The Missouri Tigers (7-2, 3-2 SEC) played a thrilling game, coming back late to beat Oklahoma on a scoop-and-score with 30 seconds left, keeping the hopes of a College Football Playoff appearance alive.

Now to keep the dream alive, they’ll have to face off with South Carolina.

The Gamecocks (6-3, 4-3 SEC) comes in hot on a three-game win streak, beating Oklahoma 35-9, now-No. __ Texas A&M 44-20 and Vanderbilt 28-7.

The Gamecock’s three losses have come to LSU (36-33), Ole Miss (27-3) and Alabama (27-25).

South Carolina opened as a 10-point favorite according to Circa Sports.

Here’s a glance at South Carolina and what Missouri will face at 3:15 p.m. central time Saturday as the Tigers vie for the Mayor’s Cup.

When: 3:15 p.m. CT, Saturday.

Where: Williams-Brice Stadium, Columbia, S.C.

TV: SEC Network

Radio: Tiger Radio Network

Missouri leads the all-time series 9-5 and has won the past five matchups by an average of 13 points.

All but two of the games in the series have come since Missouri joined the SEC. The first two battles were Missouri bowl wins in 1979 (24-14 in the Hall of Fame classic) and 2005 (38-31 in the Independence Bowl).

South Carolina’s last win in the series was a 37-35 win in South Carolina in 2018.

Scoring offense: 30.22 (No. 53)

Scoring defense: 17.56 (No. 12)

Rushing offense: 180.7 (No. 45)

Rushing defense: 107.2 (No. 14)

Passing offense: 198.2 (No. 98)

Passing defense: 194.1 (No. 32)

OFFENSE

LaNorris Sellers, QB

The redshirt freshman has shined in his first season at the helm of the Gamecock offense. He stands at 6-foot, 3-inches, 242-pounds and has completed 115-of-187 (61.5 percent) of his passes for 1,450 yards and nine touchdowns with four interceptions. He has also rushed for 391 yards and four touchdowns on 112 carries.

He’s played in eight of the team’s nine games this season, missing the Gamecocks’ 50-7 win against Akron in Week 4 because of an ankle sprain he suffered against LSU.

His best passing game came against Alabama when he completed 23-of-31 (74.2 percent) of his passes for 238 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.

But against Texas A&M, he completed 13-of-27 (48.1 percent) of his passes for 244 yards and two touchdowns to go with 106 rushing yards and a touchdown. He also reached 50+ rushing yards against Old Dominion, LSU and Ole Miss.

He has passed for more than 200 yards three of the past four games, only failing to reach the mark against Oklahoma.

Raheim Sanders, RB

After spending three years as one of the SEC’s best running backs at Arkansas, the 6-0, 230-pound senior transferred to South Carolina, where he has amassed 696 rushing yards on 131 carries with 10 touchdowns to go with 208 receiving yards on 16 catches with one score through the air.

His average of 77.3 rushing yards per game has him fifth in the SEC, while his 10 rushing scores ties him for third in the conference.

After taking one carry for one yard against Akron, Sanders exited the game and did not return, but he has played in all nine games this season.

He returned the following week and took only eight carries for 29 yards, but since then he has had performances of 16-for-78 and one touchdown (vs. Alabama), 15-for-33 and one touchdown (vs. Oklahoma), 20-for-144 and two touchdowns (vs. Texas A&M) and 15-for-126 and two touchdowns (vs. Vanderbilt).

The game against Texas A&M was by far his best this year as he added five catches for 92 yards through the air.

His receiving touchdown came last week when he added two catches for 52 yards against Vanderbilt.

So he has 394 total yards the past two games.

Joshua Simon, Mazeo Bennett Jr., PASS CATCHERS

Simon, a 6-4, 259-pound sixth-year tight end is the Gamecocks’ leading receiver at 39.7 yards per game. He has 27 catches for 357 yards (13.2 per catch) and five touchdowns.

His best performance by far was against Texas A&M when he had four catches for 132 yards and two touchdowns.

