Biscuits & SEC Week 10 game-by-game recaps 2024
The Gamecocks deliver a beatdown in Columbia and Ole Miss guts the Hogs in Fayetteville.
By: Bossman, Hammer
Week 10 saw the Texas A&M stranglehold on the SEC come crashing down as Sandstorm rang through the night at Williams Brice stadium in an absolutely electric atmosphere. Outside of Columbia, chalk mostly held, but we did get some uncomfortably close games for a few contenders. Oh, and Diego Pavia is STILL Hugh Freeze’s daddy. Bow down, Hugh.
The crew’s picks struggled last week. For some unknown reason, Bossman and Hammer doubted Vandy would win straight up and paid the price. The Waco Kid is clinging to his lead against the spread, while Bossman and Hammer remain tied in the straight-up column. Let’s eat some crow and get to the recaps.
Bossman: Well, damn! Ole Miss went into Fayetteville and rocked their s***. Jaxson Dart must’ve been smokin’ that Hog pack all week because blazed those dudes. Since I hadn’t seen the Rebels offense put it all together this season (at least in conference play), I was hesitant to pick them to cover, but I also didn’t think Arkansas would score much on this stellar Ole Miss defense. Wrong on both counts. Ole Miss scored on a TD on 8/12 drives in the game, and one of those drives was the final drive to seal the game before running out the clock. That’s absolutely absurd. Arkansas also did what they do best, giving up a scoop-n-score and another fumble early in the fourth quarter. Arkansas wasn’t favored in this game, but they also weren’t’ expected to get blown out like this. Sam Pittman seems to be flirting with the hot seat again after it looked like he might have the Razorbacks back on track earlier this year. He’ll need to get back to work quickly, or the fanbase will sour on his tenure permanently. This is a solid win for the Rebels who have their biggest game of the year next week against Georgia.
Hammer: We’ve been waiting for the Ole Miss offense to wake up since conference play began, and they just might have done so on Saturday. Unfortunately for Razorback fans, the Hogs were the team that Ole Miss decided to wake up against. Ole Miss still struggled to run the ball effectively, finishing with 132 yards on 3.1 YPC, but Jaxson Dart more than made up for that. The Rebels passing game looked incredible as Dart finished with 515 yards passing and six touchdowns on 25/31 attempts. Easily the best game by an SEC in conference play so far in 2024. Dart also did this without his favorite target and leading receiver, Tre Harris, who was out with an injury. Ole Miss deserves a ton of credit for going into Fayetteville for an 11 am kick and pounding the Hogs. For Arkansas, you are what you are at this point. Every once in a while (see Tennessee game) they can punch up. But for the most part, they are a solid to decent team that will lose the games they should lose and win the games they should win. That isn’t a bad place to be. The Hogs are also battling the injury bug as starting QB Taylen Green got hurt in this one, and leading rusher Ja’Quinden Jackson did not play. Just lick your wounds during the bye week and get ready for Texas, Hogs.
Bossman: Dadgum Diego Pavia. Why on earth do I keep betting against this kid, and why did I bet on Hugh Freeze who was already 0-2 against the man they call Diego Stones? What a dumb decision by me. Pavia owns Freeze and he did it again on Saturday. His stats weren’t overly impressive, but the kid is just a winner and makes clutch plays when it counts the most. On offense, Auburn is just completely lost. Vanderbilt’s defense isn’t bad, but how can you only score seven freaking points on this team? At home? It’s totally inexcusable. Another game, another week where Auburn fans are left scratching their heads.
Hammer: Diego Pavia beating Hugh Freeze three consecutive years is one of the funniest things to happen this football season. Pavia has gone into Jordan Hare in consecutive years and handed Auburn double-digit losses. Pavia owns Hugh Freeze. And Pavia didn’t even play that well, finishing 9/22 for 143 yards and two TDs through the air, while being limited to 26 yards rushing. It was not his best performance, but Vandy did what he did. They didn’t turn the ball over, burned the clock on offense, and played sound defense. It certainly helped that Hugh Freeze inexplicably forgot about Jarquez Hunter AGAIN. After rushing for 278 yards on 23 carries against Kentucky, Freeze decided to give Hunter the ball just 12 times in this game. Hunter finished with 50 yards on the day. It makes no sense, but that is Freeze for you. Clark Lea is a better coach, and he showed it on Saturday. Great win for Vandy who is now bowl-eligible.
Bossman: Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear. I almost nailed the score of this one, picking Georgia 35-21. Why? Because while the Dawgs are a much better team on paper, offensively, they haven’t clicked all season. That happened again on Saturday, and the only reason Georgia was able to overcome three Carson Beck picks was because DJ Lagway got injured in the first half when Florida had momentum. Who knows what happens if Lagway stays in the game. Still, the Dawgs survive-and-advance. As for Florida, this team looks much better than they did earlier this year and seems to keep improving. However, they need Lagway who is the engine of this current iteration of the 2024 Gators. Without him, I don’t think Florida has much in the tank.
