South Carolina vs. Tennessee: Spread Info, Line, BCS Impact and Predictions

Steve Spurrier’s South Carolina Gamecocks will play their first game since star running back Marcus Lattimore tore his ACL. They will be traveling to Knoxville to play the Tennessee Volunteers, who are in search of their first SEC win of the season.

South Carolina has had a tumultuous couple of weeks. It started with incumbent quarterback Stephen Garcia being kicked off the team due to a number of personal problems and violating team rules. Then the Lattimore injury took a lot of the wind out of the sails for this team.

Yet, in spite of all that, the Gamecocks still control their destiny in the SEC East.

Tennessee has had a season to forget. The team’s three wins have come against Montana, Cincinnati and Buffalo. Times are tough in Knoxville right now, but one home victory over South Carolina will fix everything.

Where: Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee

When: Saturday, Oct. 29 at 7:15 p.m. EDT

Watch: ESPN2; ESPN3.com

Betting Line: South Carolina (-4)

You can see how much Marcus Lattimore’s injury is hurting South Carolina in the betting line. If he was able to play, there is no reason to think that they wouldn’t at least be double-digit favorites.

Even with him out, I can’t see Tennessee keeping the game close, because they are quite bad. They have lost their last two games by 62 points, albeit against Alabama and LSU.

Over/Under: 43.5

South Carolina has the potential to put up a lot of points in this game because Tennessee’s defense has not been very good. They have given up at least 33 points in three of their four SEC games.

Tennessee’s offense does not have quick strike ability, and has only scored 48 points in SEC play. They won’t be able to put up a lot of points against a quality South Carolina team.

South Carolina Injury Report

Out: RB Marcus Lattimore (Knee), FB Matt Coffee (Knee), T Kyle Nunn (Back), RB Jacob Baker (Knee), CB Akeem Auguste (Foot)

Questionable: T Rokevious Watkins (Head), TE Justice Cunningham (Calf), S Brison Williams (Quadricep), S Corey Addison (Head), RB Kenny Miles (Wrist)

Tennessee Injury Report

Out: DL Stephen Fowlkes (Academics), QB Tyler Bray (Thumb), DB Naz Oliver (Wrist), WR Justin Hunter (Knee), LB Herman Lathers (Ankle)

BCS/Top 25 Poll Implications

The Gamecocks have a lot of work to do the rest of the season if they want to win the SEC East and play in their second consecutive conference championship game.

Losing their best player will not make things easy, but they do have a comfortable schedule with only two games that could present a problem—at Arkansas next week and home against Clemson in the final week.

The good news is that Clemson is in the ACC and Arkansas is in the SEC West, so a win this week will almost guarantee them a division win.

Tennessee has no chance to make a BCS game, and will have to win out in order to get back in the conversation for the Top 25.

Keys To South Carolina Victory

With Lattimore out and Stephen Garcia gone, the offensive burden belongs to Connor Shaw. He had a good game against Kentucky three weeks ago but struggled against Mississippi State. He has to become the leader that this team needs if they want to win this game.

The defense has gotten better each week. Things started out dicey with 79 points allowed in the first two games, but they have allowed just 55 points in the five games since.

With Matt Simms struggling in his time as Tennessee’s starting quarterback, if the Gamecocks can put pressure on him to rattle his cage early, they will force a lot of turnovers and give their offense more chances to score.

Keys To Tennessee Victory

We just mentioned Matt Simms, and he has to play infinitely better than he has in the last two games if the Volunteers want to have a chance. He is 14-for-37 with 186 yards and three interceptions since taking over for the injured Tyler Bray.

The defense has to step up and force Connor Shaw into making turnovers on his side of the field to give Simms and the rest of the offense a short field to work with, because they aren’t capable of putting together long drives consistently.

Their running game has been virtually non-existent all season—115^th in the country—so a big game from Tauren Poole would also make life easier on Simms.

Prediction

Even without Marcus Lattimore, South Carolina should not have any problems in this game. Tennessee is bad and nothing they have done this season should lead you to think that they have a chance.

South Carolina 28, Tennessee 10