Otherwise, he hasn’t reached 50 yards in a game this season.

Bennett, a 5-11, 185-pound freshman receiver has 21 catches for 289 yards and three touchdowns. He averages 13.8 yards per catch and 32.1 yards per game.

His best game was against Akron when he caught five passes for 71 yards and a touchdown.

He also had a three-catch, 63-yard performance with a touchdown against Kentucky.

The past two weeks, he has caught four total passes for 32 total yards.

DEFENSE

Nick Emmanwori, DB

The 6-3, 227-pound junior defensive back leads the Gamecocks with 60 total tackles to go with four interceptions, two passes batted down and two tackles for loss.

His interception total leads the SEC and he has scored on two of the four.

One of his pick-6s came against Kentucky and the other came against Oklahoma when he had two of his four interceptions.

Demetrius Knight Jr., LB

The sixth-year transfer from Charlotte after starting his career at Georgia Tech, stands 6-2 and 245 pounds.

He is second on the Gamecocks with 54 tackles, while co-leading the team with six tackles for loss for 32 combined yards of loss. He also has two sacks and two forced fumbles.

Bam Martin-Scott, LB

The 6-2, 241-pound, sixth-year linebacker has totaled 49 tackles this season, while co-leading the team with six for loss. He also has 1.5 sacks, two passes batted down, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery.

Kyle Kennard, edge

The 6-5, 254-pound fifth-year edge rusher has tortured offensive linemen and quarterbacks all season, amassing 9.5 sacks and 13.5 tackles for loss this season. He has eight more quarterback hits, three forced fumbles, two fumbles recoveries and a pass batted down.

Drew Pyne vs. South Carolina pass rush

Brady Cook is likely out again this week, so Drew Pyne will have a chance to follow up his performance against Oklahoma.

With at least a backup center, and possibly a backup left guard, in front of him, South Carolina’s pass rush that has 33 sacks this season is going to be coming after him.

Along with Kennard, Knight and Martin-Scott, South Carolina’s Dylan Stewart has 5.5 sacks, Tonka Hemingway has four, T.J. Sanders has three and Bryan Thomas Jr. has 2.5.

That’s a lot of rushers coming.

Pyne did a great job stepping up in the pocket against Oklahoma and escaping extra pressure, he’ll have to do that again this week.

Missouri’s offense and giving the ball away

Along with that successful pass rush has come a lot of turnovers and extra possessions for the Gamecocks this season. South Carolina has 11 interceptions, 17 forced fumbles and eight fumble recoveries this season.

Missouri can’t afford to give the ball away, which it did a good job of handling against Oklahoma, winning the turnover battle 4-1, without Cook.

So making sure Pyne and co. don’t give up more extra possessions will be key.

Missouri’s defensive line vs. SC’s run game

The Gamecocks don’t throw a lot unless they have to. That’s because Sellers and Sanders have been a fantastic rushing combo this season. If the Tigers are able to contain the duo and make the Gamecocks through, that sets Missouri up for a lot of success.

LSU might’ve beaten South Carolina on the field earlier this season — albeit with some officiating controversy — but come College Football Playoff rankings time, the Gamecocks had leapfrogged the Tigers.

That was, in the explanation of selection committee chair Warde Manuel, due to the whole body of work trumping the head-to-head comparison for both teams. The fact LSU had won factored in, but both teams recent track records mattered more.

“Yeah, it really came down to the committee felt that since that game, South Carolina and LSU have gone in different directions,” Manuel said. “South Carolina has had some wins in that time frame, and LSU has had two consecutive losses. So the feeling was we do look at head-to-head. We obviously consider that closely. We look at that in our evaluation and determine when a team — we take a good hard look when teams play head-to-head and the outcome of the game.”

Since losing to LSU in mid-September, the Gamecocks have only lost two other times, both to current Top 10 teams and have since won three in a row. That included a 44-20 thrashing of ranked Texas A&M.

