Coach’s Corner – Lindy’s Sports Post Game Report: South Carolina vs. Vanderbilt – VIDEO
This year’s edition of the Commodores is not your typical Vanderbilt football team.
For most years, Vandy has been the cellar dweller at the bottom of the SEC standings. Last year, they pulled off the Upset of the Year in college football by defeating No. 1-ranked Alabama. Later in the season, they also beat SEC traditional power Auburn to open the eyes of college football fans. With the nucleus of the team returning this season, they set out to prove that last season was no fluke.
On Saturday, In front of a sellout crowd at Williams Brice Stadium, Vandy took the opening kickoff and marched down the field in nine plays on a 73-yard drive capped off when Commodore quarterback Diego Pavia connected with Sedrick Alexander on a 18-yard touchdown pass to give the Dores a 7-0 lead.
South Carolina quickly answered with a seven-play, 75-yard drive, led by South Carolina Heisman Trophy quarterback candidate, LaNorris Sellars, to tie the score at 7-7. The Gamecocks scored on a seven-yard run by running back Rahsul Faison.
The turning point of the game came just before halftime when Vanderbilt linebacker Langston Patterson made a violent head-to-head tackle on Sellers and was flagged on the play for a personal foul and ejected from the game. Sellers was injured on the play and did not return to the game. It was determined that he had a concussion and it left him doubtful for Carolina’s game on Saturday at Missouri. Without Sellers, the Gamecock offense, led by back-up quarterback Luke Doty, was unable to make the big plays to score the remainder of the game.
Vandy played a near-perfect game, converting on seven of 13 third- and fourth-down conversions, and their defense forced four South Carolina turnovers on their way to their 31-7 victory. The win by Vanderbilt snapped South Carolina’s 16-game winning streak over the Commodores.
After the game, Vanderbilt Coach Clark Lea said, “We talked as a team on Tuesday about the fact that it’s been 17 years since we beat South Carolina. I’ve got so much respect for Coach Beamer and this (USC) program. In so many ways, I think our programs mirror each other. They (USC) want to win in all three phases. We want to win in all three phases.
“What is really important to me about the history of this rivalry and this game is the fact that the last (Vanderbilt) head coach to beat South Carolina was Bobby Johnson, and obviously Bobby was my coach. This win is about our team, and about the belief that we have.
“The beautiful thing about football is that you can’t hold a win too tight. As far as messages go, this is more about our team, our confidence, and what we believe in. In our league, you have to show up every week, play physical, and play together. Tonight, we were able to do that.”
South Carolina head coach, Shane Beamer, was not happy after the game.
“I was pleased with a lot of the stuff we were doing offensively in the first half, and when you lose the leader of your football team like that, you know, your starting quarterback…,” he said after the game. “I told them at halftime we got to go out and continue to play good football because there was good there. But I don’t like the way we started the second half offensively. And that’s on me.
“We don’t take the field with the right amount of energy to start the second half. Disappointed that we let them, after we punted it, just go right down the field and score.”
Beamer felt like under the circumstances his back-up quarterback (Doty) did okay.
“He’s an older guy,” the head coach said. “Certainly, some plays he would like to have back, but he’s a sixth-year senior and a guy that we believe in and the team believes in and trusts, and I thought he did okay, though none of us were good enough tonight when you get beat 31-7.”
Beamer shared a message to the team in the postgame locker room.
“I told them we didn’t do enough winning football tonight, and there are tons of self-inflicted mistakes,” he said. “That starts with me, and I’m going to get it corrected. It’s disappointing because we had a great week of practice, and we were certainly ready to play. And, you know, it wasn’t good enough. But, I told the team I was still encouraged because I saw a lot of really good tonight too at times, just not enough of it.
“Going into Missouri week and the season ahead, there’s a lot of football in front of us, but we’ve got to get a whole lot better. We have players in that locker room that care and hurt, and we’ve got to continue to stay together, because we know the noise outside isn’t going to be positive. We are sitting here at 2-1 with a ton of football in front of us, and a big trip coming up to Missouri in seven days.”