Rapid Reaction: Jaycee Horn's breakout game leads South Carolina over Auburn
Jaycee Horn has needed to upgrade his resume in hopes of becoming a high NFL draft pick. Saturday’s performance against No. 15 Auburn took a huge step in that direction with a dominant afternoon that will leave nightmares for Bo Nix.
Horn’s second interception of the game, and Nix’s third, helped swing the momentum toward South Carolina for the second time, setting up another TD for the Gamecocks as they built an eight-point lead with 57 seconds left in the third quarter of South Carolina’s 30-22 upset victory in Columbia.
Auburn had one last drive and reached the South Carolina 12-yard line with 9 seconds to go but the Gamecocks defense held off the Tigers’ attempt to tie the score and force overtime.
Until Saturday, Horn, a junior cornerback, hadn’t recorded an interception in his otherwise solid career. But he continued Nix’s troubles on the road, as the Auburn QB now has 10 interceptions in his career, all away from Auburn.
Bottom line: Nix had three picks and South Carolina turned all of those turnovers into touchdowns.
By halftime, the only reason the game was relatively close, a two-point Auburn lead, was two interceptions by Nix. Auburn had outgained South Carolina 245-117. The Gamecocks made Auburn pay, as on the ensuing drives, they ran 14 plays for 78 yards and two touchdowns after turnovers. As the game went on in the second half, the Auburn offense continued to unravel. Auburn’s first four possessions in the second half were a field goal, punt, interception and punt. South Carolina, meanwhile, went on a 16-0 run.
Nix looked for WR Seth Williams plenty and Williams had an all-day battle against Horn, who had his fourth pass breakup of the day to force an Auburn field goal early in the third quarter.
South Carolina made Auburn pay on the next drive when QB Collin Hill found Shi Smith in the end zone with a lofted pass for a 10-yard touchdown to give the Gamecocks their first lead with 6:31 left in the third quarter.
Shi Smith #Mossed A Fool pic.twitter.com/XzL8Mxxzon
— i Reporter Liam 🦖 (@Blutman27) October 17, 2020
As South Carolina had the momentum and the lead, Auburn stopped a seemingly promising drive with 2:24 left in the third quarter as a Hill pass was deflected and intercepted inside the Auburn 20-yard line.
Two of the better running backs in the SEC met and Auburn’s Tank Bigsby kept up his hot start. He scored a touchdown in the first half and churned out 41 yards on his first 6 carries, a very healthy 6.8 yards per attempt. He wound up with 111 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries. Kevin Harris, meanwhile, had a touchdown called back by penalty, but punched it in later for a 3-yard run for South Carolina’s first points. He added another score late in the third quarter and had more than 20 caries.
Nix had an uneven start to the game with a touchdown pass and two interceptions in the first half. The first pick came on 3rd down and 11 when he tried to force it to Ze’Vian Capers on the run. On the second pick was a deflection near midfield. That was his third interception in three games, all on the road, a troubling trend for Auburn.
Gamecocks DB Israel Mukuamu, who has dealt with a groin injury, missed the game. But the other half of the dynamic secondary duo made up for it and then some. Horn picked up his first career interception in the first half when he broke off his man and picked off Nix, who was on the move.
Jaycee Horn’s first interception at South Carolina is a big one!!! #Gamecocks pic.twitter.com/9LsHpPxH67
— James (@GamecockSplash) October 17, 2020
After South Carolina juggled its offensive line to start the game, with Dylan Wonnum moving to right tackle, and Jazston Turnetine at left tackle, the Gamecocks struggled with just 21 yards on 15 plays as Auburn built a 9-0 lead.
The Tigers hit several big plays on third down, including a touchdown, and started 4-for-6. That was a stat South Carolina led the SEC in entering the game. The Gamecocks allowed just 19.35 percent in the first three games, which was third in the nation.
Congrats, Carolina. Nice job of playing your game and letting Nix screw up.