LSU, meanwhile, looked strong for much of the first half of the season after losing the opener to USC — a loss that’s grown increasingly ugly as the Trojans falter — but has now dropped a pair of SEC games in recent weeks and got outclassed entirely on Saturday.

So while the Tigers might’ve bested the Gamecocks on Sept. 14, both teams have played themselves into different spots with weeks left in the season, and the committee ranked them as such, even at the expense of seemingly ignoring a head-to-head result.

“But in this particular case, we also looked at the body of work and where those teams are, and so the discussion amongst the committee really came down to factoring in everything, in particular, where those teams were since that game was played, and obviously LSU struggled the last two weeks, and South Carolina has really performed admirably since that loss to LSU,” Manuel said.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina tailback Raheim Sanders has proven the past few weeks why he’s got the well-earned nickname, “Rocket.”

When he gets going, Sanders is nearly impossible to catch.

“When I see that green grass, I think, ‘Man, lovely,’” Sanders said after gaining 126 yards and scoring two touchdowns in a 28-7 win at then-No. 24 Vanderbilt.

The newly ranked No. 23 Gamecocks (6-3, 4-3 Southeastern Conference) hope Sanders’ jet-propelled showings continue down the stretch, starting against No. 24 Missouri (7-2, 5-2).

Sanders averaged 8.2 yards a rush against the improved Commodores. He had scoring runs of 33 and 1 yard, plus he added a 43-yard TD catch from LaNorris Sellers for a Gamecocks squad almost no one in the SEC wants to face right now.

It was the latest of several significant performances for the Arkansas transfer, who finished second in Southeastern Conference rushing with 1,443 yards and with 10 touchdowns for the Razorbacks two years ago.

Sanders has run for five of his 10 touchdowns this season in South Carolina’s past three victories at Oklahoma (35-9) and against ranked opponents in then-No. 10 Texas A&M (44-20) and the Commodores.

He had a season best 144 yards rushing against the Aggies.

“The key thing is trusting it, on the field, trusting it and being very coachable has helped me out a lot,” Sanders said.

The game, Sanders believes, is coming back to him after he struggled to reach the field in 2023. He was looking to build on his All-SEC season, but played just six games as injuries kept on the sidelines. When the season ended and Sanders sought a fresh start, he connected with South Carolina offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains, who held a similar role for the Razorbacks when Sanders was there.

What Sanders found is a rising, young, dual-threat quarterback in Sellers who can keep defenses guessing and an offensive line that has been largely healthy and cohesive.

“I feel like the key thing is talking to them every day,” Sanders said. “I feel more comfortable talking to them every day outside of football as well. That’s what’s making us a better unit.

“When you work as a unit,” Sanders continued, “the sky’s the limit.”

Loggains said in the offseason that Sanders may have put on too much weight, getting to more than 240 pounds, and that may have led to some injury issues. These days, Sanders is at a speedy 230 pounds.

“If I hadn’t had the year away from him the two years we spent together at Arkansas, it feels and looks like that same player that has juice, that has size, that is a professional,” Loggains said.

The work significantly has improved South Carolina’s rushing profile. The Gamecocks are fifth overall in the SEC at more than 180 yards rushing a game — nearly 100 more than a year ago when they were last in the league at 85.1 yards a game.

South Carolina coach Shane Beamer said that improvement comes from many areas of growth, including Sellers’ versatility, the maturing of the offensive line and the offensive staff coming up with niftier schemes to take advantage of Sanders’ strengths.

Sanders appeared to take off in September when he had 143 yards and two touchdowns in a heart-breaking 36-33 loss to then-No. 14 LSU after the Gamecocks led 17-0. But Sanders hurt an ankle in that game and had only nine carries in the next two contests, which included a 27-3 loss to Mississippi.

Steadily, Sanders called on his offseason work ethic to get himself back on the field and playing like he and his coaches knew he could.

“He’s just been very convicted and driven to do the things that he needed to do to be a great player,” Beamer said. “It’s good to see him having the success that he’s having right now.”