Mizzou Football: Three things to watch in week four against South Carolina

The Quarterback Battle

South Carolina’s starting quarterback Jake Bentley went down for the season in the team’s first game, a loss to North Carolina. Muschamp then handed over the keys to the kingdom to true freshman Ryan Hilinski.

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Hilinski stands at 6’3″ and weighs 230 pounds. In two games, he’s completed 69 percent of his passes for 606 yards (an even seven yards per attempt) for four touchdowns and two interceptions. He led the Gamecocks to their only win of the young season over Charleston Southern in Week Two, 72-10, before falling last week to Alabama, 47-23.

But even in that loss, he played well, going 36-for-57 for 324 yards, two touchdowns and a pick. Hilinski now makes the first road start of his career, and he’ll be facing a quarterback who’s just as accurate as he is.

Kelly Bryant’s numbers on the season are very good: 63-for-93 for (67.7 percentage) for 798 yards (8.6 yards per attempt) with six touchdown passes and two interceptions.

In the loss to Wyoming, he had a career day, throwing for 423 yards and two touchdowns versus one interception. Then against West Virginia, he only threw for 150 yards, but three of his 17 completions went for touchdowns. And then last week against SEMO, he completed 15-of-20 passes for 225 yards for one touchdown and one interception.

With consecutive great performances behind them, the Tigers defense should be licking their chops for a shot at a true freshman quarterback. The Tigers badly need to improve on their six sacks on the season.

If they can do that to limit Hilinksi, the Tigers offense shouldn’t have much of a problem handling the rest. And here’s to another week with a pick-six by this smothering defense.

Prediction

South Carolina’s winning streak against Missouri comes to an end. Tigers win, 34-20.