South Carolina Football: Winners and Losers from Gamecocks' Win vs. Kentucky

South Carolina rebounded quite nicely from that Week 5 loss to Auburn, dismantling Kentucky as expected, and it did so with sophomore Connor Shaw running the offense.

South Carolina gained 639 yards of total offense en route to a 54-3 win, the team's biggest since joining the SEC.

The Wildcats may not be a great measuring stick in the conference, but this win should at least restore confidence from the Gamecocks fans.

There are some clear winners and losers that emerged from South Carolina's blowout victory over Kentucky.

Hint: Stephen Garcia is not a winner.

Winner: Connor Shaw

Quarterback Connor Shaw took over the starting quarterback job for the Gamecocks in convincing fashion.

Shaw went 26-of-39 for 311 yards and three touchdown passes. Perhaps most importantly, he did not throw any interceptions. Turnovers were the Achilles' heel of Stephen Garcia and were largely to blame for him losing his starting position.

Shaw was precise and smart. He leaned on star receiver Alshon Jeffery, but not so much as to alienate the rest of the offense. In fact, three South Carolina receivers had at least five receptions.

This is a very small sample size, and clearly Shaw will need to play higher-caliber teams before he can fully be evaluated, but for now he looks very impressive.

Loser: Stephen Garcia

Stephen Garcia could already be deemed a loser from this game before the ball was even kicked off.

Garcia lost his starting job because of his tendency to turn the ball over. Nine interceptions and a 51.7 completion percentage are just not good enough to hold a quarterback spot in the SEC.

Perhaps Garcia thought there may be hope for himself if Shaw played terribly, but to the contrary, he played better than Garcia had at any point this season (a rather low benchmark.)

Even when Shaw left this game Garcia was not seen. Andrew Clifford and Dylan Thompson took over the mop up duty for the latter portion of the game.

Winner: South Carolina Receivers

The Gamecocks receivers can rejoice as for the time being it appears they have a competent quarterback throwing them the ball.

Connor Shaw completed passes to 10 different players and hit seven of them on multiple occasions.

South Carolina's offense had its way with the Kentucky secondary as five different players averaged at least 10 yards per reception.

This was the kind of win that gives confidence to a young quarterback and shows his receivers that they are a vital part of this offense.

Loser: Morgan Newton

Morgan Newton and the entire Kentucky offense were clearly overmatched in this contest, but to complete four of his 20 passes for 17 yards and an interception? C'mon, man!

Newton was never able to get the Wildcats offense moving. The team was an abysmal 2-13 on third-down conversions and had possession for a mere 21 minutes of game time.

Loser: Josh Clemons

When it rains it pours, and unfortunately for Kentucky Morgan Newton was not the only player who had a lackluster performance.

Running back Josh Clemons had only 10 yards on four carries.

It is hard to establish a running game when you are playing with such a large deficit looming over your heads, but Clemons was coming off a game last week in which he had 21 carries despite losing 35-7 to LSU.

At least in that game Kentucky showed a commitment to getting the freshman running back the ball. This week he was almost invisible the entire game.