Hammer: Another week, another weird Georgia game where they look discombobulated. Florida led 13-6 at half time, and the turnover virus is still very much infecting Carson Beck, who threw three more interceptions in this one. It might be time to talk about playing Gunner Stockton or someone else at QB, cause Beck is playing really badly right now. He has 11 interceptions in their last five games. I doubt we see Stockton but, man, Beck has been bad. The Dawgs got lucky in this one because Florida has nothing when DJ Lagway went down. Who knows if Florida would have won if Lagway never gets hurt, it was clear when third-stringer Aidan Warner came in that the Gators were doomed. I really don’t have much else to say here. Georgia struggled again, they looked off, but they got a win against an average Florida team with their third-string QB. Georgia can’t play like that this week against Ole Miss and win.
Bossman: GOODNESS. What a scene it was in Willy B on Saturday night. The Gamecocks jumped on the Aggies early, weathered an A&M charge before half-time, then held the Aggies scoreless int the second half to shove the maroon & white out of South Cackalacky. I was really surprised with how badly A&M’s defense played, especially tackling. A&M had multiple sacks and TFLs turn into big gains for the Gamecocks, and they also had trouble tackling in the secondary. The vaunted second half adjustments that Mike Elko is known for also never materialized. This may have been the coming out or “turn the corner” game for LaNorris Sellers, who looked like the absolute dog that South Carolina fans have expected him to be since he stepped on campus. Darth Specs threw for 244 yards and two TDs, to go along with 106 rushing yards and a TD. The Aggies also had serious trouble bottling up Rocket Sanders, who had 7.2 YPC for 144 yards and two TDs. With how the Aggie rush defense played against LSU (24 total yards; 0 rushing yards in the second half), seeing them give up nearly 300 rushing yards to Carolina was seriously surprising. Marcel Reed didn’t played a mediocre game, but he was put in disadvantageous positions all night as A&M lost the field position battle and Elko made a few questionable fourth down calls deep in Gamecocks territory that the Aggies weren’t able to convert. Overall it was a disappointing performance from A&M, but South Carolina is no joke. This team easily could have been 6-1 coming into this game. Shane Beamer has done a helluva job with this team and Carolina is lucky to have him.
Hammer: Woah. This was a beatdown. Everyone knew this would be a tough game. Williams-Brice at night is tough as hell. Plus, South Carolina was coming off a bye. But no one saw a 24-point win coming. The Gamecocks got off to a hot start going up 14-0, before A&M stormed back and went into halftime tied at 20. Then the second half was all Gamecocks as they outscored A&M 24-0. South Carolina’s offensive explosion was so surprising, especially against a good Aggie defense. Shane Beamer’s squad refused to be tackled and finished with 530 yards of total offense, their biggest output of the entire season. LaNorris Sellers looked better than he has all year, and Rocket Sanders played the game of his life, rushing for 144 yards and two TDs and adding 95 yards receiving. This was college football at its finest. Texas A&M was riding high, leading the SEC, and ran into a buzzsaw. The crowd was going wild in Columbia, and their team delivered a night they will never forget. Texas A&M had no answer defensively and the Gamecock defensive line frustrated A&M all night and put the clamps on in the second half. Massive win for Sahme Beamer and that program. For the Aggies, everything is still in front of them as that was their first conference loss, but getting to the SEC title and potentially the CFP just got a lot harder.
Bossman: The Vols keep winning, but they don’t make it pretty. Putting up 477 total yards, you’d think Tennessee would have throttled Kentucky and hung 40. Not the case. Kentucky led this game 10-7 at the half, and the Vols punted three times, missed three field goals, and gave away a fumble. Lucky for Tennessee, their defense came to the rescue, picking off mistake-prone Brock Vandagriff twice, and the offense did just enough to get a 10 point win. You would like to see this top-10 Volunteer team, with SEC title and CFP dreams, absolutely smoking teams like Kentucky at this point in the year, but this team is stuck in third gear. They’re gaining just enough speed to keep winning, but if they stay in third gear, someone will zoom past them and put them to rest. We’ll see what happens the next few weeks, but for now, Tennessee survives-and-advances…
Hammer: Similar to Georgia, Tennessee keeps playing with their food. They keep winning, but they don’t look great in doing so. Coming off a bye week, the Vols struggled on offense out of the gates yet again, trailing Kentucky 10-7 at the half. They woke up in the second half and ultimately got the win but it still feels clunky. Nico had one of his best games, going 28/38 for 292 yards and one TD. As usual, Dylan Sampson had a big night, rushing for 142 yards and two TDs. This weekend it was the Tennessee receivers who let the team down, dropping too many passes and a few of which could have been touchdowns. The Vol offense still can’t quite find its rhythm. For Kentucky, they fought hard in this one. I was worried the team had completely given up, but that didn’t appear to be the case in this one. They played hard, and fought tooth and nail, but just didn't have enough offensive firepower to score against good defenses. Losing Brock Vandagriff to injury hurt the team as well, but let’s not act like they were lighting it up before he went down. The Wildcats have let this season get away from them as they sit at 3-6 overall and 1-6 in the SEC. Tough times in Lexington.
