The South Carolina football team got a much-needed win over Kentucky last Saturday. The 35-13 victory snapped a two-game losing streak and gave the Gamecocks their first conference win this season. 

“Just so, so proud of our team, the way they responded this week with the negativity out there. They just went right back to work,” head coach Shane Beamer said. “There’s perception, and there’s reality. We knew where we were as a team and knew we hadn’t come close to playing our best and that we needed to be better tonight in all three phases.”

South Carolina did play better against the Wildcats. The team seemed to mitigate some of its mistakes from the first few weeks, took over in the second quarter and cruised to the finish line. 

The Gamecocks scored multiple touchdowns on both offense and defense. The team had no problem moving downfield, recording over 340 yards of offense, its highest total this season. 

South Carolina improved to 3-2 this season and 1-2 in conference play. The team is on a bye this week. The following week, the team begins a gauntlet of games against the No. 13, No. 5, No. 10, No. 4 and No. 6 teams in the country.

“We know the month of October doesn’t get any easier,” Beamer said. “Tonight was a really good start and certainly a game that we, let’s be real, had to have in so many ways.”

Here are three takeaways from the Gamecocks’ 35-13 win over Kentucky. 

Vandrevius Jacobs is emerging as WR1

Entering the season, there were a lot of questions about the Gamecocks' receiving room. Vaandrevius Jacobs is answering them. 

The redshirt sophomore is in his second year with the Gamecocks after transferring from Florida State. Last season, he had 12 catches for 181 yards and no touchdowns. 

Five games in, Jacobs has already blown last year’s numbers out of the water. He has 18 catches for 323 yards and two touchdowns following the Kentucky game. 

“Dre did a great job tonight. We made him a captain tonight because all that kid does is just work,” Beamer said. “I feel like we have a really good receiving room.”

Jacobs’ production has increased as the season has gone on. He started the season with zero catches against Virginia Tech, but he led the team with 57 yards in week two against South Carolina State. 

Like the rest of the team, his production dipped against Vandy, hauling in two passes for 30 yards. He responded to that with a seven-catch, 128-yard performance against Missouri. 

He caught five passes for 108 yards against the Wildcats. 

Nyck Harbour is the team’s second-leading receiver with 11 catches for 220 yards and a touchdown. Irmo grad Donovan Murph has five catches for 94 yards, and Brian Rowe Jr. has eight catches for 73 yards and a touchdown. 

“We take what the defense gives you,” Beamer said. “We’ve got to continue to get those guys involved for sure.”

Defense got a needed confidence boost

After a brutal showing against Vanderbilt, the South Carolina defense got a much-needed confidence boost and dominated the Wildcats. 

The team returned two turnovers for touchdowns in the second quarter to take the lead and snatch all momentum. Jatius Geer had a 41-yard scoop-and-score moments before Gerald Kilgore returned an interception 45 yards. 

Outside of the two for touchdowns, South Carolina forced two more turnovers, recovering a fumble and grabbing another interception. 

“Clayton [White] talked about it to the defense last night, ‘Don’t just win the turnover battle, we want to dominate this thing,” Beamer said. “Our guys were certainly opportunistic.” 

The group made life miserable for Kentucky’s freshman quarterback with constant pressure and six sacks. South Carolina’s tackling problem from the weeks before was less of an issue, especially as the game went on. 

“We’ve got to make sure if one guy misses the tackle, there’s 10 more showing up there in a hurry, and I saw a lot of that,” Beamer said. “It’s fun to watch those guys fly around.”

South Carolina’s defense is about to be tested in a serious way as the team gets ready to play some of the top offenses in the conference. 

South Carolina still has adjustments to make before running the gauntlet 

The next five games on the Gamecocks’ schedule will make-or-break their season. 

South Carolina enters its bye week 3-2 and 1-2 in SEC play. The team will come out of the bye with a gauntlet of games at No. 13 LSU, vs. No. 5 Oklahoma, vs. No. 10 Alabama, at No. 4 Ole Miss and at No. 6 Texas A&M. 

The Gamecocks will need to win at least one of those games to reach bowl eligibility, with only Coastal Carolina and Clemson remaining on the schedule. The team would likely need to win all five to make the College Football Playoff. 

South Carolina was 2-3 against those teams last season, beating Texas A&M and Oklahoma.  The team still has some adjustments it can make this season to better its chances. 

The offensive line and running game continue to slowly churn along. South Carolina had its best rushing outing of the season against Kentucky after an abysmal performance rushing for negative yards against Missouri.  

Most of that production against Kentucky came from Sellers, though. Rahsul Faison and Oscar Adaway III continue to take handoffs but see minimal gains. Matt Fuller took the most carries against Kentucky, rushing 19 times for 48 yards and a touchdown. 

“We’ve got to be able to get these other running backs going, for sure,” Beamer said.

Special teams is another area Beamer said he wants to see his team improve. The Gamecocks have had a couple of kicking mistakes and an incorrectly executed fake punt in the Kentucky game.

“I would say the one thing that was disappointing tonight was our special teams,” Beamer said. “We just weren’t very clean.”

Special teams is a key aspect of the style the Gamecocks like to play, dubbed “Beamer Ball.” The team will need some Beamer Ball success to compete against the gauntlet.