Pleased with the game today

18IsTheMan · Sep 5, 2026

We may or may not be a good team, but the result is what you would expect from a good team. No evident glaring deficiencies so far. I haven't noticed the OL, which is a good thing. No real self-inflicted wounds or stupid plays.

I take the result with a grain of salt, given the level of competition. We'll face far tougher teams and we may have glaring deficiencies all over the place. But it's at least a step forward from last season that this has been a complete effort.

sclawman77 · Sep 5, 2026

Agree. Will definitely take it. We'll have a better idea in a couple weeks of how good we are but nice to take care of business.

SouthernBelly · Sep 5, 2026

OL play was much improved. I like how all the RB’s ran. No one went down easy. Defense put up a shutout. Great game in many respects. Really like that they got to work down the depth chart and didn’t wait until late to do so.

18 agree with the grain of salt but also very glad they handled a lower tier opponent as one would think an SEC team can.

The most glaring problem was having difficulty discerning if I actually had the right game on TV. It said SC vs Kent St but the jersey color was saying otherwise.

DeBoer31 · Sep 5, 2026

Very pleased with everything. I think our offense will be what we lean on this year. Beyond excited about the offense.
I know what everyone will say about the level of competition....but if you guys know anything about football you know how this offense scales. It works and can compete vs. ANY and everybody.

Some teams will out talent us and make it look more mundane....but that happens to every offense. This offense gives us a chance. Just like SOSs and Morrison bringing in the run n shoot ahead of most others trying it in the 80s.

Cockofdawn · Sep 5, 2026

Defense played lights out, apparently their QB was really good b

18IsTheMan · Sep 5, 2026

Nothing really to nipick from this one. The announcers kept talking about Seller's 4 misses, but that's all they had to say "bad".

Lurker123 · Sep 5, 2026

Missed it. Didn't even get to listen. Reading about it though sounds like just what we needed to do.

Thunderstick · Sep 5, 2026

18IsTheMan said:
We may or may not be a good team, but the result is what you would expect from a good team. No evident glaring deficiencies so far. I haven't noticed the OL, which is a good thing. No real self-inflicted wounds or stupid plays.

I take the result with a grain of salt, given the level of competition. We'll face far tougher teams and we may have glaring deficiencies all over the place. But it's at least a step forward from last season that this has been a complete effort.

I think a glaring deficiency was Sellers under throwing open receivers.

Myrtlecock · Sep 5, 2026

If you look at our history playing down to the competition. Our history of needing a miracle or close to it to win games like this. If you look at our history of losing games against lower tiered opponents.
If you noticed how hard we struggled to have any creativity with our running game over Beamer's tenure...

If you are aware of all those things you're pretty damn happy with the outcome today. It don't mean squat once we line up against Alabama in a couple of weeks, but I'll take it for today.

RL09 · Sep 5, 2026

absolutely pleased with this game, I thought the team played exceptionally well. I liked the play calling and execution on offense. I thought the OL looked much improved, I noticed OL players down field blocking. Sure it was Kent State, but this is how you are supposed to blowout such teams, awesome game, go gamecocks!

Cockring · Sep 5, 2026

Much improved and actually better that I expected! This is what can happen when you hire legitimate coaches and coordinators.

JohnnySolo · Sep 5, 2026

Helmets were a nice throwback

PrestonyteParrot · Sep 5, 2026

We did what we were supposed to do which can be considered an improvement over past stumbles against lesser opponents. Really don't have a negative and give it an A effort.

Sellers threw the ball well as did Woods.
Sellers only ran the ball twice

RB's ran hard and vertical
WR's got separation and caught the ball well
Defense allowed some 1st downs early but obviously played very well with a shutout

18IsTheMan · Sep 5, 2026

Thunderstick said:
I think a glaring deficiency was Sellers under throwing open receivers.

He missed 4 throws in the game. I'll take an 82.6 completion percentage.

18IsTheMan · Sep 5, 2026

Brad Crawford posted on X during the game (just now saw it) that our OL was getting pushed around by Kent St.

It looked perfectly to me by the time I turned the game on.

cocksx5 · Sep 5, 2026

hate to b downer but come on schedule Tulsa Miami Ohio hell Ohio . Towson blown out by navy today so after 2 games what will we know??? give kudos to oregon playing Boise st yes won vs team like furman way should, but 2 nd opponent should have been more legit, otherwise glorified practice.

18IsTheMan · Sep 5, 2026

cocksx5 said:
hate to b downer but come on schedule Tulsa Miami Ohio hell Ohio . Towson blown out by navy today so after 2 games what will we know??? give kudos to oregon playing Boise st yes won vs team like furman way should, but 2 nd opponent should have been more legit, otherwise glorified practice.

