Final News and Notes: Vandy coach anticipates Gamecocks QB starter

We might not know the identity of South Carolina’s starting quarterback until shortly before Thursday night’s 8 p.m. kickoff at Vanderbilt, but Commodores coach Derek Mason has been down this road before and he has a sense which direction the Gamecocks will go.

As a defensive coordinator, Mason knows in a tightly contested battle offensive coaches will usually pick the more experienced quarterback to direct the offense at the outset of a game.

ALSO SEE: Key questions: Sorting through the unknowns | Breaking down the keys to South Carolina vs. Vanderbilt

In USC’s situation, fifth-year senior Perry Orth is not only four years older than true freshmen Brandon McIlwain and Jake Bentley, he also has eight SEC starts under his belt, four on the road at such inhospitable places like Georgia, LSU, Texas A&M and Tennessee.

Just over 24 hours before kickoff, Mason anticipated Orth will get the starting nod for the Gamecocks. Orth’s only win as the starting quarterback last season came against Vanderbilt at Williams-Brice Stadium.

Orth completed 17 of 28 passes for 272 yards and one touchdown in the Gamecocks’ emotional 19-10 win that came two weeks after catastrophic flooding in Columbia and only five days after Steve Spurrier resigned as coach, handing the job to interim head coach Shawn Elliott.

“What you have to believe is the guy that has game starts and game reps is going to be the starter,” Mason said Wednesday on the SEC weekly teleconference. “Having gone through a quarterback carousel before (at Vanderbilt), you try to look at the guy that has experience and has won games. If they choose to go the young route, we’ll make that adjustment.”

South Carolina also features an entirely new coaching staff from the one that faced Vanderbilt last year in Columbia. Mason, though, has watched plenty of film of Kurt Roper’s offense and insists the Vanderbilt coaches will quickly get a feel for what the Gamecocks are doing on both sides of the ball.

“We’re just going to have to adjust when this game starts,” Mason said. “The first 15 plays will tell us who they are offensively and defensively, and a couple of series of special teams. Football is about making adjustments. You can watch all the film you want, but until you’re involved in the game, you have no idea. We’ll be prepared. We’ll go and play and whatever they give us, we’ll work to handle (it) and make adjustments. Then let’s line up and play again. We have to put our guys in position to play well.”

Possibly facing a make-or-break season in Nashville, Mason contends Vanderbilt is a more mature football team than a year ago at this time when it opened with a 14-12 home loss to Western Kentucky.

“We’re more mature in how we’ve handled the task at hand,” Mason said. “This group has learned how to work. A year ago, we were trying to learn how to compete. These guys now compete every day. All I can ask of these guys is make sure they focus and they understand what the job description is and they do their job. From what I can tell, they’ve done a pretty good job of doing just that. But we’ll find out soon.”

ALSO SEE: Former Carolina defender Matt O'Brien previews Vanderbilt's offense and defense | Five predictions for South Carolina's season opener

COLLABORATIVE REPLAY DEBUTS THURSDAY: After significant discussion, the SEC implements a collaborative process for instant replay in football Thursday night in two season-opening games: Appalachian State at Tennessee (7:30 p.m., SEC Network) and South Carolina at Vanderbilt (8 p.m., ESPN). Under this upgraded system for instant replay reviews, personnel operating from SEC Headquarters will assist the in-stadium Instant Replay Officials when replay decisions are made.

“Our goal is to continue to use the best-available resources to support correct outcomes when instant replay is used,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said upon approval of the initiative. “We believe the collaborative effort, which will involve additional officiating experts during replay reviews, will enhance the Conference’s football officiating program. I believe this update to the instant replay review process will better support football officiating in the SEC through the use of technology.”

Under the upgraded replay system, the SEC will relay two video feeds back to the central review location at league headquarters – both the live program feed and a live view of the replay official’s monitor at each SEC stadium. The Video Center and the in-stadium replay booth will also capture both team camera feeds, which will give more immediate resources to the replay process and better, more efficient post game procedures.

The SEC Video Center at the league’s headquarters in Birmingham will be staffed each week by three collaborative replay officials who will communicate with the in-stadium replay official to determine results of official reviews. In addition, individual technicians will be assigned to monitor each game in the Video Center.

WEATHER FORECAST: Partly cloudy skies with temperatures in the low 80s with a zero percent chance of precipitation are expected at kickoff. Temperatures will dip into the low 70s by the game's conclusion around 11:15 p.m. ET.

NOTES:

-- The SEC blog at ESPN.com says Vanderbilt running back Ralph Webb is one of the things to watch in Week 1: “He might be the most underrated running back in the SEC, with more than 2,000 total rushing yards the last two seasons. But don’t expect him to fly under the radar on primetime Thursday night. South Carolina’s defense, absent star linebacker Skai Moore, could be ripe for the picking.”

-- The Gamecocks are No. 10 in the ESPN.com’s SEC preseason QB Stability ranking: “Down the road, the Gamecocks will rank higher on this list. True freshmen Brandon McIlwain and Jake Bentley both have star potential. But playing well now will be a tall order, particularly with limited skill talent around them. McIlwain and senior Perry Orth are both slated to play Thursday against Vanderbilt.”

-- CollegeFootballNews.com predicts a 20-17 victory for the Gamecocks over Vanderbilt: “Both teams are pretty much alike in terms of style and substance. Vanderbilt has the more experienced and stronger D, while South Carolina has more upside on offense. There won’t be anything pretty about this other than it’s an SEC game that matters on a Thursday night to start the season, and it’s going to be intense. The team that makes the fewer mistakes wins, and stunningly, considering the youth across the board, that’ll be the Gamecocks.”

-- Muschamp said the Gamecocks will not elect permanent team captains until the season is over. Game captains will be appointed each week during the season.

-- Muschamp on starting the season on a Thursday night, which became a tradition under Steve Spurrier: “It’s great exposure for our program. We approach this like a Saturday. We’ve got a little extra preparation for the next game.”

-- Muschamp on so many young Gamecock players finally getting their feet wet Thursday night: “You never know how some of these guys are going to respond when they run out of the tunnel. I may be beating some of them out of the tunnel. You don’t ever know how a young man is going to respond. He’s never been in that situation, been on national TV, in a conference road game, in a somewhat uncomfortable situation. You have an idea. You try and simulate game day as much as you can, but you can’t ever do that. That’s what’s exciting about it. That’s what’s fun about it.”

-- The Week 1 schedule in the SEC is spread out over five days and features three intriguing matchups with the ACC, two with the Pac-12 and one each with the Big 10 and Big 12:

Thur., Sept. 1

Appalachian State at Tennessee, 7:30 p.m. (SEC Network)

South Carolina at Vanderbilt, 8 p.m. (ESPN)

Saturday, Sept. 3

Missouri at West Virginia, Noon (FS1)

South Alabama at Mississippi State, Noon (SEC Network)

LSU vs. Wisconsin (at Green Bay, WI), 3:30 p.m. (ABC)

UCLA at Texas A&M, 3:30 p.m. (CBS)

Louisiana Tech at Arkansas, 4 p.m. (SEC Network)

Georgia vs. North Carolina (at Atlanta), 5:30 p.m. (ESPN)

Southern Miss at Kentucky, 7:30 p.m. (ESPNU)

UMass at Florida, 7:30 p.m. (SEC Network)

Alabama vs. Southern California (at Arlington, Tex.), 8 p.m. (ABC)

Clemson at Auburn, 9 p.m. (ESPN)

Monday, Sept. 5

Ole Miss vs. Florida State (at Orlando), 8 p.m. (ESPN)

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