When in doubt, play more “Sandstorm”.

I’ve heard it in a couple of places (here’s an example), that South Carolina’s defense could have an easier go of things this week against Georgia’s offense than against East Carolina’s.  I’m really not sure why that’s so.  Last season’s offense, with true freshmen running backs and walk on receivers carrying significant shares of the load, finished seventeenth nationally in yards per game.  And that offense gained more yards on the Gamecock defense than any other team South Carolina faced.

Yeah, given the key personnel losses on both sides, I know these aren’t the same teams this year.  But I also find it hard to argue with this:

Obviously, players’ mindsets matter in their performance, as would history if it factors into the coaches’ game plans. That might be why Georgia has practiced this week with the techno song Sandstorm blaring, or why Mark Richt insists that the game “could get a little bloody.” But these things are tough to quantify and should matter less than talent, preparation, and game-planning, where Georgia seems to have the edge.

Now I realize the article goes on to qualify things a bit with this observation.

South Carolina’s switch to the 3-4 has been less than smooth so far, leaving them 123rd in yards allowed per game and lowering their Defensive S&P+ to 100.2 (58th in the country) after ranking 22nd last season. Both Texas A&M and Eastern Carolina do run varieties of the air raid offense, however, so it’s possible that their defensive weakness is less to do with the 3-4 transition or the lack of effective defensive ends (i.e., Jadeveon Clowney) and more to do with the particular offenses it has seen this season. Maybe.

But here’s where I think Mike Bobo has an advantage over East Carolina’s offensive coordinator.  He’s got options and flexibility at his disposal that an Air Raid coordinator doesn’t.

Regardless, that probably will affect Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo’s offensive strategy and South Carolina’s defensive strategy. It could turn into a cat-and-mouse game where Georgia knows that the Gamecocks will be heavily stacking the box against Heisman-candidate Todd Gurley and the fleet of running backs behind him, so Bobo instead opts for an air raid-lite attack with screens and packaged play passes to freshmen Sony Michel and Isaiah McKenzie and intermediate, middle-of-the-field strikes to Michael Bennett and Chris Conley. Or not, and Bobo simply dares the Gamecocks defense to beat his running backs.

Either way, Lorenzo Ward’s got some guessing to do and some choices to make.  Based on last year’s results, he’s got to be a little nervous about that.  And I don’t think the cure for that particular fever will be more “Sandstorm”.