welcome back to another episode of rock boys football a fascinating SEC matchup South Carolina heading on the road to play Kentucky week two and it went back and watched the Southern Miss game for Kentucky and I'll say this I get it's about two quarters and a half of takeaways this Kentucky offense looks a little bit different with Brock Vandergriff and I think Brock Vandergriff probably has to do a better job of you know Towing the line in terms of being a Difference Maker but also taking care of the football this kid bring a lot more juice to this Kentucky offense than Devon Larry did last year then you look at South Carolina we're going to get into you know some significant question marks we have about the South Carolina offense but I'll start with this this South Carolina defense it's legit and one of the things we talked about most with South Carolina during the off season was can can they get some sort of pass rush going it was a disaster rush in the P for last year for South Carolina they certainly are getting it going and I think Dylan Stewart might be the best of the bunch I think he might be probably is right now the best true freshman that we see in the country and so South Carolina on defense presents some challenges to this Kentucky offense we still have question marks about this South Carolina offense itself though we're going to get into it before we doing as always though number one and most importantly would love to hear from you guys in the comments section the best part about doing these game predictions is whether you agree with me whether you disagree with me whether you disagree with the pick the best part is talking ball with you guys in the comments comment section so let it fly in the comment section if yall do enjoy the content consider subscribing to the channel without further Ado let's get into this one I want to start with what I think is probably the most fascinating matchup in this football game the Kentucky offense going up against the South Carolina defense now let's start with kuy's offense you know Brock Vander if you can tell why he was a five-star Prospect coming out of high school this kid in terms of arm Talent is extremely Dynamic there's not a throw that Brock Vandergriff cannot make on the football field I felt like at times against Southern Miss might have been trying to do a little bit too much but at the same time you brought Brock Vandergriff in to be a Difference Maker like you kind of have to live with him trying to make some of those big time throws and towing the line a little bit I think Brock Vandergriff can be a Difference Maker in the Kentucky offense and if you get him Towing that line the right way in terms hey I'm going to make the big time throws into Tight Windows but also keep the football out of Harm's Way this is a quarterback that you can win a lot of football games with I think you have Elite pass catchers on the outside not enough people talk about this Kentucky wide receiver and guys like Dan key and Barry and brown but also adding a guy like jamori mcklin in the transfer portal you know Brock Vandergriff has a a lot of wide receivers that can do different things in this Kentucky offense right Barry and brown one of the most purely explosive players with the football in his hands Dan key extremely physical at the catch Point jamor Macklin probably the best allaround wide receiver that Kentucky has but all three of these guys can operate in different situations and do different things really well and so I look at this Kentucky offense and say again one it was against Southern Miss we didn't really get a full four quarters Brock Vandergriff in these weapons I'm intrigued and what Brock Vandergriff can do with his likes I'm getting some gamer vibes from Brock Vandergriff and what I mean by Gamers is this kid's going to do what it takes to win football games I'm not sure if you got that from Devon Larry in 2020 three you're gonna get that from Brock Vandergriff kind of like we talked about with Brady cook in 2023 was at Missouri did it always look pretty for Brady cook no but he was a guy that always seemed to get the job done and move the chains and put points up on the board you know Brock Vandergriff is a very talented quarterback but he also has that gamer about him that I think's really exciting now you look at South Carolina's defense I suddenly the secondary looks a lot better with a good pass rush I'll start I'll start off with saying that we kind of talked about it in the offseason and I think a lot of the critiques on the secondary should have been more towards the pass rush for South Carolina I think the South Carolina secondary obviously getting their hands on football as forc and turnovers but this pass rush is it's elite I mean Dylan Stewart one is just so physically gifted as a true freshman but more importantly like as a pure football player as a pass rusher this kid knows what he's doing and can win outside the shoulder can win inside can win with some speed to power wide variety of pass rush moves that Dylan Stewart put on display in his first ever Collegiate football game that was about as impressed I've been with the true freshman and we kind of set it all off season like this kid can play and is gonna bring a lot of juice to this pass rush Kyle Canard geord Tech transfer he looked really good TJ Sanders on the inside we kind of knew what he was I think the biggest story for South Carolina is I think this defense is going to keep them in the football game now the biggest question for South Carolina in terms of how good they can be in the SEC is what is this offense going to look like and I guess that's a nice segue to get into the offense Lenor salers 10 of 23 for buck 14 didn't look that comfortable at least in my opinion I know a lot of South Carolina fans would probably agree with that take and I think outside of Lenor sers the offensive line I still have question marks about you saw a little bit of tree saw a