the best quarterback in the SEC on the Paul Finebaum Show and now it appears that the Cocks are a legit contender in the wide open SEC East.

As always, here at CI we’re back to tell you everything you need to know about the opponent. Here are the seven things you need to know about the 2017 South Carolina Gamecocks.

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Jake Bentley (USA TODAY Sports)
Jake Bentley (USA TODAY Sports)
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Bentley Hype

Jake Bentley enters the season as a true sophomore who started seven games as a true frosh and led the Cocks to a bowl game last season. Bentley only reached over 300 yards once Birmingham Bowl loss to South Florida) and tossed nine touchdowns to only four interceptions. The highlight of year was the home upset of Tennessee as a 13-point dog. Bentley completed 75% of his passes here and tossed two touchdowns in the upset win.

So far on the season, Bentley is completing 61% of his passes and is averaging 7.1 yards per attempt. Those numbers have both dropped from last year’s production. Bentley is locked in on two main receivers, Deebo Samuel and Bryan Edwards, as these two have combined for twenty receptions while the rest of the team has 15 grabs. I’d pump the brakes on the national pundit hype Bentley is receiving.

The Gamecocks are now 6-3 with Bentley as the starter and the young quarterback does a really good job protecting the football. I’m not sure he’s as good as the national media is claiming, but he doesn’t make many mistakes and consistently puts South Carolina in good situations. He’s, by far, the most productive quarterback Will Muschamp has had since becoming a head coach.

Explosive Playmaker

Deebo Samuel has emerged as a star in the first two games of the season and he’s been the biggest offensive difference maker in the SEC to this point. Samuel has been consistent throughout his college career and now he is starting to make plays in the kicking game.

As a freshman that received limited playing time, Samuel pulled in 12 receptions and averaged right at 13 yards per catch. As a sophomore, he emerged as South Carolina’s big play threat as he pulled in 59 catches for 783 yards and 13.3 yards per catch average. But Samuel also did some damage on the ground as he recorded six rushing touchdowns. He also showed some potential as a kick returner as he nearly 27 yards per return and had one return for six.

As a junior, Samuel has emerged as the most explosive playmaker in the SEC. Samuel has touched the ball twice on kickoff returns and each has gone to the house. He’s Bentley’s favorite target and two of his 10 receptions have gone for scores and he has already chipped in a rushing touchdown. Operation number one for the UK defense will be to slow #1 down.

Bend But Don’t Break

There’s no doubt that Will Muschamp is a defensive guy and he has a very good history of building strong units. At Florida, he left Jim McElwain with a boatload of defensive talent and the Gators have had one of the best defenses in college football for five straight years. Muschamp took over a struggling defense at Auburn in 2015 and the Tigers struggled in his first season. But now two years removed, it appears he set the foundation for one of the best defenses in college football the past two seasons. The man knows defense.

Muschamp prefers to overwhelm you up front with size and athleticism up front and the Gamecocks just do not have the personnel to accomplish that. The Gamecocks gave up over 200 yards on the ground last season. The defense was opportunistic and able to force turnovers so the scoring defense was solid coming in at 26.5 points per game.

In 2017, it appears South Carolina is still using the bend but don’t break approach as they really lack talent in the front four. The best player is sophomore defensive end D.J. Wonnum. The Georgia native has posted 11 tackles in 2016 but four have been for loss and with two sacks he’s proven to be Carolina’s best threat as a pass rusher. Outside of him, pass rush is a concern and Taylor Stallworth is the best player inside at tackle. D.J. Sawyer as forced two fumbles and batted two passes in the first two games. Defensive line depth is a concern and this is a matchup Kentucky must win.

The linebackers appear to be a strength of the defense as starters Bryson Allen-Williams, T.J. Brunson, and Skai Moore are each very athletic and can make plays horizontally. However, they are pretty small coming in at an average of 226 pounds. This is a front seven that hasn’t been tested with Power O yet and that appears to be a weakness of the unit.

The secondary has a ton of experience and starts three seniors. They’ve given up some yards in the air through two weeks and only safety D.J. Smith has made plays on the ball (three pass break-ups).

Redzone Defense

To go along with that bend but don’t break philosophy, South Carolina’s defense has found themselves in the redzone a lot this season. This defense has faced nine redzone possessions in two games and has only given up five scores. That’s efficient.

The defense has benefitted from two missed field goals. If it wasn’t for this number and the plus-four turnover margin, South Carolina could be staring at 0-2.

Rushing Issues

As good as Bentley and Samuel has been, this rushing attack is really struggling. After emerging as a true frosh, Rico Dowdle is having difficulties getting going in 2017. After averaging 5.7 yards per carry, Dowdle has only posted 2.9 yards per carry average and even struggled to find running room against a bad Missouri front seven. Therefore, South Carolina offensive coordinator Kurt Roper is searching for answers at running back.

The Cocks turned to sophomore Ty’Son Williams last weekend for answers. In his first game at South Carolina, the North Carolina transfer posted 78 yards on 14 carries and he may be South Carolina’s best option at running back for the rest of the year.

Offensive line is thought to be a weakness for this South Carolina team and it has shown in the rushing game as no back outside of Williams is averaging more than three yards per carry. As a team the Gamecocks are averaging 3.3 yards per carry and this currently ranks 13th in the SEC. This is another position battle Kentucky must win and expect them to see a heavy dose on Williams on Saturday.

New Kicker and Punter

Redshirt freshman Alexander Woznick has won the starting kicking job as he is replacing Elliott Fry, the school’s all-time leading scorer. After not needing him against N.C. State, Woznick went one-for-two last week at Missouri with a make from 32 yards and a miss from 33 yards. We have yet to see him from long distance, so this position is still a fairly large unknown for Muschamp’s squad.

Woznick is so far perfect on extra points but he is not used on kickoffs. Parker White, a reserve kicker and punter, has hit eight touchbacks on 12 kickoff attempts. Punter Joseph Charlton looks to be a strength as he’s averaging nearly 45 yards per attempts. Including Deebo Samuel on returns, the kicking game appears to be one of the best in the SEC, but Woznick has yet to prove he can consistently hit field goals.

Strong Showing Against South Carolina

Since arriving in Lexington, Mark Stoops is 4-0 against the spread when playing South Carolina. In 2013, UK headed to Columbia as three touchdown dogs and played an 11-win Gamecock squad to the wire. This was Jalen Whitlow’s best game as a Wildcat and Kentucky was a stop away from getting the ball back for a chance to tie tie.

The next two years resulted in straight up upset wins as Kentucky beat the Cocks at home in 2015 and upset South Carolina at Williams-Brice to send Steve Spurrier into retirement. Last year, Kentucky entered the contest as a small favorite and walked out of Lexington with a seven point win.

Each game with South Carolina has been decided by one possession. If you take out the Florida debacle from last year, some of UK’s best games under Stoops have been the team’s first game on the road. In 2013, UK took a top 15 South Carolina team to the wire. In 2014, UK headed to Florida as an 18-point dog and were robbed of a victory in overtime. In 2015, UK upset South Carolina as a touchdown dog.

Recent history tells us this will be a close game on Saturday night.

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