How Kentucky football and South Carolina match up — with a game prediction

How the Kentucky Wildcats (1-0, 0-0 SEC) and the South Carolina Gamecocks (1-0, 0-0 SEC) match up at each position for the 2024 SEC opener — with a game prediction:

Quarterbacks

▪ In his first college start, Kentucky’s Brock Vandagriff made two bad throws early in UK’s weather-abbreviated 31-0 season-opening win over Southern Mississippi. One of the bad passes was intercepted to snuff out a potential UK scoring drive; the second probably would have been a pick six except the USM DB dropped the ball. After the rough start, Vandagriff, a 6-foot-3, 217-pound redshirt junior, settled in and played well. In a game that lasted only 35:04 because of lightning, the Georgia transfer completed 12 of 18 passes for 169 yards and three touchdowns and ran five times for 35 yards.

▪ South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers also made his initial college start last week. In the Gamecocks’ closer-than-expected 23-19 win over Old Dominion, the 6-3, 242-pound product of Florence, S.C., ran 22 times for 68 yards and scored the game-winning TD on a 3-yard jaunt with 6:11 left in the contest. Sellers was not as effective through the air, completing 10 of 23 passes for 114 yards. Last season, in South Carolina’s 17-14 win over Kentucky in Columbia, Sellers carried the ball twice and gained 9 yards.

Advantage: Kentucky.

Running backs

▪ Mark Stoops says Kentucky will again be without Ohio State transfer Chip Trayanum (broken hand) this week. In the win over Southern Miss, Demie Sumo-Karngbaye ran effectively, gaining 59 yards on eight carries with a touchdown. In last season’s loss at South Carolina, Sumo-Karngbaye ran twice for 5 yards and caught a pass for 3 yards. True freshman Jason Patterson, a 5-10, 206-pound product of Sneads, Florida, looked promising against Southern Miss, gaining 28 yards on only four carries. Redshirt freshman Jamarion Wilcox gained 8 yards on two rushes vs. USM.

▪ Two seasons ago at Arkansas, Raheim “Rocket” Sanders ran for 1,443 yards and 10 touchdowns and caught 28 passes for 271 yards and two more scores. After an injury-plagued 2023, the 6-foot, 230-pound senior transferred to South Carolina seeking a fresh start. That effort began with promise vs. ODU, as the 6-foot, 230-pound product of Rockledge, Florida, ran for 88 yards on 24 carries with a TD run. Senior Juju McDowell ran twice for 16 yards vs. ODU. In his career against Kentucky, McDowell has rushed 10 times for 30 yards and caught three passes for 20 yards.

Advantage: South Carolina.

Wide receivers

▪ Kentucky junior Dane Key caught three passes for 60 yards last week in the win over USM. In two prior games vs. South Carolina, the 6-3, 210-pound Lexington product has caught six passes for 73 yards combined. In the win over Southern Miss, junior speedster Barion Brown caught four passes for 28 yards and two touchdowns and ran three times for 14 yards. In his first game as a Wildcat, North Texas transfer Ja’Mori Maclin caught two passes for a team-high 66 yards vs. USM. Former Franklin County star Fred Farrier, a transfer from UAB, caught one pass for 12 yards against Southern Miss.

▪ Florida State transfer Vandrevius Jacobs caught two passes for 59 yards in the win over Old Dominion. The 6-foot, 195-pound redshirt freshman caught three passes for 60 yards and a TD last season at FSU. A world-class sprinter at 6-5, 235 pounds, sophomore Nyck Harbor has been ranked No. 1 the past two seasons on sportswriter Bruce Feldman’s college football “freaks list.” So far, Harbor’s elite traits have yet to “pop” in terms of yielding high college football production. For his career to date, Harbor has 12 catches for 195 yards and a TD. Last year against UK, Harbor had an 18-yard reception.

Advantage: Kentucky.

Tight ends

▪ Kentucky redshirt junior Jordan Dingle caught a 5-yard touchdown pass with 9:56 left in the third quarter on what turned out to be the final play in the win over Southern Mississippi. Junior Josh Kattus (eight catches, 108 yards, two touchdowns last season) did not play vs. USM due to injury but is said by UK on its Southeastern Conference-mandated “student-athlete availability report” to be “probable” to play vs. South Carolina.

▪ True freshman Michael Smith, a 6-6, 255-pound product of Savannah, Georgia, started last week against ODU and had two catches for 4 yards. Former Western Kentucky Hilltoppers standout Joshua Simon, a super-senior, had one catch for 10 yards in last week’s win over the Monarchs. In three of his prior five college seasons, Simon has caught at least 28 passes. He has 17 career TD catches.

