South Carolina Report Card

OFFENSE

A couple of players saved the grade — and the day — for the Gamecocks against Kentucky. Jason Barnes built off his performance at Ole Miss, and the Stephen Garcia era might now officially be under way. You saw the arm and improv ability out of Garcia that could become the staple of USC's offense. The bad: Chris Smelley played one of the worst games of his career after arguably his best. And the run game with Mike Davis was again abysmal. B-minus.

DEFENSE

For the second straight week, South Carolina went lockdown in the second half. The Gamecocks made the Wildcats look like they were running a Pop Warner offense at times. You could hear Jasper Brinkley, Emanuel Cook and Darian Stewart's hits pop in the press box. Chris Culliver delivered the key interception in the final minute to seal the game. A.

SPECIAL TEAMS

You'd think Captain Munnerlyn's blocked field goal return for a TD and long kickoff return, which set up another score, would carry the Gamecocks to an 'A'. But we can't go lightly on Ryan Succop's nightmare day. Succop missed four field goals Saturday — as many as he missed in 2006, and in 2007. Everyone loves the kid, and special teams coach Ray Rychleski said the team won the game for him, but this was dreadful. B-minus.

COACHING

Ellis Johnson again put together a masterful gameplan for the defense. The play-calling was pretty spot-on all day, too. The coaches can't help it if Smelley misses his targets by a country mile, or if players drop the passes that are delivered (Davis had one, Weslye Saunders a couple, too). Steve Spurrier pulled the plug at just the right time, going to Garcia. He had to give the SEC's offensive player of the week every chance to untrack himself. And kudos to Spurrier for letting Garcia run a pretty full version of the playbook (including the trick play). The coaches saw the mismatch on Barnes and continued to punish UK for it. Then, after all those fade patterns, they went to an inside slant (on a big third down) to Joe Hills. A-minus.

OVERALL

In so many regards, this was a game South Carolina should have lost. The Gamecocks made critical errors in the first half, with four turnovers and a couple of missed field goals. But, let's examine what matters here. The defense again played terrific. USC now has the right quarterback on the field, someone with a big arm and pure athletic ability. And the Gamecocks won the game, taking SEC games in back-to-back weeks after going a year without a conference win. They have to feel good about that. But not too good. Not after Florida embarrassed, and probably angered, the defending national champions. LSU comes to town this week. A.