National reactions from South Carolina's loss to Vanderbilt
On Saturday, South Carolina took on Vanderbilt in front of a sold-out Williams-Brice Stadium crowd. When the final whistle blew, those stands were no longer full. The Commodores ended the Gamecocks’ 16-game series winning streak with a 31-7 thumping.
Injuries and officiating were storylines in this one, but Shane Beamer’s team never could gain any traction. The offense had a great opening drive and was not good after that. The defense struggled to tackle. Even before starting quarterback LaNorris Sellers left the game, things weren’t looking good for the team’s chances.
With the game in prime time and both teams undefeated coming in, plenty of eyes were on Columbia. Below are some of the national reactions to the loss.
The Fan Upstate radio host Cole Bryson said that the Gamecocks “got whooped” against Vanderbilt, especially in the trenches.
University of South Carolina alum and former The State and Post and Courier reporter Avery Wilkes had strong words for his alma mater’s football team.
Popular college football social media account “Sickos Committee” suffered from some short-term amnesia from watching the ugly performance.
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During their Saturday night reaction show, On3 national analysts Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman spoke a little about South Carolina-Vanderbilt. Staples made it clear that Sellers’ injury wasn’t what caused the Vanderbilt win. Instead, he gave the Commodores lots of credit. “If you can go into that environment–Williams-Brice Stadium at night–against a very talented team, and dominate them like that: I’m not counting Vandy out of any game they play.”
When Vanderbilt went ahead 31-7, Barstool Sports’ Brandon Walker reveled in the Gamecocks’ misery. Walker has been a strong critic of South Carolina in recent years.
Not that it mattered much for the outcome of the game, but the officiating was very bad. Missed penalties, questionable calls, and delayed flags hurt both teams, but the Gamecocks seemed to be on the wrong end of more of the poor refereeing on Saturday. CBS Sports’ Brad Crawford noted one instance in which the officials missed a targeting on LaNorris Sellers (one that knocked him out of the game), and then blew the next play dead to review for targeting, negating an explosive USC play (and, potentially, a touchdown) in the process.
Following the game, Michael Bratton, host of That SEC Podcast, updated his SEC power rankings. South Carolina slotted in at No. 13 in the conference. That marks a big drop from the preseason when he ranked the Gamecocks 7th.