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Breaking down the Cats and Cocks

This game does not sit up well for KY

I'm think you are right, but am hoping you are wrong.
 
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It is perfectly clear where the IQ's are lacking. But I have to give you credit for supporting "your guy". I think he'll be great in the CFL one day. His skill set is perfect for it.

It's all coming together now. You're dumb, aren't you? Explains a lot of your "points".
 
Towles has been catching a lot of flak for Saturday night because of the deep passes he didn't make. I don't think people realize how tough those are to complete, qb's don't get those 60%+ completions or 150+ qb ratings throwing the ball 40 yards downfield. Instead of praising him for completing 2-3 of them he is catching heat for the 2-3 he missed. No one is wanting to give LaL any credit for the adjustment they made, to make those throws tougher to complete, it's just Towles overthrew them. Some are even wanting to see a new qb, he could be an upgrade, but he could also be a downgrade, no one has seen him in a college game including the coaching staff. UK has a pretty good starting qb, his team put 40 on the board, its not his fault the other team put 33 on the board. I wish UGA had a qb like him.

He's not the guy you can depend on and this " air raid " infatuation that fans and coaches seem to have won't fit his latent inaccuracy. Wish you had him too and your coaches might put him situations more suitable for his talents. In a pass happy offense he is not that guy.
 
Can we start banning these fools? They're sensitive and trigger happy over at their ignorance bastion. They need a taste of their own medicine.
 
How do you figure? SC gave up 13 points to one of the top scoring offenses in 2014 (wh/ returned 10 starters). Points are all that matter (unless of course, you are a UNC fan who thinks running a fast paced offense which runs more plays than the other team is the most important thing). I dare say NC's offense is light years better than ULL, and SC's defense is better than ULL's. This game does not sit up well for KY but yes, KY could win cause SC has a long way to go to be called very good. But the season is young, and both teams still have high hopes................we'll know better about both teams at the end of Saturday night.


I totally disagree. Neither teams defense is good and inthink they both suck. In saying that, UK's offense is better than UNC's and I think SC's offense is better than ULL's. Either way, this game is going to be a shoot out and a fun game all around.

Neither team should be afraid of the other, as they are both similar in talent on both sides of the ball.
 
He's not the guy you can depend on and this " air raid " infatuation that fans and coaches seem to have won't fit his latent inaccuracy. Wish you had him too and your coaches might put him situations more suitable for his talents. In a pass happy offense he is not that guy.
You'll be eating those words on more than one occasion this year that's for sure. I'm sure you miss the 3 yards and a cloud of dust offense you prefer.
 
i think its very possible that scar is much better on D this year just by coaching alone. i kept saying it last year that they had some problems with the staff on that side of the ball but we still need to see this game for both of us to know what we got this year. both of our games this year left both teams with more questions than answers in the grand scheme of thing and i liked our chances after they squeaked past unc but then we squeaked past ull and im back to thinking this is a game we can win but now i dont think its as good of a chance. the 30% from above sounds about right. based on how we played saturday.

i do think if we win if we score 40 points. i dont think we can win a grind it out defensive battle. we are gonna have to get up and down the field and force them to throw... shoot, if we are passing all over the field i'd bet money spurrier will up his passing just because of how he is. he's not gonna run the ball 80% of the time while the other team is throwing 60%.
 
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FWIW, there's an 80% chance of storms Saturday night. May make for a sloppy game.
 
Can we start banning these fools? They're sensitive and trigger happy over at their ignorance bastion. They need a taste of their own medicine.


I totally disagree. The majority of these SC fans have been very congenial while on here despite some of our fans responding like smartasses.

It is obvious that most have come here to discuss the game in an adult manner and I appreciate hearing good football talk from the opponent's fanbase and have learned much more about the Cocks.

It is a breath of fresh air after the UL, IU, and UNC trolls. I wish we were more accommodating to fans who come showing respect and even when mocked for no reason maintain their poise.

