Know Thy Miami Hurricanes Foe: Strengths and Weaknesses of the South Carolina Gamecocks

As the college football bowl games roll around, many teams will face unfamiliar foes. This will be the case for the Miami Hurricanes as they will take on the South Carolina Gamecocks on Saturday, December 27th at 3:30pm in the Independence Bowl.

The Canes and Gamecocks have not played since 1987 , and the two teams have only played a total of 15 times with the Canes leading the series 8-5-2.

South Carolina, like Miami, is currently 6-6 and looking to finish above .500 on the season. The Gamecocks have wins against East Carolina, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Furman, Florida and South Alabama. They have losses against Texas A&M, Missouri, Kentucky, Auburn, Tennessee and Clemson. It’s been an up and down season for the Gamecocks, with some quality wins (Georgia, Florida?) but some games that they probably shouldn’t have lost as well (Kentucky, Tennessee).

In order to become more familiar with the Canes final opponent of the 2014 season, let’s take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of this Gamecocks team.

Strengths

• Passing Offense: The Gamecocks rank #20 in the nation in passing offense with 281.4 passing yards per game. They have the SEC’s leading passer in Senior Dylan Thompson who has flown under the radar a bit this season. The Canes defense allows 184.1 pass yards per game (but played some run-heavy teams). This game will be a good test for the Canes pass defense. South Carolina’s offensive line is below average when it comes to protecting the quarterback, so it will be very important for the Canes to put pressure on Thompson to get him off his game.
• 1st Down Offense: South Carolina is good at getting first downs and rank #25 in the nation. Out of 289 first downs, 126 came from running the ball, 140 from the pass, and 23 from penalties. The Canes are #41 in first down defense, so they will need to step it up a bit. Again, Miami can’t afford to get pushed around in the trenches if they want to win this game.
• Total Offense: Are you starting to see a trend here? Because I am. The offense is the obvious strength of this South Carolina team. They rank #30 in total offense and put up 450.8 yards per game, averaging 6.13 yards per play. This is where most Cane fans start to cringe because the defense has been known to show its’ ugly face at times. The Miami defense is actually ranked #14, allowing 327.6 yards per game and 4.73 yards per play. Stats don’t tell the whole story here. The aggressive Canes defense will need to show up and the conservative Canes defense can stay home.
• Redzone Offense: More offense? Yep. The Gamecocks are really good in the redzone as well. They rank #33 and score 87.5% of the time that they get into the redzone. Out of 48 redzone attempts, they scored 42 times, with 17 coming from the rush, 14 from the pass and 11 from field goals. The Canes redzone defense isn’t very good (ranked #68). The best case scenario is to keep the Gamecocks out of the redzone completely or hold them to a field goal. I know, easier said than done.
• Scoring Offense: Quarterback Dylan Thompson, Running Back Mike Davis and company can put up some points. They put up 33.3 points per game to be exact, which is good for #35 in the nation. The Hurricane defense allows 24.3 points per game. This game could very well be a shootout as the South Carolina defense is terrible (read the weaknesses below…).

Weaknesses

• Team Sacks: The Gamecocks average 1 sack per game (12 total) which is #118 in the country. This bodes well for Brad Kaaya and an offensive line that has been depleted by injuries. When opposing defenses hit Kaaya often, he played pretty poorly, which is understandable. The South Carolina defensive line shouldn’t present too much of a problem here which gives Kaaya the green light to sling it.
• Kickoff Returns: This will be a game of poor special teams play. South Carolina averages 18.78 yards on kickoff returns which is good for #111 in the nation. Sounds promising for the Canes, right? Wrong! The Canes kickoff return defense is ranked #115 and allows 24.53 yards per return. It will still be nice for the Canes to face off against an equally bad special teams.
• Kickoff Return Defense: It’s hard to believe the Canes may have met their match with poor special teams play. The Gamecocks rank #108 on kickoff return defense allowing 22.97 yards per return and have allowed 2 kickoff returns for touchdowns. The Canes average 20.39 yards per return and have not returned a kickoff for a touchdown yet this year. Could this be the game that Stacy Coley returns one to the house? It’ll sure be a good opportunity.
• Rushing Defense: Duke Johnson is licking his chops. The Gamecocks rank #107 in rushing defense and allow 214.4 rushing yards per game and 5.43 yards per rush. The only defense the Canes played that was worse versus the rush was North Carolina, a game in which Duke had 177 yards on 19 carries (9.32 yds/carry) and 3 touchdowns. I’d expect a similar, if not better, game from Duke as he has some extra motivation in what could be his last collegiate football game.
• Redzone Defense: The whole Canes offense is licking their chops. This South Carolina defense allows scores in the redzone 87.5% of the time. Out of 56 redzone trips, opponents have scored 49 times, 23 from the rush, 11 from the pass, and 15 from field goals. Again, the only team worse in the redzone that the Canes have played is a North Carolina team that Miami put 47 points on. As long as Miami takes care of the football in the redzone they should put points on the board in abundance.

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As I stated earlier, I expect this game to be a shootout, but it’s a shootout that Miami should win. The only way I see that changing is if the Canes turn the ball over more than once. If Miami takes care of the ball, they win 42-35. The Canes have a great chance to win their first bowl game since 2006.