The juice left the stands early, but stayed on the field to celebrate long after.
Former South Carolina receiver Antwane “Juice” Wells Jr. made his highly-anticipated return to Columbia with No. 12 Ole Miss, but the game was a glorified practice as the visitors smashed through the Gamecocks 27-3, making light work of what some billed as a tricky road test the week after a loss.
You would never know Ole Miss (5-1, 1-1 SEC) lost last week by the performance, thoughAnd you surely would never understand how South Carolina (3-2, 1-2 SEC) had an SEC win at all based on its completely listless performance.
It was an atrocious showing on the field, but certainly not helped from the sideline, either. Shane Beamer had arguably his worst day as South Carolina head coach, starting off with a questionable decision to fake a punt on fourth-and-1 on the first offensive drive of the game. Tight end Maurice Brown II could not get back to the line of scrimmage, and Ole Miss immediately made Beamer pay for his decision with a quick strike touchdown drive capped off when Henry Parrish Jr. rushed in from three yards out.
If it had been the only questionable moment, you might be able to overlook it. But it was one of several, all of which led directly to Ole Miss points.
Just moments later with some positive momentum going on a drive, the Gamecocks decided to go with a two-quarterback look. Robby Ashford checked in, LaNorris Sellers split out to a wide receiver look, and seconds later Ole Miss had possession as Ashford dropped the snap straight into the arms of waiting defensive tackle Walter Nolen.
Two motions of trickery in six minutes, two changes of possession, two disasters. Defensive tackle J.J. Pegues scored in a goal-line package to make it 14-0, handing the Gamecocks their largest deficit of the season just over nine minutes of game time after running out of the tunnel.
Largest deficit, so far.
One of the few highlights of the day for South Carolina’s defense was a Kyle Kennard sack on first-and-10, a play where the Georgia Tech transfer muscled through a holding call to take down Jaxson Dart. Staring at a possible second-and-17 and with the clock ticking inside the final two minutes of the half, Ole Miss might’ve had its drive stalled.
Beamer elected to accept the penalty, giving Ole Miss an extra down and stopping the clock in exchange for three yards. The extra down yielded a 41-yard completion which set up another Pegues touchdown, and all but ended the game with a 24-3 score before halftime.
Sure, the Gamecocks looked overmatched in every area of the field. Receivers never separated. Both lines of scrimmage were wholly overmatched by the big, bruising fronts from Oxford. The Ole Miss receivers found spacious pastures over the top against both corners. And yet another undisciplined performance from South Carolina led to eight penalties for 80 yards, bringing the total for the team through five games to an astounding 376 penalty yards in just five games.
A poor coaching performance, a poor display of execution and by the end of the day, a sparsely full stadium other than the pockets of powder blue Missippians engulfing the southeast corner of the once spirited garnet crowd.
And perhaps out of a once spirited season, with two losses on the board and road trips to Alabama and Oklahoma lurking over the horizon.
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