These guys have praised our players and not overblown theirs nor have they suggested that they will beat us soundly, which is much more likely than us beating them soundly at their place and us still missing key players. I'd take a 1 point win and run back to Lexington.

Many thanks to you SC fans that have shown class.
 
For all of those who say South Carolina truly has no chance and the defense is awful let's take a look at what truly happened in the UNC game. South Carolina ran a 4-2-5 defense with 5DBs and 4 smaller pass rushing linemen to stop a vertical UNC team. It is very easy to run into a defense like this.

Second since all that is being said is South Carolina would not have won without 3 INTs, that is how the game happened. The same could be said about North Carolinas offense. Take away 4-5 big plays from them and the total yardage for both the passing and rushing game drop to around 225-275 total yards for the game. Kentucky will see a 4-3 defense on 1st and 2nd down and 3rd and short and a 4-2-5 with thicker linemen on passing and 3rd and long downs.

Prediction: SC 28 Kentucky 13
 
For all of those who say South Carolina truly has no chance and the defense is awful let's take a look at what truly happened in the UNC game. South Carolina ran a 4-2-5 defense with 5DBs and 4 smaller pass rushing linemen to stop a vertical UNC team. It is very easy to run into a defense like this.

Second since all that is being said is South Carolina would not have won without 3 INTs, that is how the game happened. The same could be said about North Carolinas offense. Take away 4-5 big plays from them and the total yardage for both the passing and rushing game drop to around 225-275 total yards for the game. Kentucky will see a 4-3 defense on 1st and 2nd down and 3rd and short and a 4-2-5 with thicker linemen on passing and 3rd and long downs.

Prediction: SC 28 Kentucky 13

Boy, you all are just gonna hold everybody to 13 points this season, huh?
Or not...
 
Ghost, I learned a long time ago that many people are seeking validation rather than a well-reasoned and civil dialogue.
 
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Yeah the same way you held ULL to 33
no serious UK fan is on here bragging that we somehow are going to have a great defense. You are. We scored 38 offensive points against you last season while racking up 447 yards. This year when we have an even better passing game you're gonna throttle us down to 13 points.

OK, good luck with that bud. friendly advice, being a blind fan expecting unreasonable outcomes will only make you miserable. I think my University of Kentucky Wildcats will win Saturday night because both teams will score a bunch of points, but we are far better than you at scoring points. You have too many guys banged up, we have too many skill athletes to put the ball in the end zone repeatedly.

2nd time as good as the first:
UK 45
USC 38
 
I hate to agree with crazy (since he appears to serve his moniker well), but Clemson and other HUNH offenses have done quite well with small quick linemen. If your QB only needs 2 seconds and you can buy him an extra second or two everyone once in a while with deception, I think you can live with an average OL.

But wouldnt that fall into line with my statement about changing schemes/concepts to suit the OL you have? The HUNH offense requires agile linemen, in exceptional shape. It also requires lots of practice to achieve the appropriate tempo.

If the OL isnt good at running the HUNH, then the offense still wont go anywhere because the QBs cant throw, RBs cant run, and there wont be the 1st downs required for it to work.
 
i do think if we win if we score 40 points. i dont think we can win a grind it out defensive battle. we are gonna have to get up and down the field and force them to throw... shoot, if we are passing all over the field i'd bet money spurrier will up his passing just because of how he is. he's not gonna run the ball 80% of the time while the other team is throwing 60%.

I, and most Gamecock fans I know, agree with everything you've said here. There is no way our offense is built to score 40 points right now. We might not score 40 in two games. In rewatching our game, our entire offense (lighter C who can pull, larger OTs, blocking WR, TEs with multiple 2 TE sets, RBs, QB who kept multiple times in the Zone Read last week, RB Wildcat, etc.) is built to run the ball and control the clock.