Get out of here Bo Nix! The SEC is for talented players. I’ve tried to believe in you but i’m sick of it because I’m always wrong. Gus, it’s been 8 years and you’ve done what? Lost a National Championship game and beat Alabama a few times. Not good enough!
Revamp the whole entire offense. Heck, let Kodi and Cadillac run it! Anything but this horrible offense! I mean gosh, I didn’t think being scared of unranked teams what part of Halloween.
And for the two South Carolina fans on here, Muschamp isn’t good. He sucks, but Gus Malzahn, Chad Morris, Bo Nix and the Auburn defense suck ten times as much!
South Carolina fan number one of two checking in.
I’ll take the win, and savor it all week.
GC Fan #? – Auburn lost their composure or simply didn’t get away with much other than a bunch of holding calls! If not for a crappy official’s whistle, they would be 1-3! Proud of my GC’s for hanging in there and playing hard for 60 minutes!
“Interim Head Coach Kodi Burns”
…it moved.
Oh lord. Don’t wish that on us lol
South Carolina fan #2.
I’m going to party like it’s 1933!!
Auburn is a mess
Your coach is still better than ours.
Record breaking kind of day for the SEC
More like, record breaking kind of season
No offense SCar but Aubie just looks so beatable this year. I don’t think this should have even been close at the end. Both teams fans better check themselves quickly.
The exact same can be said for your win over LSU last week.
A win is a win, and an ugly win is better than a pretty loss all week long. Almost every team in the SEC has looked piss-poor and beatable at times. How about that time Miss St beat LSU and then managed to crap the bed every weekend since? Remember when Tennessee throttled Mizzou, and all of the Mizzou fans On here were giving the Vols “elite” status? I caught some crap from fans on both sides when I recommended pumping the brakes on that kind of talk. What have they done since? I get it. Mizzou fans are still riding high after the LSU win. Congrats. Enjoy it now. It won’t look quite as sweet when LSU ends up a 4-win team. If that game showed us anything, it’s that neither has ANY defense whatsoever.
Bo Nix is lost back there. Felipe Frank’s for Heisman
I’m going to take the other side of this Tigurrr. Look at these 3 events. An experienced Will Muschamp beating an Auburn team that looked as clean as a team can look in week 1. Then Missouri beating an LSU program that should be packed with top recruits from this past couple years blue-chips. And right now Georgia is beating Alabama. We can’t even say yet that aTm is improved…. But we know for sure that the SEC East has a chance to not just draw even, or pass the west, no this year they have a chance to create a margin with the East on top. BUT THE SEASON IS YOUNG AND LETS ALL JUST PUMP THE BRAKES AND SEE WHO LOOKS GOOD EVERY WEEK. Sankey… better put a hold on those bowl game bids, not really sure who is going to belong where yet.
wolfman…A very good assessment of 2020 SEC football.
Good win! Jaycee really balled out – Had as many passes defended as that Seth Williams had receptions. Offense still running hot and cold. Loved seeing Prentice get a good bit of action and the broadcasters giving the FB some love!
Love an old school FB play! Spurs Up!
Yeah, having a lead blocker makes a LOT of difference sometimes – no telling how many TD’s we’ve left at the one yard line due to not having that lead blocker!
No lie – getting cute with your play calling around the goal line has you looking like a genius or and idiot – rather go power
Momentum. We are bad at it. Good for the cocks to take advantage of Bo’s mistakes, miscommunication, stupid coaching, questionable calls by the refs. We made it really easy though. A win is a win though…we would know
Questionable calls by the refs? good one. You got a game last week remember.
You have literally zero room to talk about questionable refs(that really wasn’t PI though)
It’s fair to point out that plenty of prognosticators were calling this a USC win. The shine is off of Auburn’s apple. Malzahn’s buyout is looking more and more manageable every day.
I picked Carolina. I had a feeling Auburn would screw it up. Now I want to see what LSU can do next week.
On this site…I also picked South Carolina…Bo Nix playing on the road plus the Cocks defense is usually decent.
