Breaking Down South Carolina Football with GamecockCentral’s Jack Veltri

South Carolina beat writer Jack Veltri broke down the Gamecocks upcoming game against Vanderbilt.

Vanderbilt Commodores quarterback Diego Pavia (2) looks to pass as South Carolina Gamecocks defensive tackle T.J. Sanders (90) goes to tackle during the first half at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville, Tenn., Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024. | Stephanie Amador / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Vanderbilt is looking to pull off another big road win this weekend as it travels to Columbia to take on No. 11 South Carolina. The Commodores are looking for its first win against the Gamecocks since 2008.

Vanderbilt On SI talked to South Carolina beat writer Jack Veltri of GamecockCentral to breakdown Saturday’s matchup and how he thinks the game will play out. Here is Veltri’s breakdown for this weekend’s anticipated game.

Everyone talks about LaNorris Seller, Nyck Harbor and Dylan Stewart all returning this season. But what is different about this South Carolina team this year?

I think all the things they lost is what makes them different in that the defense lost so many NFL types of guys from that group. I mean, you look at every position on defense, there's at least one starter gone. The whole defensive line, pretty much aside from Dylan Stewart, is gone. 

All your linebackers are gone. You lost a lot at safety, with Nick Emmanwori and O'Donnell Fortune at DB. But besides that, you only return four starters, which inherently makes it more tough for the defense to have the tall task of replicating what they did last year, and so far so good. This defense has brought in a lot of new guys, some really impactful players, and that's a credit to the job that this coaching staff and the recruiting department have done out there, and the transfer portal in the high school ranks, bringing in new guys to try and replenish what's lost. 

So I would say that's probably the biggest difference right now in terms and just also the fact that they have Mike Shula as the coordinator, that's another big change. 

Where is an area where South Carolina can take advantage of an opponent, and then what's another area where an opponent could take advantage of South Carolina?

I'll start with the latter of what you said there. I think offensively, South Carolina is still trying to find out what it is, right? The run game hasn't been very good so far. They got really good running backs in there, but it's just like they just have not had much success on the ground so far. And part of that has to do with the running game in general, but it also has to do with the offensive line, which is seemingly another issue for the Gamecocks. They're just not getting a ton of push up front consistently. I think that's something that teams could probably try to take advantage of. 

But I do think Carolina is going to be better offensively, just because they have so much potential and so much talent that I just find it hard to believe that. Again, they didn't really do too well in the SC State game. They've had to rely a lot on their defense and special teams to make plays. But this offense is going to have to come through at some point. 

I think you're going to have to let LaNorris do his thing. We haven't seen him be as mobile and as improvising. If that can happen, that makes a difference for South Carolina's offense, as far as the advantages of what they have over other opponents. They're really good in the punt return game right now. Vicari Swain is their primary punt returner. He's got three touchdowns so far this year. He had two against South Carolina State the other night, and then one against Virginia Tech. He's dangerous in that department. 

But then the defense has only allowed one touchdown so far through two games. So I like what I'm seeing from that group. And again, you're pretty good in two aspects of the game. It's just the offense I'm waiting for to kind of come along.

You kind of mentioned it where, right there with the special teams. What is it that makes them so effective and so good, seemingly, basically the best in the country at the special teams unit?

It's crazy, because it did not feel like this last year. But Shane Beamer obviously has a history with “Beamer Ball" going back to his dad with special teams being a core value of what makes his teams so good. 

And we saw this a lot when Pete Lembo was the special teams coordinator for Carolina, but now he's at Buffalo as the head coach. So now they've got Joe DeCamillis, who's come in. I just think they have guys that when you come to South Carolina, the main message is that, “hey, you may not play right away, but you can find a way on the field through playing special teams,” and we've seen countless guys take advantage of that. 

I think you need to be able to play special teams to have a role in the NFL, because there's only 53 roster spots. There's only one starter each of the main positions. So I mean, special teams is a way to get onto the field, and you see a lot of guys at Carolina taking complete advantage of it.

What is maybe one matchup from either a player or unit from South Carolina that you think is a matchup to watch for on Saturday?

I'm looking forward to seeing how this defense does against Diego Pavia. Now that's probably the main matchup from this game, just because he’s quarterback for Vanderbilt and Carolina's defense did a really, really nice job of minimizing what he did last year. You look at his stats from that game last year, which was the worst loss Vanderbilt had all year. He was very ineffective, I think in the passing game, he only took like 160 something yards. He did have some success on the ground, don't get me wrong. He made some plays when he needed to, but more times than not, this Carolina defense showed up and showed out. 

That's what we're going to need to see again on Saturday. If South Carolina is going to win this game, this defense is going to have to find a way to minimize the way he runs on the ground, but also try to take away what he can do in the passing game. I did watch that Virginia Tech game a little bit. He definitely seems to throw the ball down the field to those receivers and that tight end Stowers. That's a good group they have out there on offense.

If you had to predict, what do you think is going to happen?

If the offense comes along for Carolina, I don't see a way in which they don't win this game. I think Carolina has been very good defensively, very good special teams. It's just about can the offense kind of get it together, make the plays when it matters, and score enough points to win this game. So I am picking South Carolina. I think it's going to be close. I think it's going down to the wire. I will have South Carolina winning this game 21-17.