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NCAAF - South Carolina Gamecocks get cover on the road at Razorbacks
South Carolina Gamecocks get cover on the road at Razorbacks
Game Time: Saturday, November 7, 2009 12:00 AM ET
The story today will be the Gamecock's pass defense. Side with South Carolina plus the points on the road when they take on the Arkansas Razorbacks.
When people talked about the top two passers in the preseason in the SEC, they all talked about Tim Tebow and Jevan Snead. At the present date the top two passers are Ryan Mallet and Stephen Garcia who will face off this Saturday. The difference is in how both of these teams defend against pass.
South Carolina is third in the nation against the pass; allowing just 141.3 yards per game through the air. The Razorbacks are 113th among 120 FBS teams with 264.1 passing yards allowed per game. Clear advantage for South Carolina but they will play without safety Chris Culliver who was suspended by Steve Spurrier for this game after fighting with an assistant coach this week after being asked to switch to cornerback to avoid further injuring his shoulder playing safety.
Garcia already has three games with over 300 yards passing under his belt and it's looking like there is a good chance he picks up number four this week. His offense has been sputtering the past three weeks but if you look at it they played Tennessee and Alabama who have two of the best defenses in the nation; and are led by two defensive masters with Nick Saban and Monty Kiffin. The Vandy game was a letdown but we think Garcia wasn't 100% in that one after getting nicked up at the end of the Bama game.
South Carolina should be very motivated to play in this game; they are 6-3 with 6-6 staring them in the face. This is their best chance to win given the upcoming schedule. It is very similar to 2007 when they were 6-3 and lost their last remaining games to Arkansas, Florida, and Clemson; which is how this year's schedule happens to play out. Remember when they dropped all three in '07 they didn't go bowling.
The key for the South Carolina defense will be to get Mallet off of the field and his offense is converting just 29% on third downs this year so the odds side with the Carolina in that one. We think the Gamecocks and Eric Norwood will do enough to keep this one from getting out of hand like the game against the Vols last week.
Garcia has enough talented guys on offense surrounding him like Jarvis Giles, Kenny Miles, Alshon Jeffrey, Moe Brown, and Tori Gurley. Earlier this year this USC team hung around the whole game with a Georgia team that is built very similar to this Arkansas team.
We'll take the free touch downand go with Spurrier and company to get the cover.
Free Pick: South Carolina +7 (-110)