By the way, Spurrier just released our depth chart for the UK game. Instead of giving an opportunity to some younger receivers who are better at creating separation and catching the ball, I still see a SR walk-on and RSSR who cannot get separation and have no height or length. The reason? They are our best blocking WRs. I think this might give you an idea on our game plan for Saturday.

Of course, as you said, if Spurrier sees the other team throwing the ball all over the field, he might become impatient and ignore his game plan and the ULL tape.
 
But wouldnt that fall into line with my statement about changing schemes/concepts to suit the OL you have? The HUNH offense requires agile linemen, in exceptional shape. It also requires lots of practice to achieve the appropriate tempo.

If the OL isnt good at running the HUNH, then the offense still wont go anywhere because the QBs cant throw, RBs cant run, and there wont be the 1st downs required for it to work.

I can see your point, but I was thinking more along the lines of a dominating OL. You can absolutely win with the smaller more agile OLs. But, I've seen plenty of HUNH offenses fizzle under pressure from a quick/strong DL. And then I've seen that same DL have trouble against Wisconsin's (or similar) OL.
 
no serious UK fan is on here bragging that we somehow are going to have a great defense. You are. We scored 38 offensive points against you last season while racking up 447 yards. This year when we have an even better passing game you're gonna throttle us down to 13 points.

I won't speak for b1rockcock (as I think the absolute best that USC could hope for is to hold UK to between 16 points--a TD and 3 FGs--and 24 points--3 TDs and a FG), but I can provide some logic behind others who are estimating a dramatic reduction in points scored (for both teams).

In last year's game, we had 500 yards of offense to UK's 447 yards. Both teams scored on multiple drives of relatively few plays running little time off the clock. Our DC and QB coach this year have said all summer and fall camp that they are taking a different approach to O and D from last year. And we saw it in the UNC game. We are looking to run the ball and control the clock. We are also looking to play a lot of cover 1 on defense. Taken together, it appears our approach is slow the entire game down. We are willing to concede short to medium gains that keep the clock running rather than HRs. We also have focused our offensive player selections on blocking ability in the running game. So many of those who are thinking that UK will score fewer points are also assuming that USC will score fewer points--all by design.

If UK turns it into a track meet and we are unable to prevent the HRs, then USC fans have not seen anything that would lead us to believe our QB and WRs can keep up.
 
My point is you take away UNCs 4 to 5 big plays and the total yards drop drastically. Do I think Kentuckys offense is good? Absolutely when they play like a well oiled machine. Do I think Kentucky can score points against this defense especially in the pass game? Absolutely. But do I believe this game is going into the 30s and 40s the way some of you think it will? No. 1. South Carolina's offense unless we connect on a few more passes is not able to score that many points at this time unless you see something change at the WR position. The WR have to get open more and stop dropping very catchable balls. Also Kentuckys defense although not very good at all against the run is okay to good against the pass. My point is a high powered offense was held to 13 points on Thursday and Kentucky is coming to WB. If Kentucky wins it'll be 28-24 if South Carolina wins I see no way SC can score 30 points. SC 24-28 Kentucky 13-20
 
My point is you take away UNCs 4 to 5 big plays and the total yards drop drastically. Do I think Kentuckys offense is good? Absolutely when they play like a well oiled machine. Do I think Kentucky can score points against this defense especially in the pass game? Absolutely. But do I believe this game is going into the 30s and 40s the way some of you think it will? No. 1. South Carolina's offense unless we connect on a few more passes is not able to score that many points at this time unless you see something change at the WR position. The WR have to get open more and stop dropping very catchable balls. Also Kentuckys defense although not very good at all against the run is okay to good against the pass. My point is a high powered offense was held to 13 points on Thursday and Kentucky is coming to WB. If Kentucky wins it'll be 28-24 if South Carolina wins I see no way SC can score 30 points. SC 24-28 Kentucky 13-20

The difference between North Carolina's offense and Kentucky's offense is that North Carolina is mostly revolved around size, and Kentucky is mostly revolved around speed. Something different is likely to happen if you all let one of our receivers get into open field. Even our 6'5 receivers have a lot of speed to them.
I've seen the whole "bend but don't break" defensive philosophy against Kentucky. Mississippi State did it, and Kentucky racked up a lot of yards and a lot of points.
North Carolina may have very well been a tad bit too slow to break one off in the open field, I see that as a non-issue for our team though.
 
