GUARANTEED OR SUNDAY'S FULL CARD FREE!
Going with the Gamecocks for lots of reasons. Did you see the way their defense has played against Alabama, and against Mississippi? Well this team is good and you can't pass off them, which is a huge problem for Vanderbilt anyway who has transitioned to the spread offense which will leave standout DE Eric Norwood licking his chops to get back in the backfield. Expect a big game for the All-American as he has been held in check the last few weeks. What will help Norwood even more is Vandy's tackle Thomas Welch is out with a bummed ankle. I expect South Carolina to get a lot of three and outs as they look to revenge their recent history with Vanderbilt that has seen them lose twice. However, this is a Vanderbilt team that loss at home to Miss State?
I mentioned the two game win streak for Vanerbilt and it comes down to two things. Turnovers, USC turned the ball over 7 times in the last couple of years, but this team has only committed 9 TO's in 8 games. I really like what Stephen Garcia has brought to the table this year and although he'll be missing his WR Moe Brown he has a collective group of tall receivers that will have a distinct size advantage against the Commodores. Their three starters average the height of 6 foot 4. The issue for Vanderbilt has been red zone production and it won't improve against a good defensive team here on Saturday on the road. Vanderbilt is scoring just 68% of the time they get into the end zone and only 40% result in TD's That means that 60% of the time they get inside the 20 they leave with 0-3 points. This is way down from last season's 66% TD rate and 89% scoring rate.
Bottom line South Carolina will dominate time of possession and play solid defense winning this game by 17+ as Vanderbilt has lost the time of possession battle by 7 minutes per game.
