Bio Blast: South Carolina Gamecocks

South Carolina is in year three under Shane Beamer, and this SEC East program is fighting for its postseason life. After a 2-6 start, the Gamecocks have won consecutive November home games using a late pick-six to put away Jacksonville State and putting together their best performance of the season in a 47-6 win over Vanderbilt in Week 11. This team has some momentum for the first time since September.

Kentucky is going to walk into a rowdy environment at Williams-Brice Stadium. The Wildcats are 3-1 in Columbia in their last four trips and will be looking to add another victory. Carolina will be looking to record another big home win under Beamer to set up a big clash with rival Clemson next weekend.

Let’s take a closer at where this South Carolina team stands entering the final two weeks of the season.

Pass-heavy operation

Former NFL offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains is in his first season calling plays at South Carolina, and he is running a pass-heavy operation in year one. The former assistant at Arkansas who spent a couple of seasons with Kendal Briles has brought some tempo to South Carolina and is asking a lot of redshirt senior quarterback Spencer Rattler.

The Gamecocks enter Saturday ranking No. 16 nationally and lead the SEC in pass-play percentage (56.32%). Those numbers are even bigger when you consider that Rattler’s sack rate (9.1%) is one of the highest marks in the SEC. Loggains uses a heavy dose of 11 personnel and asks Rattler to make a lot of throws.

South Carolina is very much a quick-pass operation as Rattler’s average depth of target (7.5) is the fourth-lowest in the Power Five. Only Graham Mertz (6.8) attempts shorter passes than Rattler. The Gamecocks want to get the ball out quickly and create yards after catch.

The passing game enters Saturday ranking No. 26 in success rate and No. 30 in EPA/play. Rattler is completing over 70 percent of his passes and is the engine that drives this offense. Xavier Legette (59 receptions on 78 targets, 1,093 yards, 5 touchdowns) is the clear WR1. Legette has six games of 100-plus receiving yards this season and is being force-fed the football.

To slow down South Carolina, you must slow down this precision-based passing attack. That means making tackles in space because the ball is getting out fast to players on the perimeter, and throws are not hitting the grass.

Bad defense

Third-year defensive coordinator Clayton White has never truly gotten things rolling since leaving WKU for South Carolina. This year has been more of the same as South Carolina appears to be fielding this program’s worst defense in quite some time.

The Gamecocks enter Saturday with some very poor rankings across the board.

• Yards Per Play: 76
• SP+: 81
• Success Rate: 87
• Points Per Drive: 96
• Yards Per Pass: 104

South Carolina has played eight Power Five offenses this season. Six of them have scored 30-plus points with Florida and Tennessee each going over 40 points. The pass defense has been a huge weakness. Every Power Five offense but Vanderbilt averaged at least 7.5 yards per attempt. The defense is a problem.

The Gamecocks have a productive pass rush (30.4%), but the secondary is being picked apart in the backend. This is a defense that struggles to get stops and needed a scoring opportunity turnover to prevent a go-ahead score from Jacksonville State late.

South Carolina will be the worst defense that Kentucky has seen since Vanderbilt.

Line of scrimmage problems

The South Carolina offensive line was a major issue in the Week 1 loss to North Carolina. The Gamecocks currently have true freshmen starting at right guard and left tackle. Throughout the season, there have been numerous lineup combinations. This has remained the biggest weakness of the team.

Carolina enters Week 12 allowing a 35.8 percent pressure rate, and ranks dead last in the SEC in line yards per rush (2.78). The Gamecocks have allowed an extremely high havoc rate (20.5%) due mostly to the bad line of scrimmage play. Mario Anderson (645 yards, 5.5 yards per rush) has given the run game some life in recent weeks, but the Gamecocks are getting less than three yards per rush from every other tailback on the roster.

The offensive line is a problem in Columbia. When this offense stalls out, it is likely because the defense has a point-of-attack advantage.