South Carolina football will face the Missouri Tigers at home in Columbia on Saturday. We anticipate the 11th meeting between the teams.
South Carolina Gamecocks are scheduled to face Missouri on Saturday night in Columbia. South Carolina is recovering not only from three consecutive defeats and a 2-6 record, but also from the dismissal of coach Will Muschamp.
Mike Bobo was named interim while the search for the new coach begins, and one of the decisions he has already made was to promote former Gamecocks gunman Connor Shaw to quarterback coach.
Missouri has had its own share of problems this season, mainly with games postponed due to the new coronavirus pandemic, as well as a team depleted for the same reason. Both teams will come into play with the determination to get their third win of the season, but the question is which team will have the strongest squad to do the job.
The Tigers enter this with a record of 2-3, playing for the first time since Halloween, when they were defeated by the Florida Gators, by 41-17. They have the offensive advantage over Gamecocks, although they have played three games less. Missouri averages 384 total yards, with 257 passing yards and 127 running yards per game. In contrast, South Carolina, which played eight games, averages 370 total yards per contest.
Missouri scored an average of 22.6 points per game, compared to South Carolina’s 27.3 points. However, Gamecocks allowed an average of 36.7 points per game, while Missouri allowed an average of 33 points.
Statistically, Missouri is the best team. Will this be transferred to the field?
Missouri
As mentioned above, one of Missouri’s biggest problems in getting into this game is the fact that it’s been three weeks since they entered the field, and they’re on the road the first week back. Adding that to the fact that the Tigers’ list is severely depleted because of COVID-19 doesn’t help at all.
Every week several competitions were postponed because of the pandemic and it was rumored that this game would be one of them this week, but as of Friday afternoon, the game is still set to happen.
The Tigers have two victories under their belt this season, the first in a penalty shootout over the LSU Tigers and the following week they defeated Kentucky 20-10. Connor Bazelak has 96 submissions for 1,101 yards, four passing touchdowns, a running touchdown and an interception so far this season.
Jalen Knox led the Tigers in passing yards this season, with 22 receptions for 236 yards and several players placed a passing touchdown in the books for a total of five for the team. On the offside of the offensive line, Larry Rountree III leads the team with 432 yards and four of the team’s seven touchdowns.
On the other side of the ball, Nick Bolton leads his team with 53 tackles in total, in addition to a sack, three pass deviations and a fumble recovery. Joshuah Bledsoe leads the Tigers with three sacks this season, in addition to a forced fumble, fumble recovery and four pass deflections. So far, the Missouri defense has had only one interception this season, which came from Jarvis Ware during the Florida game in which he took the ball for a 59-yard touchdown.
South Carolina
The Gamecocks had a difficult season, to tell you the truth. The team lost its first two games against Tennessee and Florida, won the next two against Vanderbilt and a defeat against Auburn, and since then has not won. South Carolina enters this game with a sequence of three consecutive defeats, major changes in the technical team, main players opting out and not much with a defensive line.
However, when a team suffers the adversity that Gamecocks endured only in the last week, it is a heads-up move whether the team will be deflated by an already difficult season, or will be motivated and determined to try and rescue the rest. of the season. This team is capable of transforming adversity into victory, it depends on the mentality of the players before they enter the field.
South Carolina’s starting quarterback Collin Hill, a graduate transferred from Colorado State, started every game this season and stayed in almost every game. He had a mediocre year with the Gamecocks posting a 59 percent completion rate and six interceptions, Hill posted 121 submissions for 1,372 yards and six touchdowns and it is unclear whether he will remain in the defender’s position with Shaw taking over as a defender.
Kevin Harris has been one of Hill’s favorite players and Harris accounts for more than half of the team’s total touchdowns in the year. The Gamecocks scored 24 touchdowns in total and Harris placed 13 running touchdowns and a reception touchdown on the books. Shi Smith was also one of Hill’s consistent targets and, in turn, the biggest target of opposing teams. He has 53 receptions for 596 yards and four touchdowns.
Gamecocks’ defensive line has been lackluster at best this season. In the last three games alone they have allowed 159 points and 1,750 yards. The defense suffered even more attacks this week after Muschamp’s shot. Jaycee Horn, Israel Mukuamu and RJ Roderick chose to leave for personal reasons or to prepare for the 2021 NFL Draft.
In addition, Aaron Sterling and Brad Johnson will miss the rest of the season due to injuries, and Makius Scott, who has not entered the field this year, is also opting out and leaving the team.
Ernest Jones leads the Gamecocks with 78 tackles in total and also put a sack and a forced fumble in the record books. Kinglsey Enagbare leads his team with five sacks and has also forced three fumbles this season. Horn and Mukuamu have two interceptions this season, while Jaylin Dickerson and Cam Smith also recorded an interception this season.
Prediction
We hope that both teams reach the field with determination and motivation to win this year’s Mayor’s Cup, a trophy given to the winner of this match, since the fields of both teams are in cities called Columbia. The teams are tied at 5-5 in the all-time series, and Gamecocks are 3-1 when playing against Tigers at home.
Whichever team you take home, the Mayor’s Cup will also take the lead in the series of all time.
The Tigers are the stronger of the two teams on both sides of the ball, but they did not have as much time to improve their weaknesses in their game. Gamecocks, on the other hand, had plenty of time to make improvements in the execution of their game plans, but for some reason, they did not improve and instead decreased. This week can break the Gamecocks losing streak and bring much needed confidence and motivation to an abused team.
This game will probably end with who has the best defense, as both offensive lines will try to place several touchdowns. Defensive coordinators must have studied their opponents’ tapes to come up with a viable game plan to prevent the other team from entering the final zone. This will be an unbalanced game or it will end on the wire, I think it will fall on the wire.
Final score: Missouri 24, South Carolina 27