8* 

Take Mississippi (#214)

When a team shows ‘quit’ in one game, there’s often a carryover effect in future tough matchups.  A team that falls apart on both sides of the football now has an ‘oh, no, it’s happening again’ mentality that is often very difficult to dig out of.  And when that team has a head coach who is on the hot seat, the chances of players buying in to the ‘we gotta dig deep to get back into this ballgame’  when facing adversity goes down with each successive week.

South Carolina got blitzed at LSU, an ugly 52-24 loss where they lost contact early.  They had a bye week to prep for Texas A&M last week; a prime bounceback spot.  Instead, the Gamecocks were no-shows, losing contact early once again in a 48-3 home loss.  Will Muschamp is likely to be gone at the end of the season and his team knows it.  There’s talent here, but the mentality and the effort are clearly lacking.

Lane Kiffin’s Rebels are a team primed to take advantage of a downtrodden, struggling foe.  They did just that in their last game, a 54-21 win over Vanderbilt where QB Matt Corral hit 31-34 passes with six TD’s and no interceptions.  Fresh and rested off their bye week, this potent offense is primed to put up touchdowns in bunches.  South Carolina had a three-way competition for the starting QB job in practice this week; not a team likely to be able to trade scores for four full quarters.  Chalk worth laying against a team that has a season long statistical profile that is far better than their current form!  Take Ole Miss.