South Carolina football looking to close ugly season strong vs. Kentucky

South Carolina football will close out the regular season on Saturday evening against the Kentucky Wildcats. Both teams are hoping to end losing streaks.

South Carolina travels to Lexington on Saturday evening to face the Kentucky Wildcats in the last game of its altered season.

The Gamecocks started their season with two losses — Tennessee the first week and Florida the second. In Week 3, the Gamecocks faced Vanderbilt and soundly defeated the Commodores 41-7 — not really that great of an achievement considering they are the worst team in the conference. The next week, they were expected to lose to Auburn, and the team pulled off the upset of the week when they won 30-22.

That was the last time the Gamecocks won a game. They are on a five-game losing streak and expected to lose to the Wildcats as well, but Kentucky isn’t having all that great of a season either, so South Carolina winning isn’t completely out of the realm of possibility. Kentucky has a 3-6 record coming into this game and they are looking to break a two-game losing streak after nearly losing to Vanderbilt three weeks ago.

Offensively, the Gamecocks have the advantage coming into this game on paper. They have scored more points per game and have more total yardage than the Wildcats on the season. South Carolina has 349.7 total yards compared to Kentucky’s 291.8, but the Wildcats lead in rushing yards with 175.9 compared to the Gamecocks’ 153.6 yards. In the passing game, however, the Gamecocks have 196.1 yards, while the Wildcats only have 115.9 yards.

It isn’t clear who will be on the field first in the quarterback position for the Gamecocks, but using the past as a predictor, it should be Luke Doty. Even though his start last week against Georgia wasn’t the best, it was better than what the Gamecocks were producing with Collin Hill at the reins. Last week against Georgia, Doty posted 18 completions for 190 yards, one touchdown, and one interception.

Kevin Harris led the team with 17 carries for 53 yards and one touchdown in addition to four receptions for 30 yards. On the season, Harris has 164 carries for 928 yards and 14 touchdowns. He will be hungry to record at least 72 yards to have 1,000 on the season so he will be making moves this week.

Shi Smith leads the Gamecocks in receiving yards, but he was out last week due to an injury sustained in the game against Missouri. Smith is expected to play this week and is excited to play says interim head coach, Mike Bobo. Nick Muse, who has been hit and miss with his receptions this year has recorded 30 receptions for 425 yards and one touchdown. Harris has also been active receiving this season and has recorded 20 receptions for 142 yards and a receiving touchdown.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Gamecocks have struggled mightily all season. They have  The defense is nearly completely depleted due to injuries and players who have opted out of the season. Last week Jammie Robinson led South Carolina with 10 total tackles and Jaylan Foster had 9 total tackles. Combined they put up almost one-third of the total tackles for the entire team. Robinson also has an interception and four pass deflections for the season.

On paper, the Wildcats have the advantage defensively as well as they have allowed an average of 27.3 points, while the Gamecocks have allowed an average of 35.4 points per game. South Carolina has allowed more yards as well, both rushing and receiving.

As with most of 2020, this game is very hard to predict. It can go either way. It can be a complete blowout for the Wildcats or it can be a close match between the two teams and come down to the final minutes. The fan in me wants to predict South Carolina wins their last game and gets three wins this season, but the realist in me doesn’t think it is going to happen. Not on the road at Kentucky.

Final Prediction: Kentucky 35, South Carolina 31