The difference between North Carolina's offense and Kentucky's offense is that North Carolina is mostly revolved around size, and Kentucky is mostly revolved around speed. Something different is likely to happen if you all let one of our receivers get into open field. Even our 6'5 receivers have a lot of speed to them.
I've seen the whole "bend but don't break" defensive philosophy against Kentucky. Mississippi State did it, and Kentucky racked up a lot of yards and a lot of points.
North Carolina may have very well been a tad bit too slow to break one off in the open field, I see that as a non-issue for our team though.
I respect that. The name of the game for defense isn't hold opponents under 10 points and less than 250 total yards anymore. It's give up yards between the 20s and hold teams in the red zone to field goals or turnovers. Kentucky as I said before when clicking on offense can score points. If Kentucky starts getting in a shoot out, only one team will be shooting and that's Kentucky because SC offense until proven otherwise isn't going to throw a lot of points on the board. I believe Kentucky and SC score points just not in the 30s and 40s. The biggest star of the game will be TOP and I believe SC has to control that to win.
 
I respect that. The name of the game for defense isn't hold opponents under 10 points and less than 250 total yards anymore. It's give up yards between the 20s and hold teams in the red zone to field goals or turnovers. Kentucky as I said before when clicking on offense can score points. If Kentucky starts getting in a shoot out, only one team will be shooting and that's Kentucky because SC offense until proven otherwise isn't going to throw a lot of points on the board. I believe Kentucky and SC score points just not in the 30s and 40s. The biggest star of the game will be TOP and I believe SC has to control that to win.

I'm not entirely sure if TOP will be a big immediate factor, depending on if UK can bust them open, but Coach Dawson said he attributes some of the tired legs on defense in the fourth quarter to his play-calling throughout the game. Said he has to do a better job of grinding the game out and giving the defense more of a break. Pains me a bit to agree, but he does. I understand how it's difficult though, when a team stacks the box and plays the press out on the perimeter, and almost all of your receivers are beating them on every play, it's tempting to heave it downfield and let them take it to the house.
I think UK will play more physical though. I expect Kentucky to run the ball 35-40 times in this game. Boom Williams should get 15-20, Mikel Horton should get 10-15, and JoJo Kemp should get 5-10 (unless we go Wildcat and you all still can't stop it).
Doesn't hurt that we have some film on your defense either. ULL just brought in some CB coach from Auburn to be their defensive coordinator. Nobody really knew what they were going for defensively.
 
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I totally disagree. Neither teams defense is good and inthink they both suck. In saying that, UK's offense is better than UNC's and I think SC's offense is better than ULL's. Either way, this game is going to be a shoot out and a fun game all around.

Neither team should be afraid of the other, as they are both similar in talent on both sides of the ball.

"UK's offense is better than UNC's"

You think so??
 
i think scar fans are forgetting that while we give up yards as well that we actually are really good at forcing TO's. granted i dont see a lot of opportunities for an int in this game but we will get 1 or 2 TO's this game as well. so i would hope that the TO's balance out in this game and it just becomes a matter of skill and execution.
 
