What did Kentucky beating Ole Miss mean for South Carolina, if anything?

There’s no point in playing the game on Saturday. By the logic of the transitive property, South Carolina will beat Ole Miss.

Think about it: South Carolina walloped Kentucky, which beat No. 6 Ole Miss, meaning that surely the Gamecocks will come out ahead of the Rebels. If A=B and B=C then A=C. Duh.

Of course, that is flawed reasoning. But it was impossible to watch the Wildcats go on the road and upset Ole Miss and not conjure up newfound confidence in South Carolina’s chances this Saturday (3:30 p.m., ESPN) against the now 12th-ranked Rebels.

Ole Miss (4-1, 0-1 SEC), for the the first time in this short season, looked vulnerable. Quarterback Jaxon Dart, who came into last Saturday as the nation’s leading passer, threw for under 300 yards for the first time all season. The Rebels couldn’t break 100 rushing yards. And Kentucky QB Brock Vandagriff threw for eight times as many yards (243) against Ole Miss than he did against South Carolina (30).

It now brings perhaps a desperate Ole Miss team into Williams-Brice Stadium. The Rebels — thought to have an inside track to the College Football Playoff — all of a sudden can’t afford another surprise defeat. And with LSU and Georgia still on the Rebels’ schedule, a loss on Saturday would be crushing.

Which makes last week’s outcome interesting for South Carolina (3-1, 1-1 SEC). Did Kentucky’s win create a blueprint that USC can build upon, or did a home upset wake up the Rebels and force them to make needed adjustments?

“I’m sure Ole Miss will learn from that Kentucky game,” South Carolina coach Shane Beamer said. “Certainly you think about what their answers are going to be to the things that gave them trouble against Kentucky.

“And I know (Ole Miss coach) Lane (Kiffin) talked about it in his press conference yesterday,” Beamer added. “Kentucky’s defense is structured a lot differently than we are. So you can’t really look at it and say, ‘OK, it’s gonna be the same,’ because we’re just different in a lot of ways.”

Which is fair. The scariest part of Kentucky’s defense is the interior — led by All-SEC junior DT Deone Walker. The Gamecocks’ defense, meanwhile, are most dangerous from the edge, with pass rushers like freshman Dylan Stewart and Kyle Kennard — tied for the FBS lead in tackles for loss (8.5 TFLs) — coming after the quarterback.

And the stats prove that. According to Pro Football Focus, the Gamecocks are ranked as the No. 68 rush defense in the country, but have the third-best pass rush in America.

One would almost think the Gamecocks match up better than Kentucky against a team in Ole Miss that has arguably the best passing offense in the nation. But, it could be that Kentucky proved that to slow down the Rebels’ passing attack, you have to first shut down their running game.

These are all things South Carolina’s coaching staff has likely been pouring over and discussing since getting into the office on Sunday. And maybe Kentucky provided no blueprint at all but, rather, simply proof that Ole Miss is beatable. Or perhaps even that is overblown.

When asked about the Ole-Miss Kentucky game, running back Juju McDowell pretended like he had no clue the Wildcats pulled the upset. Finally, he smiled and winked before discussing what he learned from the game.

“I don’t think we gained any more confidence,” he said. “We gained a little bit more film to watch. That’s about it.”

South Carolina’s players all seemed to downplay last Saturday’s outcome, including safety DQ Smith, who apparently has no faith in the transitive property.

“We can’t really look at that game and say we’re gonna win it just because we beat Kentucky and they lost to (Ole Miss),” Smith said. “We still have to bring our A-game at the end of the day.”