By By David Cloninger
Copyright postandcourier
COLUMBIA — Shane Beamer didn’t open with the most obvious reason for why South Carolina was throttled 31-7 by Vanderbilt at Williams-Brice Stadium. He didn’t heap the defeat on losing quarterback LaNorris Sellers for the entire second half.
“Just a lot of not good-enough football. When you have that much self-inflicted mistakes, that falls on the head coach and got to get it corrected,” he said. “When you turn the ball over four times in the SEC, you’re going to get your rear ends kicked, and that’s what happened tonight.
“Just not enough winning football.”
Sellers’ absence didn’t help, but Beamer correctly pointed out the other issues. The maligned offense was doing OK with Sellers in there, but a mistake he made started the boulder rolling. The Gamecocks never could get in front of it afterward.
Vanderbilt socked USC in the lip with a nonchalant touchdown drive to open the game, only to see Sellers and the Gamecocks immediately match it. Then USC forced a three-and-out and had the ball in great territory, starting a drive at its 43-yard line.
The Gamecocks moved to the Vandy 13 and faced third-and-long. Sellers dropped back and had two men on a slant, one intermediate and one in the end zone.
He threw to the short route, only to see lineman Zaylin Wood jump to intercept the pass. USC center Boaz Stanley had done his job, pushing Wood back from his quarterback, but then Wood just stood in front of Stanley, waiting.
From there, the mistakes mounted — before and after Sellers left the game. Stanley had a bad snap immediately after Sellers took a sack. Illegal substitutions. False starts, including two on one drive.
The Gamecocks have committed 23 penalties for 183 yards, not the worst totals in the SEC, but not nearly the best. Then there’s the errors without flags, particularly on offense where USC is the worst or close to it in nearly every category.
