South Carolina led 31-14 late in the third quarter. What transpired next was the worst quarter of Gamecock football under Will Muschamp's tenure. Here are five takeaways from a disappointing performance in Gainesville.
1. This defense is the worst in years
There’s no way to hide it. Florida’s offense is poor at best. Yet the Gators ran the ball over 60 times for nearly 375 yards. There was nothing special about what Florida did. Sure, there were some well-designed plays here and there, but mostly the Gators just ran the ball straight at South Carolina’s porous defense.
There’s no excuse for an SEC defense to tackle as poorly as South Carolina’s did in the latter part of Saturday’s game. It may be beyond repair at this point as the coaching staff clearly thought it was against Florida. The only logical reason the Gamecock coaching staff would have gone that conservative on offense is if they didn’t believe the defense could stop the Gators. That turned out to be the wrong call as well which we will discuss later.
Florida was not stopped after the 6:40 mark of the third quarter. It was an horrible performance.
2. The luck ran out
South Carolina has been the beneficiary of several favorable bounces and calls this season, none more so than the non-fumble call on the goalline against Tennessee. Saturday, that changed.
Trailing 31-14 late in the third quarter, the Gators were forced to go to the air on third and long. Feleipe Franks misfired on a pass short of the sticks, but when batted in the air, Trevon Graham came down with it beyond the first down line. Then, he fumbled — or not. The referees signaled that a whistle was blown and the play was dead before Jaycee Horn ran the fumble back inside the Gator 20.
The play was already fortunate for Florida before the questionable call which, in my opinion, was clearly wrong. There was no called replay and the Gators maintained possession. It was downhill from there as the Gators scored a touchdown on the drive, their first of 21 unanswered points.
Also see: Photos from Gainesville
3. Bentley the Passer > Bentley the Quarterback
Jake Bentley had a phenomenal game as a passer before the final drive. However, without raining too much on an otherwise good performance, Bentley’s decision-making in the read game left much to be desired.
By my unofficial count, South Carolina ran seven RPO or zone read plays on the final three drives. Bentley made the incorrect decision on six of them. What was mistaken for conservative play calling” (at least at first) was ultimately Bentley choosing to hand the ball off instead of pulling the ball back and throwing it. The health of Bryan Edwards and Deebo Samuel — who was targeted once after his career-long 89-yard catch in the third quarter — played a part in that, but Bentley needed to both pull the ball back and throw on RPOs and keep the ball on zone reads to keep the Florida defense guessing.
He didn’t, and the defense was able to key on the run in the late stages of the game.
4. The Gamecocks are incapable of putting teams away
First, I’ll point out that this team does not give up, as seen numerous times this season. However, the Gamecocks can’t play with a lead. Whether it’s the coaching staff going conservative and throwing off the balance that gave them the lead or the receivers dropping the few passes they see, South Carolina tightens up when it plays with the lead.
At this point, Gamecocks fans feel more comfortable when playing from behind. The Gamecocks were in the perfect position to start the fourth quarter. Up 31-14 against a team that for all intents and purposes has no passing attack, the Gamecocks still found a way to surrender the lead to a team that threw two passes the entire fourth quarter.
Again, that’s unacceptable.
Also See: Muschamp addresses play calling
5. Muschamp and McClendon may have undone all the good will they’d built on offense
With about 3:00 left in the third quarter, I mentioned aloud that if Bryan McClendon’s name was Matt Canada or Kendall Briles, he’d have received no criticism the entire season. Frankly, he’s been the best offensive coordinator the Gamecocks have had in recent memory.
And all of that may be undone now. Whether it was Will Muschamp’s or McClendon’s idea to abandon the pass in the fourth quarter, it was the wrong call. Add to that the decision to pack it in with a minute left and two timeouts at the end of the first half and you have two inexplicably conservative decisions as a road underdog. The Gamecocks let the Gators back in the game with the combination of horrible play calling and bad execution.
At this point, I’m not sure if this staff can regain the fan base’s trust any time soon.
