Mike Davis (28) has another good game on the ground for South Carolina in its win over Kentucky. (Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports)
It has been next to impossible for the South Carolina Gamecocks to put together a 60-minute domination of any football team this year and Saturday night’s 35-28 win over improving Kentucky saw no different scenario.
The Gamecocks seemed to relax midway through the third quarter when they were cruising with a 27-7 lead. Connor Shaw had diced the Kentucky secondary while running back Mike Davis had applied the appropriate complement in the running game.
However within a 1:53 span of the early fourth quarter, the Wildcats had seized the momentum on a 4-yard touchdown pass from Jalen Whitlow to Demarco Robinson and then five plays after Bruce Ellington fumbled the ensuing kickoff. Whitlow then found Ryan Timmonds on a 14-yard touchdown pass to put pressure on USC as their lead was cut immediately to 27-21 with 11:50 to play.
“It is kind of frustrating,” said Gamecocks running back Mike Davis, on the Gamecocks’ inability to put teams away. “We just have to work on that as a team. We probably will have to work a little bit harder in practice. It’s a team effort, but we will get through it.”
At that point, Carolina would start only it’s second drive of the half and seventh of the game. Connor Shaw broke into the Wildcats secondary for a 31-yard run just three plays before true-freshman Pharaoh Cooper broke off a 23 yard run to the Wildcats’ four.
This set up Shaw’s two-yard run that staved off Kentucky and allowed USC to move to 4-1 on the year with a three-game road trip to Arkansas, Tennessee, and Missouri coming up to end October.
“We’re still winning, so that makes it not as tough,” said Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier of the inability to put opponents away, “We don’t like it, but if that’s who we are; that’s the kind of team we’re going to be all year it looks like. We’re going to try and change it though.”
Quick Strike – Last week in Orlando, the Gamecocks trailed Central Florida 10-0 at halftime before rallying for the 28-25 win. The offense could never get anything going to sustain, so coach Steve Spurrier didn’t want a repeat of that this week. On the game’s fourth play, he dialed up a deep fly route to the post by Damiere Byrd.
With that, quarterback Shaw hit Byrd in stride behind the Wildcats secondary and South Carolina took a quick 7-0 lead with just 1:39 into the game.
“It was a great throw by Connor Shaw,” said Byrd, who started for the injured Shaq Roland, “We got the coverage that we wanted. He threw it out there, and I was able to go get it.”
Byrd finished with 4 catches for 95 yards on the night, a season high in receiving yards.
No Quarreling with Kelcy: South Carolina’s 6-4, 298-pound Kelcy Quarels came into the game third in tackles-for-loss and leading the team in sacks.
Just when Kentucky looked like it might start to move the ball with consistency at the outset of the second half, Quarels dumped running back Raymond Sanders for a four-yard loss before sacking Jalen Whitlow for a loss of 10.
“I felt like today was a real good game for me,” noted Quarels, who had a career game with six tackles, two for loss and a sack, “There is always room for improvement though. I felt like I played hard tonight, felt like I gave it my all. Every game now, I am making improvements and that is what it is all about, making improvements every game.”
Not Your Father’s Wildcats: It is clear that first-year coach Mark Stoops has clearly changed the culture of the Kentucky Wildcats football program, just five games in.
In the recent past when Kentucky would get down by three touchdowns, the Wildcats would generally fold. This didn’t happen Saturday night.
Kentucky started the fourth quarter by ending a 14-play drive ending in a 4-yard touchdown pass from Jalen Whitlow to Demarco Robinson. Then, the Wildcats were opportunistic on special teams in stripping Bruce Ellington of the ball on the ensuing kickoff and recovering at the USC 35. Whitlow hit Ryan Timmons on a 14-yard touchdown pass to bring the Wildcats to within 27-21 with 11:50 to play.
“I was proud of the fact that we’re in the position to do that,” said Stoops of the potential to pull the upset after the resurgence in the fourth quarter, “But we’re very frustrated that we didn’t make the plays. Our players showed a lot of toughness and character, and I was proud of them for that.”
Stoops is seeing sophomore quarterback Jalen Whitlow grow into the position after he had a combined total of 274 yards with two passing touchdowns and one rushing score.
“We understand he’s not perfect,” said Stoops of Whitlow’s performance, “He missed a few throws here and there, but you saw a couple of good runs. That dimension in his game adds some things to the offense, and that was good to see. When he can do that, it adds pressure to the defense and it allows us to pick up our tempo. It can be a good threat, and it was good to see him play like that tonight.”
