How South Carolina, Shane Beamer can upset No. 5 Tennessee in Columbia

The stiffest test of the second half to South Carolina’s 2022 season comes on Saturday when No. 5 Tennessee rolls into Columbia.

No one except for No. 1 Georgia has remotely slowed down UT’s high-flying offensive attack. Meanwhile, USC limps into this one after getting whipped at Florida last week.

So what on earth can South Carolina do to pull off a miracle upset? Here are a couple thoughts:

Force QB Hendon Hooker into turnovers

Volunteers QB Hendon Hooker has been borderline perfect in his second season in Knoxville.

He’s second in the Southeastern Conference in passing among non-air raid quarterbacks. His 181.81 passer rating is second nationally behind only Ohio State’s CJ Stroud. Hooker’s 24-to-2 touchdown-to-interception ratio is also the best in the SEC.

In short, that’s why he’s the front-runner for the Heisman Trophy.

South Carolina’s defense has struggled of late, especially against the run. It’s pass defense, though, has been about as good as was expected heading into the season.

The Gamecocks rank fourth in the SEC, allowing just 194 yards passing per contest. It’s also allowed just one team — Georgia in Week 3 — to pass for more than 270 yards in a game this fall, while ranking second in the league in fewest passing plays of 30-plus yards allowed.

Hooker has been virtually unstoppable this year outside of the Volunteers’ loss to Georgia two weeks ago. He’s averaging nearly 14 more yards passing in SEC play and is completing a slightly better percentage of his 178 passes in conference play than in the nonconference slate.

South Carolina is tied for fourth in the SEC in turnovers forced. It’ll have to snag at least a pick — or three, perhaps — to have a fighting chance in this one.

USC QB Spencer Rattler has to light the world on fire

The Spencer Rattler experiment at South Carolina to date has been, well, disappointing.

Rattler hasn’t been atrocious and his numbers don’t quite bear out how well he’s played, but he hasn’t elevated the Gamecocks offense in the way it was perceived he might when he committed to USC in December.

Big games call for big-time quarterback play, and boy does the ex-Oklahoma signal-caller have a chance on Saturday.

Tennessee, as good as its been, has shown a propensity for allowing big plays in the secondary. The Volunteers have given up more passing plays of 10-plus yards than anyone in the SEC. UT is also allowing the second-most passing yards per game in the league (288.4) ahead of only Vanderbilt.

Rattler has struggled for myriad reasons. Not having running back MarShawn Lloyd the last few weeks has created issues in setting up the play-action game. The offensive line, too, has had its issues in protection at varying points.

Still, if the Gamecocks are going to hang in there with one of the nation’s best, it needs a big game out of its prized signal-caller.

South Carolina has to handle Tennessee’s tempo

Tennessee is going to go fast. Really, the Volunteers are going to play offense at warp speed. That creates all sorts of problems for a defense.

UT head coach Josh Heupel and offensive coordinator Alex Golesh are currently guiding a unit that has run more plays (748) than all but five Power Five conference programs this fall. South Carolina, by contrast, has run just 615 offensive snaps this year.

Hooker is the linchpin for the unit, as he’s averaging more 10.1 yards per attempt and 14.15 yards per completion. Tennessee also has the league’s best offense havoc rate (11%), or, the percentage of plays run that result in a tackle for a loss, turnover or deflection, per College Football Data.

South Carolina has been disruptive this year, perhaps underratedly so. The Gamecocks rank 13th in the SEC in tackles for a loss but are averaging 10.4 quarterback hurries per contest, according to Pro Football Focus.

The Volunteers create problems because of how efficiently they run their offense, coupled with snapping the ball at a breakneck pace. South Carolina will have to create some negative plays to get Tennessee off schedule.

If not, it may be a long night in Columbia on Saturday.