South Carolina at UCF: Second Quarter Recap

In the second quarter, Carolina's struggles against UCF continued. The Gamecocks' offense and special teams committed some major mistakes over the course of the quarter. Dylan Thompson has completed a handful of passes, but he's been unable to lead a completed scoring drive. Several of his passes have sailed, and he bobbled a snap on a play when it looked like he could have found Damiere Byrd in the endzone. A botched punt looked like it might spell disaster for the Gamecocks, but Victor Hampton made a huge interception to stop that drive. UCF did add a field goal during the half, though, leading to a 10-0 Knights lead at the half.

Despite the ugly play so far, Carolina is only down 10. In that sense, what we need to hope for is that this game will be a tale of two halves, kind of like the Kentucky game last year. Much like that game, Carolina played very poorly in the first half, but it didn't allow the score to get out of hand. UCF is a more formidable opponent and isn't going to let us run over them in the second half. However, if we can score on our opening drive, we're right back in this one. Our defense is playing well enough in this one for us to win if our offense gets it together. Firs task? Establish the run. Mike Davis has only run the ball five times, Brandon Wilds none. That's unacceptable, and Spurrier indicated it would change in the second half.