South Carolina at Tennessee Line

Written by Steve Janus

The No. 13 South Carolina Gamecocks will look to hold onto their SEC East lead when they go on the road to take on the Tennessee Volunteers. The Gamecocks improved to 6-1 overall and 4-1 in the SEC with a hard fought 14-12 win at Mississippi State this past Saturday. The Volunteers struggles continued with a 6-37 loss at Alabama. They have now lost three straight overall and are 0-4 inside the conference. South Carolina knocked off Tennessee 38-24 last year, but the home team has won four straight in the series.

Taking a look at the week 9 college football lines, oddsmakers currently have the Gamecocks favored by 4-points over the Volunteers with the total set at 45 points.

South Carolina Gamecocks:

Last week’s win over Mississippi State came at a huge cost for the Gamecocks, as they lost star running back Marcus Lattimore for the rest of the season to a knee injury.

Lattimore is arguably the reason why South Carolina has just one loss on the season. The sophomore back had rushed for 818 yards and 10 touchdowns and also had 19 catches for 182 yards and another score.

To give you an idea of how much the Gamecocks relied on Lattimore, former starting quarterback Stephen Garcia is second on the team with 171 rushing yards and current quarterback Conner Shaw is third with 110 yards.

Head coach Steve Spurrier has came out and said the team with go with true freshman Brandon Wilds as their starting running back against Tennessee Wilds has rushed for 75 yards on 13 attempts.

With the running game likely taking a step back, it will be up to Shaw and the passing game to pick up the offense and keep this team rolling. Shaw went 20 of 28 for 155 yards and a touchdown in the win over Mississippi State, but also threw his first two interceptions of the season.

The Gamecocks will go up against a Tennessee defense that has been torched for 32 points and 383 yards of total offense per game in conference play. If South Carolina comes anywhere close to those numbers they will win this game easily, but I have a hard time seeing this offense put up those kind of stats without their best player.

Tennessee Volunteers:

The Volunteers know what it’s like to play without their best offensive player, as they have been without starting quarterback Tyler Bray for the last two games. Bray is expected to return later in the season, but the damage has already been done.

You won’t find a tougher start to a conference schedule than what the Volunteers have in 2011. They have already faced Florida, Georgia, LSU, and Alabama, with Arkansas waiting next in line after they face the Gamecocks.

While the offense hasn’t been able to put much of anything together without Bray in the lineup, this team had little hope of winning either of their last game against LSU and Alabama if he played.

Senior quarterback Matt Simms has completed just 42% of his attempts for 243 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions, and it doesn’t figure to get any easier this week against a South Carolina defense that ranks 1st in the nation, allowing just 133.7 passing yards a game.

If the Volunteers are going to have success moving the ball, they will likely have to turn to senior running back Tauren Poole, who has a team-high 462 yards on the ground. Poole rushed for 70 yards against LSU and 67 against Alabama. Those aren’t great numbers, but pretty impressive when you consider how good those teams are against the run and the lack of passing game Tennessee had to offer.

Betting Trends:

LSU is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 road games.

Tennessee is 5-18-3 ATS in their last 26 games as an underdog of 3.5-10.0.

Be sure to stop back and check out who Steve Janus has picked to win this week in college football.

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