Everyone gets 2 cakewalk game to schedule. Oregon plays Portland State in a couple weeks. They lost to Tarleton State 42-0 last year.

Psycock · Sep 5, 2026

We looked polished to me. Only 1 false start by OL I think, no holding calls. I realize they were a lesser opponent but we appeared to have very few silly mistakes. I thought Sellers looked much better. One of the misses was one Mazeo should have caught but he made up for it.

Thunderstick · Sep 6, 2026

18IsTheMan said:
He missed 4 throws in the game. I'll take an 82.6 completion percentage.

Are you overlooking the fact he badly missed on four "gimmes"?

PrestonyteParrot · Sep 6, 2026

Thunderstick said:
Are you overlooking the fact he badly missed on four "gimmes"?

If you're looking for perfection, good luck on that.

DeBoer31 · Sep 6, 2026

cocksx5 said:
hate to b downer but come on schedule Tulsa Miami Ohio hell Ohio . Towson blown out by navy today so after 2 games what will we know??? give kudos to oregon playing Boise st yes won vs team like furman way should, but 2 nd opponent should have been more legit, otherwise glorified practice.

absolutely false. Kent St is an FBS team. This is what is done when you play in the SEC. You have to have "lesser" non conf. opponents. We don't play in the ACC or Big 12, Pac 12. Those confs need to schedule better /top tier non conf. opponents because of weaker conf. play.

Thunderstick · Sep 6, 2026

PrestonyteParrot said:
If you're looking for perfection, good luck on that.

Perfection shouldn't be out of the question against Kent State. Missing open receivers four times is disappointing. Against SEC teams those misses may have been INTs.

kidrobinski · Sep 6, 2026

cocksx5 said:
hate to b downer but come on schedule Tulsa Miami Ohio hell Ohio . Towson blown out by navy today so after 2 games what will we know??? give kudos to oregon playing Boise st yes won vs team like furman way should, but 2 nd opponent should have been more legit, otherwise glorified practice.

A. Respect your opponent; they have put in the work and prepared just like us so they can play the game. Worry about what the fan will ‘know’ is not a huge focal point.
B. A bit of padding and glorified practice in an SEC team’s schedule is necessary and deserved. They more than make up for it with practice against themselves.

But I suspect you know this already.

RL09 · Sep 6, 2026

I do miss the games against teams like NC State and UNC, however I think these first games are good for us this year. I think this gave our new coaches the opportunity to see what the team can do live rather than just practice. Furthermore, I think our offense looked phenomenal, I was really pleased with what I saw. Sure there was a missed pass here and there, but my goodness what an improved performance offensively. I thought both Sellers and Woods looked really good out there, especially for the first game and with a new OC. I thought our running game looked awesome and was truly great to see our backs get it going like that, Go Gamecocks!

kidrobinski · Sep 6, 2026

Most refreshing for me was logical play calling; third down plays designed to pick up a first down, move the sticks, instead of some exotic weirdness or grab bag play.

Piscis · Sep 6, 2026

Team looked good overall. It is hard to take much away from playing such an overmatched opponent. Next week won't really tell us any more.

MSSt may not be a good SEC team, but they will have talent at least close to the level we have.

Psycock · Sep 6, 2026

I don`t agree that he "badly missed" on 4 incompletions out of 23. They were underthrown, yes, other than one when the receiver cut inside and the ball went outside - clearly a lack of communication there. One of the throws to Harbor they reviewed. Bennett could have easily caught one of them. Last year he threw too high usually when he missed. Most of the game yesterday he was on the money imo.

18IsTheMan · Sep 6, 2026

I was also glad to see we had sustained drives. It wasn't just big plays.

18IsTheMan · Sep 6, 2026

Psycock said:
I don`t agree that he "badly missed" on 4 incompletions out of 23. They were underthrown, yes, other than one when the receiver cut inside and the ball went outside - clearly a lack of communication there. One of the throws to Harbor they reviewed. Bennett could have easily caught one of them. Last year he threw too high usually when he missed. Most of the game yesterday he was on the money imo.

Yeah, the one to Mazeo was one that could have been caught. We're obviously nitpicking about 4 passes out of 23, but I'd take that one off Sellers.

kidrobinski · Sep 6, 2026

18IsTheMan said:
Yeah, the one to Mazeo was one that could have been caught. We're obviously nitpicking about 4 passes out of 23, but I'd take that one off Sellers.

I think the edible was kicking in with Bennett in that series; he more or less blurted downfield before the snap on the very next play.

18IsTheMan · Sep 8, 2026

We did have 2 fumbles that we recovered, so no harm done, but that can come back to bite down the road if the bounces don't go your way.

gamecockengineer2011 · Sep 8, 2026

The team looked well prepared, well coached, and seemed like they were having fun. Something we cant always say about them during season openers.

Pleased with the game today

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