{"id":81342,"date":"2025-10-18T12:46:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T16:46:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=81342"},"modified":"2025-10-18T13:00:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T17:00:36","slug":"oklahoma-vs-south-carolina-preview-key-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/10\/18\/oklahoma-vs-south-carolina-preview-key-players\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma vs. South Carolina: Preview and Keys to the Game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the season at the halfway point, the Sooners are 5-1 having dropped <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/10\/12\/red-river-rolls-on-for-texas\/\" target=\"_self\">their last game to Texas<\/a> 23-6. Now with six games left on the schedule, the pressure cooker intensifies. The second-half of the Sooners\u2019 season starts in Columbia, South Carolina against quarterback <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/lanorris-sellers-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LaNorris Sellers<\/a> and the Gamecocks. Currently, OU is a 4.5 point favorite.<\/p>\n<h2>Oklahoma vs South Carolina Preview, Week 8<\/h2>\n<h3>Inconsistency in the Run Game<\/h3>\n<p>Both Oklahoma and South Carolina have struggled to find consistency in the run game this season. Both teams have run for under 800 yards, putting them each in the bottom four of the SEC in rushing yards this season. Oklahoma running back <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/tory-blaylock-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tory Blaylock<\/a> has been &#8216;running back one&#8217;, but against Auburn and Texas Blaylock was held to a minimum of 46 yards combined.<\/p>\n<p>As for South Carolina, Utah State transfer <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/rahsul-faison-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rahsul Faison<\/a> has been held to 231 yards this season. Six games into last year, Faison had already ran for 587 yards. With six games left on the season, both teams look to establish a solid run game and it starts Saturday.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"IjxsITp1QY5jHblalxweYA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2178140953\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'IjxsITp1QY5jHblalxweYA',sig:'6Wy-e5n_SkcV2-XP_TLb4NJxRBeLKyyvFa3ZXK-NVXU=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2178140953',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>What Mateer Needs to Bounce Back<\/h3>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/10\/15\/week-7-heisman-poll-hoosier-daddy\/\" target=\"_self\">Heisman favorite<\/a> returned last week to the gridiron in the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/10\/11\/red-river-rivalry-oklahoma-vs-texas-preview\/\" target=\"_self\">Red River Rivalry<\/a>. In his return, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/john-mateer-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">John Mateer<\/a> threw for three picks and ran for only five yards. Being a more productive, efficient runner will be crucial going forward. What he offers to Oklahoma as a runner is so crucial; entering the game, he has five rushing touchdowns on the season, while the team has 10 in total. Without his productivity as a runner Oklahoma won\u2019t be able to compete for a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/tag\/college-football-playoff\/\" target=\"_self\">CFB Playoff spot<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Creating Turnovers is a Must<\/h3>\n<p>Oklahoma has one interception and two forced fumbles on the season\u2014clearly not good enough. The Sooners have to create opportunities for its offense, especially with Mateer still recovering. South Carolina has created 16 turnovers for its offense (8 interceptions and 8 forced fumbles). Six different players on the Gamecocks have interceptions this season including <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/gerald-kilgore-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gerald Kilgore<\/a> and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/peyton-williams-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Peyton Williams<\/a>, who each have two. If South Carolina puts Mateer in another bad position, Oklahoma will have to force Sellers to make mistakes as well.<\/p>\n<p>These two teams faced off in Norman almost a year ago on Saturday. In that game Oklahoma had four turnovers. Oklahoma\u2019s defense held South Carolina\u2019s yards to a minimum but still the turnovers created a deficit that was not attainable. Oklahoma has to protect the ball, match South Carolina\u2019s intensity, and most importantly force their own turnovers.<\/p>\n<h2>Key Players<\/h2>\n<h3>Battle of Defensive Ends<\/h3>\n<p>Oklahoma\u2019s <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/r-mason-thomas-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">R Mason Thomas<\/a> and South Carolina\u2019s <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/dylan-stewart-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dylan Stewart<\/a> are the difference-makers in Saturday\u2019s game. Thomas is currently on a three-game sack streak along with one forced fumble. He faces off against a South Carolina offensive line that has made Sellers the seventh most sacked quarterback in college football this season. Stewart on the other hand has 3.5 sacks and two forced fumbles, both of which were against Kentucky. He now returns to Columbia to face a Sooner team that let up five sacks last week. Both of these guys are difference makers so look for one of them to make a play.<\/p>\n<p>The Sooners look to survive the sandstorm as their remaining schedule is ranked the third hardest strength of schedule. This will be the second time ever the Sooners will play the Gamecocks, and their first time playing in the sandstorm.<\/p>\n<p>The game starts at 12:45 p.m. EST. For more information on the Sooners stay tuned to Last Word on College Football. Enjoy the game.<\/p>\n<p>Main image credit: \u00a9 SARAH PHIPPS\/THE OKLAHOMAN \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the season at the halfway point, the Sooners are 5-1 having dropped their last game to Texas 23-6. Now with six games left on the schedule, the pressure cooker intensifies. The second-half of the Sooners\u2019 season starts in Columbia, South Carolina against quarterback LaNorris Sellers and the Gamecocks. Currently, OU is a 4.5 point [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5571,"featured_media":81347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35581,3,35577],"tags":[895,34142,33948,5453,35712],"class_list":["post-81342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oklahoma-sooners","category-sec","category-south-carolina-gamecocks","tag-heisman-trophy","tag-john-mateer","tag-lanorris-sellers","tag-red-river-rivalry","tag-tory-blaylock"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5571"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81342"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81353,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81342\/revisions\/81353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}