Advantage: South Carolina.

Offensive line

▪ South Carolina’s dynamic edge pass rushers (see below) mean this is a huge game for Kentucky starting tackles Marques Cox and Gerald Mincey. The duo certainly have the experience to take on a big challenge. A super-senior, left tackle Cox, has made 47 career starts, 34 for Northern Illinois and the last 13 games for UK. Right tackle Mincey, who played two seasons for Florida and two for Tennessee prior to coming to Kentucky, has made 14 career starts, 13 for UT and last week for UK.

▪ South Carolina has one of the most experienced offensive lines in college football with 149 career starts on the roster entering the 2024 season. Nevertheless, true freshman Josiah Thompson got the opening game start last week against Old Dominion. The 6-7, 300-pound product of Dillon, S.C., was a five-star recruit in the class of 2024 and chose the Gamecocks over Alabama, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia, Notre Dame and Oklahoma, among many others.

Advantage: Kentucky.

Defensive line

▪ Kentucky star junior tackle Deone Walker drew double and triple teams from Southern Mississippi and, therefore, ended last week’s game with no statistics. However, the attention Walker drew may have opened things up for other UK D-linemen such as end Tre’vonn Rybka (two tackles, a sack), nose guard Keeshawn Silver (one tackle) and Kahlil Saunders (two tackles, one-half of a tackle for loss) to make plays.

▪ South Carolina edge rushers wreaked havoc on ODU last week. Georgia Tech transfer Kyle Kennard made 3.5 TFL, 2.5 sacks and set up a touchdown with a forced fumble on a strip sack. True freshman Dylan Stewart, another five-star prospect in the 247Sports composite rankings for 2024, had 1.5 sacks, a QB hurry and forced two fumbles, the last of which set up the Gamecocks’ game-winning TD.

Advantage: Even.

Linebackers

▪ Kentucky’s veteran linebacking corps was terrific in the win over Southern Miss. OLB/rush end J.J. Weaver made three stops and had a sack. Redshirt senior WLB D’Eryk Jackson had three tackles and tipped a pass that led to an interception. Former Georgia MLB Jamon Dumas-Johnson made two stops and picked off a pass. Junior Alex Afari, continuing his transformation from safety to linebacker, had two TFL and broke up a pass.

▪ South Carolina WLB Debo Williams is one of the SEC’s best. Last season, he made 113 stops, including eight tackles with a TFL in the win over UK. The 6-1, 232-pound redshirt senior had a team-high seven tackles, five of them solo, against ODU. Last week, middle linebackers Bam Martin-Scott (three tackles) and Demetrius Knight Jr. (five) combined to make eight stops.

Advantage: Kentucky.

Defensive backs

▪ With Kentucky boundary cornerback Maxwell Hairston coming off a season in 2023 in which he intercepted five passes and successfully defended six others, Southern Miss did not do much throwing in his direction. That left it for strong safety Zion Childress (team-high four tackles) and field corner JQ Hardaway (two tackles, an interception off a tipped ball) to make plays.

▪ South Carolina free safety Nick Emmanwori had a team-high nine tackles and picked off a pass in the Gamecocks’ win over Kentucky last season. The 6-3, 227-pound junior from Irmo, S.C., made five stops and successfully defended a pass last week in the victory over ODU. Nickel back Jalon Kilgore and cornerback O’Donnell Fortune each had interceptions vs. Old Dominion.

Advantage: South Carolina.

Special teams

▪ Kentucky place-kicker Alex Raynor booted a 41-yard field goal vs. Southern Mississippi. Since transferring to UK from Georgia Southern, Raynor is now 11-of-12 on field-goal attempts. Punter Wilson Berry kicked only once last week for 37 yards, but pinned USM at its 8-yard line. The Kentucky punt return team snuffed out a Southern Miss fake punt try. With the Golden Eagles squibbing their only kickoff to keep the ball away from dynamic kickoff returner Barion Brown, true freshman upback Willie Rodriguez fielded the ball cleanly and returned it 20 yards.

▪ New South Carolina place-kicker Alex Herrera hit 3 of 4 field goals in the win over ODU with his miss coming from 48 yards. Veteran punter Kai Kroeger averaged 41.2 yards on five kicks vs. Old Dominion. Kroeger was a huge part of South Carolina’s win over Kentucky in 2023, averaging 44 yards on eight punts and pinning the Wildcats inside the 20 three times. The kick-blocking, “Beamer Ball” gene has passed from ex-Virginia Tech head man Frank Beamer to his son, Shane Beamer, so UK will need to be sharp in its kick protections.

Advantage: Even.

Prediction

Kentucky 24, South Carolina 19.

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