It was an escape that Harry Houdini would've admired for South Carolina. The Gamecocks were able to get some late game heroics against the lowly Vanderbilt Commodores. SC turned to back up QB Zeb Noland for a late game scoring drive to get a 21-20 win. Gamecock Coach Shane Beamer said after the game "We made it as ugly as possible".
South Carolina gained over 400 yards, as they had a 434-312 advantage in total offense. However, four Gamecock turnovers kept Vandy in it. The Commodores were plus two in turnover margin. Two of those Vandy takeaways came on interceptions from Gamecock starting QB Luke Doty.
SC opened the scoring with a first quarter TD drive of over 5 minutes. The Gamecocks went 75 yards on 12 plays, QB Luke Doty found Nick Muse for a short TD pass to put them up 7-0. Vandy would get a 42 yard FG to make it 7-3. South Carolina scored on their ensuing possession hitting on a big play. Jaheim Bell took a Doty pass 82 yards to the house. South Carolina would lead 14-3 after the first.
Vandy would score on a short field after a South Carolina turnover. Vandy RB Rocko Griffith punched it in from one yard out with 5 minutes left in the 1st half. The Gamecocks took a 14-10 lead into the half.
The South Carolina offense was non-existent in terms of scoring until late in the 2nd half. Vandy went up 17-14 in the 3rd quarter, they got a 52 yard big play strike to Will Sheppard. That capped an 89 yard, 8 play drive for Vandy. They took that 3 point lead into the 4th.
Both defenses held the opposing offense at bay most of the 4th quarter. Vandy got a FG from 28 yards out to extend the lead to 20-14 with 1:36 left in the game. Zeb Noland took over when Luke Doty left the game after aggravating a lingering injury. Noland led the Gamecocks on a march of the field. He went get them into the red zone, all the way down to the Vandy 9. Noland then found Xavier Legette in the end zone with 37 seconds to go. Parker White hit the PAT and that proved to be the game winner.
Noland finished 5 of 8 for 75 yards and the game winning TD pass. South Carolina's Jaheim Bell led all receivers with 6 catches for 136 yards and a score. Will Sheppard had 3 catches for 120 yards and a TD for Vandy. South Carolina got their first SEC win of the season and sit 4-3 overall. After the heart breaking loss for Vandy, they now have dropped 16 straight conference games.
South Carolina now goes into an extremely difficult second half slate. The Gamecocks are at Texas A&M this week, then have Florida at home, a road trip to Mizzou, and finish by hosting Auburn and Clemson in back to back weeks. The Gamecocks would have to find a way to take two of the next five to finish .500.