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I'm not entirely sure if TOP will be a big immediate factor, depending on if UK can bust them open, but Coach Dawson said he attributes some of the tired legs on defense in the fourth quarter to his play-calling throughout the game. Said he has to do a better job of grinding the game out and giving the defense more of a break. Pains me a bit to agree, but he does. I understand how it's difficult though, when a team stacks the box and plays the press out on the perimeter, and almost all of your receivers are beating them on every play, it's tempting to heave it downfield and let them take it to the house.
I think UK will play more physical though. I expect Kentucky to run the ball 35-40 times in this game. Boom Williams should get 15-20, Mikel Horton should get 10-15, and JoJo Kemp should get 5-10 (unless we go Wildcat and you all still can't stop it).
Doesn't hurt that we have some film on your defense either. ULL just brought in some CB coach from Auburn to be their defensive coordinator. Nobody really knew what they were going for defensively.
I guess SC will need to play 3-4 games before it is known if the D "sucks" or not, but just looking at the first game vs. a really good offense on a NEUTRAL field, holding UNC to 13 points seems like a good first step, not like this UNC team was an offense that lost much of anything from last year in which it was one of the better offensive squads in FBS. It returned Sr QB that holds many school records, a veteran and highly ranked WR corps, all of its RB's, the entire OL etc. the same team that rang up 35 points last season on the number one ranked D (Clemson) and several other good D's including ND while averaging 36 ppg. Shutting out that O for the entire second half showed adjustments and improvements, and those 3 interceptions, 2 in the EZ which are being blamed on the UNC QB may or may not have been due to the SC D deploying and exercising a bait strategy based upon previous looks.
 
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If they're going to keep throwing for 1 TD, and 3 interceptions, then yes.
I for one would love to see a matchup between UK and UNC this year, the comparisons between the two in many threads are a bit disjointed, but likely those two teams would be very competitive against each other. If I had to pick who would win right now, I say UNC only because their offense seems equal to UK's but right now, Chizek's D looks a bit better. Too early to call, but maybe if you look at positions for each team you can get a feel. I think UNC has the QB advantage, WR advantage by a bit, RB is likely equal, ASIs OL and NC gets small edge at TE. On D, DL is close, LB favors NC maybe, secondary favors UK likely. Close call.
 
I'm not entirely sure if TOP will be a big immediate factor, depending on if UK can bust them open, but Coach Dawson said he attributes some of the tired legs on defense in the fourth quarter to his play-calling throughout the game. Said he has to do a better job of grinding the game out and giving the defense more of a break. Pains me a bit to agree, but he does. I understand how it's difficult though, when a team stacks the box and plays the press out on the perimeter, and almost all of your receivers are beating them on every play, it's tempting to heave it downfield and let them take it to the house.
I think UK will play more physical though. I expect Kentucky to run the ball 35-40 times in this game. Boom Williams should get 15-20, Mikel Horton should get 10-15, and JoJo Kemp should get 5-10 (unless we go Wildcat and you all still can't stop it).
Doesn't hurt that we have some film on your defense either. ULL just brought in some CB coach from Auburn to be their defensive coordinator. Nobody really knew what they were going for defensively.
This game will come down to how UK does against the run,( will we see some more 4 man fronts?) and how well Towels plays. If he can eliminate some of his mistakes and be more accurate we have a chance regardless of the run d. If he struggles and our run d struggles it will be difficult to win. If he is on and we limit SC on 1st and 2nd downs, I like UK's chances. It will be an interesting game for sure.
 
I for one would love to see a matchup between UK and UNC this year, the comparisons between the two in many threads are a bit disjointed, but likely those two teams would be very competitive against each other. If I had to pick who would win right now, I say UNC only because their offense seems equal to UK's but right now, Chizek's D looks a bit better. Too early to call, but maybe if you look at positions for each team you can get a feel. I think UNC has the QB advantage, WR advantage by a bit, RB is likely equal, ASIs OL and NC gets small edge at TE. On D, DL is close, LB favors NC maybe, secondary favors UK likely. Close call.
Probably comes down to coaching.
 
All in all I expect a game that will be based on grinding it out on the ground and whoever has the freshest legs on the D line in the 4th. I see SC playing more man and press but these corners are better than ULLs that were beat after half a step. If you give PT all day to throw then this game is going to be ugly and he will get 300+ yards. If you blitz and take chances at getting after him and really start shaking his confidence like Williams from UNC then good things will happen.
 
