Shut the Dores: South Carolina scores sixth win in convincing victory over Vanderbilt

It is days like Saturday where Shane Beamer has to wish his team played an NFL schedule. Could they play until January? Maybe a 17-game schedule?

Just a little more time. Please. Because for three straight games now, South Carolina has looked like one of the best teams in America.

It has a bruising rushing attack that seems bound to pop a firework twice a game. It has a defense that looks like a bonfire inside a beehive — so much chaos in such little space. The Gamecocks are suffocating, relentless destructors. No. 24 Vanderbilt figured that out Saturday.

South Carolina (6-3, 4-3 SEC) came out of Nashville with a 28-7 win and became bowl-eligible for the first time in two seasons.

“It’s extra special tonight just coming off the (5-7) season we had last year,” Beamer said. “Very few people thought we would — I saw a lot of those preseason projections and they certainly didn’t have us winning six games this season.”

This Commodores (6-4, 3-3 SEC) are like the little engine that could. Led by their 6-foot, 207-pound quarterback Diego Pavia, they have already beaten No. 1 Alabama, Kentucky, Virginia Tech and were within a field goal of knocking off No. 5 Texas. This team makes magic. Leave the door open and you leave open the possibility of Pavia doing something insane to put his team back in the game.

Well, South Carolina kept that thing super-glued.

It shut out Vanderbilt in the first half, highlighted by a forced fumble and recovery by edge rusher Kyle Kennard in the red zone. In the second half, Pavia was phenomenal and found the end zone out of the gate. He had a spark. Then South Carolina turned over the Commodores on downs the next two drives.

It was over. And the stats don’t tell the whole truth.

Yes, the Gamecocks sacked Pavia just twice, but sadly there is no stat for how many times a quarterback has to retreat back 30 yards, spin out of a tackle then just heave the ball toward the moon. That seemed to occur about every other play Saturday.

“We hold the defense to a different-type of standard,“ linebacker Debo Williams said. “Like, they ain’t scoring. We’re mad they got seven (points).”

It was, yet again, another night where it felt like South Carolina’s defense could beat anyone in the country. Another night where the LSU and Alabama losses loom large because, if the Gamecocks won just one of those, they’d be in the playoff conversation.

Big day for Rocket Sanders

Unfortunately, the time machine doesn’t exist. If it did, though, Rocket Sanders might be in the front of the line.

The Gamecocks running back, who transferred from Arkansas this offseason, dealt with injuries for the first part of the season and was just mundane. Heading into November, he had racked up just 426 yards on the ground. Some put the blame on his offensive line — and that’s fair — but Sanders lacked explosion.

Then came the bye week. Sanders said he spent hours on the Stairmaster, which doesn’t seem like the secret formula to the foundation of youth, but Sanders may have begun some studies. Since that bye week, he has totaled 270 rushing yards, 144 receiving yards and five total touchdowns.

“The key thing is trusting it,” Sanders said. “On the field, just trusting it. And being very coachable helped me out a lot.”

Against Vanderbilt, he made the Commodores defenders look like they were on the Stairmaster, averaging over 8 yards per carry. He was zigging and zagging his way all over the field, hitting the hole with an urgency and fierceness that was lacking early on.

South Carolina now has three more regular-season games and a bowl game remaining. If they win out, the Gamecocks will reach 10 wins for just the fifth time in school history. After these past two weeks, it doesn’t seem impossible.

Next game

• Who: USC vs. Missouri

• When: 4:15 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16

• Where: Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina

• TV: SEC Network

2024 schedule, scores

• Aug. 31 – South Carolina 23, Old Dominion 19

• Sept. 7 – South Carolina 31, Kentucky 6
  
  

• Sept. 14 – LSU 36, South Carolina 33
  
  

• Sept. 21 – South Carolina 50, Akron 7
  
  

• Oct. 5 – Ole Miss 27, South Carolina 3

• Oct. 12 – Alabama 27, South Carolina 25

• Oct. 19 – South Carolina 35, Oklahoma 6

• Nov. 2 – South Carolina 44, Texas A&M 20

• Nov. 9 – South Carolina 28, Vanderbilt 7

• Nov. 16 – vs. Missouri – 4:15 p.m. // SEC Network

• Nov. 23 – vs. Wofford – 4 p.m., SEC Network+/ESPN+

• Nov. 30 – at Clemson – TBA