Grading all performances from South Carolina's road win at Vanderbilt

It was around this time two years ago when South Carolina traveled to Nashville in search of its sixth win and got it to become bowl eligible for a second straight season.

Fast forward to now, the Gamecocks entered this past Saturday in a familiar position. After only winning five games in 2023, they won their sixth game of the year on the road at Vanderbilt to earn a bowl bid for the first time since 2022.

South Carolina stormed into Nashville and picked up a 28-7 win over the Commodores. Now with six wins, the team is 6-3 (4-3 SEC) on the year with three games to play in the regular season.

Let’s grade each position group and the coaching staff and break down how they performed this weekend.

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Quarterback: A

As the season moves along, LaNorris Sellers continues to only show signs of improvement and growth. It’s remarkable how far he’s come since his first start of the season.

Sellers put together another solid performance on Saturday, completing 14-of-20 (70%) of his passes for 238 yards and two touchdowns. His downfield vision was on full display in the win as he completed six passes for at least 14 yards per play.

Specifically, the one play that has everyone talking was his insane 51-yard pass that nearly didn’t happen coming out of halftime. At his own 15-yard line, he broke away from a potential sack and rolled out to his left with some room to run. Rather than scramble for a few yards, he saw Jared Brown downfield and hit him up for the big gain.

For the second straight game, Sellers wasn’t sacked at all. He only ran for 38 yards and did have one turnover on a first quarter fumble. But he was more than productive enough to help guide the Gamecocks to a big win.

Running back: A

Saturday proved to be another fantastic game for Rocket Sanders, who finished with 178 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns. His first touchdown came two plays after Sellers’ 51-yard pass, where Sanders ran home free to the end zone for a 33-yard score.

He’d score again in the third quarter on a one-yard touchdown run to extend the lead. Then in the fourth quarter, he caught a dump off pass from Sellers and took it 43 yards for the game-icing touchdown. Whether it was the way he cut, how physical he was, how hard he ran, Sanders was nearly impossible to bring to the ground. He’s now up to 11 touchdowns on the season.

Let’s not forget about Oscar Adaway III, who quietly had a nice game as the team’s backup running back. He only ran for 34 yards on eight carries, but he had a lot of short yardage runs on early downs that made things easier for the Gamecocks to convert on third down. Adaway averaged 4.3 yards per carry.

Wide receiver: B

There weren’t any huge performances from the receivers in this game. It was much more of a collective effort and a few guys making some plays. Nyck Harbor led all receivers/tight ends with 43 yards on three catches. His big play came when he hauled in a 23-yard pass in the second quarter to put the Gamecocks in the red zone and score on the next play.

Gage Larvadain also had three catches and finished with 34 receiving yards. He caught one pass for 10 yards and another for 20. As aforementioned, Brown’s 51-yard catch from Sellers in the third quarter would be his only of the game. Vandrevius Jacobs was the only other receiver to be targeted and make a catch (one catch for six yards).

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Tight end: B+

As the offense continues to look better each game, so does Josh Simon. The sixth-year tight end caught three passes for 40 yards and hauled in a 17-yard touchdown to open the scoring.

Simon has been a great option for Sellers in the passing game as of late. This is what many expected out of him this year. He’s now up to 27 catches for 357 yards and five touchdowns this season. When he’s targeted, he makes plays. He’s averaged 13.2 yards per catch through nine games.

While Brady Hunt and Michael Smith weren’t targeted, they were both pretty good as blockers when they were on the field. As pass blockers, Hunt earned a 66.8 grade and Smith finished with a 67.4 grade, according to PFF. Their run blocking wasn’t anything great, but again, they still made enough of an impact to help in the win.

Offensive line: B+

It feels like the entire perception of the offensive line has changed within the span of two weeks. For the second straight game, South Carolina didn’t surrender a single sack. Three starting lineman finished with pass blocking grades of 72.6 or higher, which is pretty good.

While he only played 28 snaps, Tree Babalade was a major force up front, finishing with a game-high 80.1 pass blocking grade. With Josiah Thompson a little banged up, it’ll be interesting to see who starts at left tackle against Missouri this weekend. But it’s certain that Babalade should a solid chance to start after his performance.

Torricelli Simpkins III had a great game and earned SEC Co-Offensive Lineman of the Week honors. He graded out a team-high 93 percent with 11 knockdown blocks and eight pancakes. He’s been one of the best additions the team made from the transfer portal.

South Carolina finished with 452 total yards of offense, 214 rushing and 238 passing. With how well the offense is operating, the offensive line has undoubtedly played a big part in this recent string of success.

Defensive line: A

It may not have been a giant statistical performance for the defensive line, but the group was about as disruptive as it could be. Vanderbilt’s offensive line allowed 11 quarterback hurries, which made things tough on quarterback Diego Pavia.

Pavia showed some flashes with a few nice plays here and there, but he didn’t have a great game, mainly due to how often the defensive line was in the backfield. He was sacked twice, once by Kyle Kennard on a strip sack fumble and another from Bryan Thomas Jr.

Even with how banged up the unit was with guys going in and out, it was still an overall great showing. This game really showed just how strong South Carolina’s depth is and that nearly anyone can come in and make an impact.

Linebacker: A

The streak of A+ grades for the linebackers will end at two games after Saturday. But between Demetrius Knight Jr., Debo Williams, and Bam Martin-Scott, they all good performances.

Knight had seven tackles and one pass breakup. Williams had four tackles and one tackle for loss. Martin-Scott also had seven tackles and 0.5 TFL, but he made a great play in the fourth quarter to deflect a pass from Pavia in the air to turn the ball over on downs.

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Secondary: A

Outside of giving up one pass for a 33-yard gain, South Carolina’s secondary did a fantastic job of keeping Vanderbilt’s offense from finding the big play in the passing game. Of Pavia’s 16 completions, only five of them went for between 10-20 yards. Otherwise, it was a lot of short yardage passes and incompletions.

Stepping up for an injured DQ Smith, backup defensive back Peyton Williams slid into his starting role and didn’t miss a beat. He finished with seven tackles and broke up two passes, one of which came on a fourth down stop in the third quarter.

Judge Collier, Jalon Kilgore, and O’Donnell Fortune each had a pass breakup, as well, further reinforcing the point that the secondary shut down Vandy’s passing attack.

Special teams: B+

Alex Herrera missed his only field goal attempt of the day from 42 yards out in the first quarter. It’s not ideal to see him miss from that distance.

Kai Kroeger only punted twice and averaged 48 yards per punt. His game-long went for 57 yards, which went out of bounds at the one-yard line after the Commodores nearly gave the ball back to the Gamecocks on a fumble.

Coaching: A

In this recent run of success over a three-game win streak, the coaching has been very good. As always, it starts with head coach Shane Beamer, who continues to prove why he’s a great leader for this program. He’s now 10-4 as the program’s head coach during the month of November.

While offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains’ play calling might get a little too cute or fancy at times, there’s no question his offense has been way better since the bye week. Over the last two games, the Gamecocks have finished with 530 yards against Texas A&M and 452 yards against Vanderbilt. With three games to go, it’ll be interesting to see what’s next for the unit and what other tricks Loggains will have up his sleeve.

And as usual, defensive coordinator Clayton White and the defensive staff continue to put the defense in the best positions possible to be successful. South Carolina still hasn’t pitched a complete game shutout this season, but it’s getting awfully close to doing so after giving up seven points on Saturday.