A bad decision by Bobby Petrino, and proper exploitation of it by South Carolina, has the Gamecocks back in the lead.
And this time they were able to punch it in from the 1.
It started when Arkansas for some reason tried a fake punt from its own territory, trying a direct snap to the up-man. But South Carolina’s Quin Smith bottled him up for a 2-yard loss, giving USC the ball at the Arkansas 23.
All credit goes to Smith, who fought off his blocker and looked like he knew the play was coming.
And all blame goes to Petrino for calling it. The Gamecock offense looked like it was stumbling, you’re in your own territory. Just way too greedy, and he almost deserved to have it backfire.
That’s the third fake punt that South Carolina has snuffed out this year, with no successful tries.
USC tried to pounce right away – as team’s usually do after a momentum-changer like that. And it was successful.
Garcia play-faked and went left, then hit Moe Brown for a shoe-string catch at the 6. The Gamecock fans on that end of the field made their presence known.
Three plays later, Garcia leapt high into the end zone for the 1-yard run.