Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com JANUARY 2023 29 GAME PREVIEW: SOUTH CAROLINA 1. Spencer Rattler Finding His Stride The player who began the 2021 season as the Heisman Trophy betting favorite chose South Carolina for a career reboot this year. The special season Spencer Rattler and Oklahoma envisioned in 2021 never materialized, and hopes of it ended with a thud. Rattler started the Sooners' first five games of the year against FBS competition, throwing for 5 touch- downs and 5 interceptions. They won all five, but hardly in inspiring fashion. Oklahoma escaped with a 16-13 home win over West Virginia and a 23-16 victory over Nebraska, two teams that combined to finish 9-16. Rattler was benched during his fifth FBS start, a 55-48 win over Texas. Oklahoma pulled him after he fumbled in the second quarter — his second turnover — and Texas scored to take a 35-17 lead. Freshman Caleb Williams (now at USC, as Irish fans know all too well) kept the job, and Rattler entered the transfer portal looking for a bounce-back spot. South Carolina, led by second-year head coach and former Sooners assis- tant Shane Beamer, gave him a chance. For 10 games, it looked like more of the same. Rattler had an 8-to-9 touchdown-to-interception ratio through 10 starts and was averaging 7.2 yards per attempt. That 10th start was a 38-6 loss at Florida in which he threw for just 145 yards. His last two games, though, were a throwback to his strong 2020 campaign. Rattler was a combined 55-of-76 passing (72.3 percent) for 798 yards with 8 touchdowns and 2 interceptions in South Carolina's wins over top-10 opponents Tennessee and Clemson. The Gamecocks combined for 94 points in those games. 2. Defense Is Susceptible Notre Dame's offense will be a limited version of its already imperfect self without 10-game starting quarterback Drew Pyne (transfer portal) and tight end Michael Mayer (NFL Draft). The Irish won't be facing a particularly stout defense, though. South Carolina is ranked 57th in the defensive Fremeau Efficiency Index. The Gamecocks are 68th in yards per play allowed (5.56), 78th in scoring defense (27.5 points per game) and 112th in yards per carry (4.85). Creating negative plays has been a noticeable weakness. They rank 115th in tackles for loss per game (4.5) and 110th in sacks per game (1.5). Pass defense has been a strength. South Carolina is tied for 18th in passes defended per game (5.25) and tied for 29th in interceptions (12). It ranks 26th in opponent pass efficiency (120.1) and sixth in completion rate (53.5 percent). All told, it's a matchup that caters well to Notre Dame's run-first offense. South Carolina's secondary isn't the friendliest for a quarterback making his first start or one coming off a long injury layoff, but the Gamecocks will be without cor- nerback Cam Smith, a projected first-round pick who declared for the NFL Draft. Of course, South Carolina surely views a depleted Notre Dame offense as a good matchup for its defense, too. The Irish won't have their best offensive player. They'll start an inexperienced quarterback. And even at full (or fuller) strength, they couldn't run the ball well enough against Stanford and USC's shaky rush defenses. 3. Some Missing Pieces On Offense South Carolina will also play the Gator Bowl without its best tight end — best two, actually. Junior Jaheim Bell (25 catches for 231 yards and 2 touchdowns) and gradu- ate student Austin Stogner (20 catches for 210 yards and 1 touchdown) both entered the transfer portal in early December, meaning the Gamecocks won't have their third- and fifth-leading receivers available for the bowl. They will also have a new play caller after offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield left to take the same job at Nebraska. The 6-3, 232-pound Bell entered the year with some legitimate early round NFL Draft buzz after averaging 16.6 yards per catch in 2021. He added running back duties midway through the season and rushed for 261 yards and 3 touchdowns on 73 carries. Stogner, a former top-150 recruit, followed Rattler from Oklahoma. Unlike Notre Dame, though, South Carolina should have its leading receiver available. Junior wide receiver Antwane Wells Jr. was a first-team All-SEC selection in his first year with the Gamecocks after transferring from James Madison. He has 63 catches for 898 yards and 6 touchdowns. — Patrick Engel trailed 14-0 in the first quarter, hadn't beaten the Tigers since 2013. The Tigers hadn't lost at home in 40 tries. It was a monumental win on multiple fronts. Suddenly, this South Carolina squad had some of that Beamer Ball charm Shane's father used to inject into his Hokies teams with regularity. "Big-time players make big-time plays in big-time games," Rattler said in a postgame on-field interview. By both coaches' own admissions, this is a big-time game in Jacksonville, Fla. It's not a New Year's Six game and it certainly isn't a College Football Play- off semifinal, but it is just one of seven ranked-on-ranked matchups out of 43 scheduled bowl games. Beamer has already exceeded his win total from 2021. Why not go one win higher? Freeman wants to post as solid of a mark as he can in his first year. Notre Dame will not win 10 or more games for a sixth straight season, but the next best thing is nine, and that's what Freeman has his sights set on. Only two teams beat Clemson in the 2022 regular season. They're kicking off in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl. For the sake of not triggering a post-traumatic stress episode, Tigers fans might want to look away the afternoon of Dec. 30 and wait until that night to watch Clemson versus Tennessee in the Or- ange Bowl. But everyone else in America might want to tune in for the proceed- ings at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville. It should be a high-flying good time. "We're all college football fans, as am I, and to see what they've done to finish off their season has been remarkable," Freeman said. "So, on behalf of our football program, our players, I'm sure the fans, we're excited to be able to play South Carolina on December 30th." ✦ Junior cornerback Marcellas Dial is part of a strong South Carolina pass defense, which ranks third in the SEC and 21st nationally with 1.2 passes defended per game. PHOTO COURTESY SOUTH CAROLINA Three Things To Know About South Carolina