Gamecocks enter the Commonwealth

Last season it was the Cats riding a 5-0 high after defeating a National Title competitor Arkansas Razorbacks in Fayetteville and dominating the rest of the schedule that headed to Columbia with a upstart #8 ranking and a outside shot to send shockwaves through the land with a victory. However, as it tunred out the Gamecocks were ready for Kentucky as they dominated the game, sent Kentucky home with a loss that spiraled into a mediocre 7-5 season.

This season, it’s the Gamecocks that will come to the Commonwealth off their best offensive performance of the season in defeating Ole Miss in the last seconds. Coach Steve Spurrier’s woes for his squad has always been consistency at quarterback, but QB Chris Smelly might be grasping the speed of the game and life in the SEC as he threw for 327 yards and three touchdowns as he won the SEC Offensive Player of the Week and set career marks on throwing, touchdowns, and completion percentage.

Although the Gamecocks seemed to have righted their season last week, Spurrier seemed unimpressed and focused in on the coming week as he said “The team played well but made to many mistakes to truly contend in the SEC Eastern Conference.”

Spurrier knows of his successes against Kentucky as he has amassed 17-0 record and has outscored Kentucky teams 40-16 per game.

“We’ve had success against Kentucky because we’ve generally had a lot better team than they did,” said Spurrier.

His past successed though, deem in no way will determine the outcome to this match up as Kentucky sophomore running back stated Thursday, “Those were previous years. This is a different year,” added tailback Derrick Locke. “I’m not saying we’re going to beat them, but you can’t go off the past. They still have to show up to play. ... Hopefully we can change that.”

And change might already be in the air as the Blue and White enter the game leading the SEC in scoring defense and are confusing offenses across the nation. It is Kentucky’s defense which MUST put points on the board for the Cats to get their first conference victory.

The defense plans to welcome back injured linebacker Micah Johnson from a sprained ankle which should add in defensive pressures and stopping the strong Carolina passing attack.

On offense, the Cats are coming off another tough outing, however the team is getting better. Although QB Mike Hartline did make some bad throws and a crucial mistake which resulted in an Alabama touchdown, he is progressing in grasping the offense. To aid in offensive production, quarterback slash receiver Randall Cobb is coming back into the lineup for the first time since injuring his ankle early in the September 13^th matchup against Middle Tennessee.

Cobb gives the Cats a different look on offense when he is in the game as he can create plays through scrambling runs as well as throw a deeper ball than Hartline. Cobb’s presence back into the line-up is CRUCIAL for Kentucky to win.

Last week, the Cats fell to the #2 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide in a close battle 17-14. However Kentucky was not satisfied with the close game and did not even take a moral victory in the narrow loss.

“Playing close was not good enough. Playing close doesn’t get you the win, playing close doesn’t get you ranked and playing close does nothing for you,” said Micah Johnson.

Johnson then added,” The mindset is to play mistake free ball and we got the mindset that we can beat anybody, so it’s a mindset to get better and eliminate the mental mistakes.” And if the Cats can eliminate the mental mistakes, the Cats might be able to come out with a key victory in a rugged SEC Eastern Conference.