With three games left in the regular season, Arkansas is staring at a tough road and not much margin for error. South Carolina comes to Razorback Stadium on Saturday night carrying postseason momentum, while the Razorbacks are still trying to piece together a way to finish games the right way.
Kickoff is set for 5:45 p.m. CT in Fayetteville, with the game on SEC Network and on the Arkansas Razorbacks Sports Network.
South Carolina enters at 6-3 overall and 4-3 in the SEC, while Arkansas sits at 3-6 and 1-5 in league play. The series has gone Arkansas’ way overall, with the Razorbacks leading 14-10.
The betting line has South Carolina favored by 7.5 points, with the over/under at 51.5 total points on FanDuel.
The numbers don’t give Arkansas much help. ESPN’s matchup predictor gives the Razorbacks just a 22.7% chance to beat No.
17 South Carolina, and ESPN Football Power Index puts Arkansas at only a 0.1% chance to reach bowl eligibility. That would require the Razorbacks to win out, which the analytics say is a long shot.
South Carolina’s outlook is much brighter. The Gamecocks are ranked No. 7 in this week’s FPI rankings and have a 7.8% chance of making the College Football Playoff for the first time. ESPN gives them a 10.6% chance to win out.
Still, Razorback Stadium has not exactly been a comfortable stop for South Carolina over the years. Since joining the SEC in 1992, the Gamecocks have won only twice in Fayetteville. Shane Beamer also knows the challenge of coming to Arkansas, after losing his latest meeting there 49-30 with Spencer Rattler at quarterback.
Arkansas, meanwhile, has spent the past month trying to solve the same problem: closing out games. Three of its last four have gone down to the fourth quarter, including losses to Tennessee, 24-17, and Auburn, 26-23.
The Razorbacks are 0-2 this season in one-possession games, with both of those coming in the last four games. Their lone win in that stretch was a 31-20 victory over Vanderbilt on Oct.
Beamer said the Gamecocks will need a sharper effort than they showed last week.
“We’ve got a big challenge coming up on Saturday night,” Beamer said. “We will need to be a lot better than what we were last Saturday in all three areas.
This is a team that just continues to get better. Coach [Ryan] Silverfield has these guys playing hard and believing.
All you’ve got to do is turn on the tape.”
He also pointed to Arkansas’ recent finishes.
“Watch the tape, and all you’ve got to do is watch the tape and see that against Auburn the other day, at Auburn, they had Auburn down 10-0, and with 30 seconds left in the game, it is a tie game, and Auburn kicks a field goal to win it. Nobody wants to talk about their game against Tennessee, where it was a tie game with two minutes left in the game, and we know what kind of team Tennessee is also. They’re playing hard.”
Ryan Silverfield knows exactly what South Carolina brings to the table, starting with quarterback Lanorris Sellers. He called Sellers dynamic and pointed to the Gamecocks’ explosive stretch on offense, helped by offensive coordinator Kendal Briles, who was Arkansas’ offensive coordinator from 2020-22.
“But the quarterback, he’s their leading rusher and, obviously, he’s dynamic. I mean, he can throw in the pocket with the best of them, make any throw out there.
He can throw on the run, he can run himself. So, he’s as dynamic as a player as there is in college football.
They also have a receiver [Nyck Harbor] who’s back-to-back years as the No. 1 guy on Bruce Feldman’s ‘Freak List.’ Like, they’ve got some explosive playmakers.
“I’ve talked to quite a few NFL scouts that come through here, and they said, by far and away, South Carolina arguably has one of the best rosters in all of college football. So, really, really talented, and their offense is certainly hitting on all cylinders.”
Silverfield also singled out South Carolina’s defense, calling it deep at all three levels and difficult to move the ball against for four quarters. He described the Gamecocks as a four-down team that prefers to stay out of quarters coverage and uses pressure selectively, especially on base downs.
“Defensively, they are a four-down structure. Ideally, they stay out of a quarters and then try to go to a three-man rotation, whether it’s boundary or free safety based off of which linebacker they’re bringing," Silverfield said.
Base downs, they’ve pressured. Again, you guys are going to sit here and say, ‘Well, it’s going to change for us.’
Yes, they’ve blitzed four times on base downs and base situations - true blitzes - in a six-game breakdown, so that’s quite unique.
"They do bring single backer dogs, but they think their defensive line’s going to be able to handle the offensive line in front of them. Their linebacker is going to be able to do it. They can play coverage, and they certainly have shown they’re able to.
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