little bit of Josiah Thompson you can tell this South Carolina offensive line is still trying to find not only the best five but I think a little bit more chemistry I mean in terms of picking up some blitzes and stunts they kind of look lost we late getting to some assignments and that certainly didn't help Lenor sers and in the Run game it it wasn't great either it wasn't like South Carolina was physically imposing their will on an Old Dominion team which doesn't bode well for looking at that Kentucky matchup where you're gonna have to try to plot guys like Dion Walker on the inside and so as of right now I think a lot of South Carolina fans would probably agree with this this offense looks quite onedimensional like I don't think there's a ton of confidence in Lenor sellers to be pushing the ball down the field I don't think there was any difference makers guys that really impressed me at the wide receiver room and so I I think the South Carolina offense is going to be very run centered now my question is the offensive line good like hey I know Lenor sers is a very good athlete I know rocket Sanders when healthy is a very good running back they have the pieces to have a really dynamic an effective Run game but you got to have an offensive line that can win at the point of attack and I don't know if we saw that for South Carolina week one against Old Dominion and I think the question is if they can't do it against Old Dominion what makes us think they can do it in SEC play now the one caveat to this and I think the bright spot for South Carolina is I think this unit only gets better like this is still an extremely young unit that has guys that are true freshman or are seconde players on the offensive line combined with a couple guys that are new to the offensive line through the transfer portal so I think this unit can get better I'm not ready to just kind of throw them out and say they're going to be bad all year but it certainly wasn't kind of what we were looking for week one against Old Dominion now you look at kuy's defense this Kentucky defense it's going to be just about as good as we've seen Mark stops have it and and Coach stops does a phenomenal job with defenses quietly kind of consistently has top 25 units the front Seven's really good the secondary is really good too and I think the biggest you know X Factor in this game is can South Carolina block up Kentucky and get this run game going like when you talk about guys like Dion Walker or weaver or silver or a guy like Dumis Johnson I thought was huge for this Kentucky defense at the linebacker spot specifically in this kind of match up against South Carolina where there's going to be a lot of read options your linebackers are going to have to be disciplined with their eyes a guy like Dumis Johnson has been in all SEC All-American caliber linebacker at Georgia and you can tell that this kid has played a lot of football over the last couple years because he's consistently in the right spot at the right time making plays I think Kentucky I you know I don't know if they were kind of missing this piece last year but Dumis Johnson seems to be the glue that is holding this Kentucky defense not holding it together but kind of bringing it together I think Dumis Johnson had a phenomenal game and I I'm really high on him heading into SEC play and then you look at the secondary and say we think the secondary is going to be really good and kind of matched up against these South Carolina wide receivers can Kentucky just kind of load the Box stop the run and kind of leave their leave their defensive backs on Islands because I don't know if South Carolina showed you anything that you're kind of fearing what South Carolina can do in this passing attack and so kind of getting into the pick and it it sounds like I'm low on South Carolina maybe I am reading too much into a week one performance against Old Dominion that being said I think a lot of South Carolina fans are in the same boat you South Carolina's going to have to play significantly better if they want to go on the road and beat a Kentucky team that is very solid top to bottom and so I think the big keys to this matchup is one can South Carolina get the Run game going because I think that's going to be when this offense looks the best and then on the defensive side of the football can they force Brock Vandergriff into some turnovers because again Brock Vandergriff is going to be a quarterback that's a little bit of a gunslinger he wants to be a Difference Maker he's going to make some high level throws but he's also going to put the ball In Harm's Way a little bit and so if South Carolina wins this game it's probably going to be the back of this defense specifically this pass rush getting after Brock Vandergriff and forcing some turnovers but getting into this pick you look at Kentucky sitting at nine points right now as the favorite you know I'll take Kentucky because I think this is a tough matchup for South Carolina where they're going to want to come the Run try to run the football on the road here I don't know if they can against this Kentucky front seven and I think you look at you look at the uh South Carolina offense and say if they can't run the football I don't know if I have a a a ton of confidence that they can move the football consistently and I think Kentucky has the difference makers on offense headlined by Brock Vandergriff to put up enough points I'm gonna go with Kentucky I'm not selling my stock on South Carolina this was a team that I thought was really fascinating if Lenor sers could be a Difference Maker we haven't seen that yet and so I think this South Carolina team can be dangerous when you have a quarterback like Lenor sellers but right now you see a little bit more of a complete team for Kentucky than you do at South Carolina so I'm going to take Kentucky N9 and a half points we'll lock it in we'll close it out on that 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