Upon Further Review: Vanderbilt 31, South Carolina 7

The final word on Vanderbilt’s road victory over South Carolina, plus 10 things you may not have noticed.

Sep 13, 2025; Columbia, South Carolina, USA; Vanderbilt Commodores offensive lineman Chase Mitchell (50) celebrates following their win over the South Carolina Gamecocks at Williams-Brice Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-Imagn Images | Jeff Blake-Imagn Images

COLUMBIA, S.C.. – Who would have thought that two years after Vanderbilt was a 2-10 team, it would dominate South Carolina.

Saturday, a streak ended. Vanderbilt came away with a 31-7 win over South Carolina. After losing 16 in a row, the monkey is finally off the Commodores’ back. They dominated the Gamecocks from almost the beginning.

After starting 7-7 through the first two possessions, Vanderbilt went on the score 24 unanswered points the rest of the game and looked great in doing so. Quarterback Diego Pavia did everything he could on the offensive end to help his team out. He finished with 177 passion yards with two touchdowns and ran for 24 more. Pavia also did his just going downfield to block for his teammates and keep the chains moving.

Vanderbilt’s 3-0 start to the season has put the Commodores in a great position to do some damage later this season and potentially even think about the postseason if they are able to keep its momentum going.

Play of the Game: The play of the game has to go to Jamezell Lassiter’s 44-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Not only does Lassiter’s story continue to get better, but his latest highlight put Vanderbilt up two touchdowns and sucked the entire life out of the crowd to the point where South Carolina fans started to leave after his touchdown scamper.

Player of the Game: Last week I picked the entire offensive line because of how stark the difference was between the two halves. This week, the defense dominated the Gamecocks after the first drive of the game. C.J Heard was the leader of the defense Saturday night, coming up with 12 tackles and one quarterback hit.

Stat of the Game: Vanderbilt was outgained 328-323 on the ground, but managed to force South Carolina to have just a 33 percent success rate on third down.

10 things you may not have noticed

1. Red Zone: The red zone area was a big difference in the game. In four trips to the red zone, Vanderbilt scored a touchdown on three of them while South Carolina only came away with points in the red zone on its first drive of the game. After that, Vanderbilt managed to get stops on the next two red zone opportunities.

 

2. Time of Possession: Vanderbilt really controlled the game with their ability to keep the South Carolina defense on the field. With a time of possession of 35:43, the Commodores extended drives all night and seemingly tired South Carolina out.

3. Turnovers: Vanderbilt’s defense forced four turnovers from South Carolina, but only scored seven points off the four turnovers. Regardless of turning turnovers into points, Vanderbilt kept South Carolina from extended drives or scoring in the red zone. Zaylin Wood’s interception in the red zone felt like a key play in the game.

 

4. Discipline: Penalties were another interesting underlying story of the game. South Carolina has 45 more penalties yards (85) than Vanderbilt (40).

 

5. More Big Plays: Vanderbilt had eight explosive plays Saturday night. Four of them were runs of 10 or more and the other four were pass completions of 15 yards or more. None was bigger than Jamezell Lassiter’s 44-yard touchdown to give his team full control of the game.

6. South Carolina’s Quarterbacks: Star quarterback LaNorris Sellers was knocked out of the game shortly before halftime from a hit from Vanderbilt linebacker Langston Patterson. Patterso was ejected from the game after replay determined his hit on Sellers was targeting. Backup quarterback Luke Doty played the rest of the game, but did not provide the level of mobility and skill that Sellers usually does.

7. A pattern still continues: With Vanderbilt winning by multiple scores, it marks the 12th time in the last 17 matchups that the Vanderbilt-South Carolina game was determined by multiple scores. The last one score game between the two schools occurred in 2021.

8. Play Count: Vanderbilt and South Carolina finished the game with the same amount of plays with 63 apiece despite the lopsided score. Additionally, Vanderbilt ended up punting more than South Carolina did even though the Commodores won by plenty of points.

9. Finding Their Swagger: The Commodores were hyped up postgame. Before the press conference, the players were vibing to “Swag Surfing” on repeat in the locker room. Vanderbilt is rolling with plenty of confidence after its big wins the past two weeks.

 

10. A Shift in the Polls: With the win, Vanderbilt now finds itself ranked in the AP Top 25 as the No. 20 ranked team in the country while South Carolina dropped all the way out of the rankings heading into Week 4.