I for one would love to see a matchup between UK and UNC this year, the comparisons between the two in many threads are a bit disjointed, but likely those two teams would be very competitive against each other. If I had to pick who would win right now, I say UNC only because their offense seems equal to UK's but right now, Chizek's D looks a bit better. Too early to call, but maybe if you look at positions for each team you can get a feel. I think UNC has the QB advantage, WR advantage by a bit, RB is likely equal, ASIs OL and NC gets small edge at TE. On D, DL is close, LB favors NC maybe, secondary favors UK likely. Close call.

Not entirely sure about a WR advantage. Dawson was just saying last night that Garrett Johnson is as good as any receiver that he's had, and he had Kevin White at West Virginia just last season. There were also quite a few times that ULL's CBs were being very physical with our receivers when the ball got there, and our receivers still grabbed quite a few of them.
Also, I feel fairly certain that UNC doesn't have a RB advantage.
QB, it's a possibility. Williams is more consistent overall, but when Towles is on, he's on. He had a good practice yesterday, hitting majority of his targets, and he's confident that he'll be on. It's really hard to compare offensive lines though. They're going against ACC defensive lines from week to week. UK goes against SEC defensive lines (which is probably the strongest position in the SEC).
Tough call, really. The offenses will be different overall though.
 
Towles is the key and regarding his accuracy it's true he wasn't as bad as some think. I wasn't as disappointed in he misses as I was watching him progressively digress with each miss. He has a tendency to let misses or picks get in his head and start holding the ball too long and aiming instead of throwing.

I think you will definitely see them start him with come quick outs to spread the field and get his rhythm and confidence at SC then turn to the north south game later in the game. Which will lead to a good day for Patrick IMO
 
the problem for us is that we started out fast last year and then ended pretty poorly... even the ul game was more of a strong defensive performance than offense, and then we get what we had on saturday. im still optimistic that it was just a bad game with bad timing and we quit playing after we got up 2 scores but the reasons for optimism for us to win is still there.
1 boom, jojo, and mikel all looked better than last year physically.
2 the receivers looked real good. there were a few more td's out there that towles missed on.
3 the o-line looked better than last year. GAA got a lot of blitzes his direction being a true freshman and Toth is calling assignments now so i expect that to get cleaned up a bit this week
4 the seconday looked to be better.... possible a lot better by years end.

unfortunately we still dont know if our lb'ers are much better than last year and hatch is still out for this game and haven't heard if flannigan is cleared to play yet. d-line looked better but it needs to be a lot better than last year and we just don't know after that game. melvin and meant looked good in spurts though and getting cj back will help with depth.

i would expect a lot of blitzes up the middle to help with run support and our safety's will be playing up in the box... mcwilson and darius west will need to play big in run support.
 
the problem for us is that we started out fast last year and then ended pretty poorly... even the ul game was more of a strong defensive performance than offense, and then we get what we had on saturday. im still optimistic that it was just a bad game with bad timing and we quit playing after we got up 2 scores but the reasons for optimism for us to win is still there.
1 boom, jojo, and mikel all looked better than last year physically.
2 the receivers looked real good. there were a few more td's out there that towles missed on.
3 the o-line looked better than last year. GAA got a lot of blitzes his direction being a true freshman and Toth is calling assignments now so i expect that to get cleaned up a bit this week
4 the seconday looked to be better.... possible a lot better by years end.

unfortunately we still dont know if our lb'ers are much better than last year and hatch is still out for this game and haven't heard if flannigan is cleared to play yet. d-line looked better but it needs to be a lot better than last year and we just don't know after that game. melvin and meant looked good in spurts though and getting cj back will help with depth.

i would expect a lot of blitzes up the middle to help with run support and our safety's will be playing up in the box... mcwilson and darius west will need to play big in run support.
If that scenario plays out SOSwill dial up some deep slants, that is his bread and butter. Loves to throw 2-3 over the top as well, usually early or right after a TO.
 
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