Auburn should have lost to Arkansas. They are in the bottom 3 of the SEC right now.
Watching Box Nix regression has been painful. The kid really looks lost back there, which is a shame for Auburn because they’ve got offensive playmakers. Wish Bigsby were wearing the Red and Black!
Bigsby’s recruitment was down to Carolina or Auburn. We got Lloyd and Tank went to Auburn.
It was good to see our three star Harris go toe-to-toe given our five star is out for the year.
Fenwick a three star as well? Cant remember but he flashed a bit today. Could we put Joyner in the backfield sometime? Could be interesting..
Heck of a win by SC. I’m not sure if it’s Morris or what but it appears the WRs and QB aren’t on the same page.
I’m sure Morris doesn’t help.
Well that depends on how you look at it.
Morris was rated the best assistant hire in the off season in college football. How’s that workin out.
That went exactly how I expected. With a few more points. Congrats, Gamecocks!
Auburn fans, serious question with curious intent and mean no ill will, but is this a situation where Nix shouldn’t be playing yet is because of the legacy thing or just Gus once again struggling to develop a QB? Or is it Chad Morris and if so, do you expect Gus to take over the offensive play calling once again?
Yes. Thats my best guess.
Gus calling the plays is not good because he uses like 5-6 plays all the time. Today we had our usual Gus-esq plays like constantly running into the middle of the line on 1st down. Throwing a WR screen behind the line on 3rd and long. Throwing 50-50 balls to Seth when others are open for possible short gains.
The first quarter looked good and then the rest of the game looked like Gus told Morris it was time to use Gus’s playbook. That’s what Gus did in the past, he would bring these OC’s yet the same 5 plays got called over and over again. Then when the “O” did poorly and fingers got pointed at Gus, he would say he is not calling the plays.
Sure all these different OC using the same 5-6 plays every year?
When Gatewood left last year that was because Gus treated Bo as a royal legacy. Bo is the only real option this year it appears.
Gus never develops a QB.
re·gres·sion: a return to a former or less developed state.
Congrats gamecock fans
If I was the SC DC, all he had to say to Horn was to watch Nix right after the snap and you’ll know when the ball is coming your way since he locks on Seth like a hunter with a scope on a big buck.
lmfao
Jaycee Horn is the real deal. gonna be a great NFL corner one day. Probably the best CB in next years draft
Not sure about best, he’s been a little under the radar until this showing. Hope he continues to build on this
Congrats CootU, big win against the better western conference today. I see a current head coach in your future. Sorry Florida, Muschamp ain’t gonna be available to replace 3rd n granth next year.
Honest question for the barn.
I think Gus is alright, Morris is okay and there are plenty of playmakers for Auburn but it looks like the weakest link is Nix.
Is Bo Nix the biggest thing holding this team back?
Probably a bad idea for the OC to target JC Horn so much. Most teams will not throw in that direction.
Bo looked like he was panic-running even if no defenders had a shot at him and he can’t hit a barn when mobile. The look on his face after those picks told the story of Auburn in that game. Lots of problems at Auburn right now…Implosion coming ?
Dan Mullen tests positive for Covid.
Horn was fantastic but Harris was da man. Loved seeing him run over Smoke. What a great team win.
Congrats to Mustychamp and the cocks. Great win and Auburn, WTF happened to your season? Bo Nix is not the answer. He is what he is at this point and he’s not going to get better with another year. Need to look to alternatives at this point.
Muschimp will win some more and prolong the agony. Enjoy the win cocks you deserve it.
If this is agony. Then I’ll take it – there’s been plenty worse in Carolinas history than Muschamp. We’re stuck with him for a few years anyways so let’s see how it plays out
He is a loser and it is time we disassociate ourselves with the bumbling idiot.
Big win for Muschamp, but there’s got to be some concern in Auburn with 3 losses in a row now.
Chad Morris says it will get better. He is installing his game and you can see how Arkansas has totally collapsed after he left……wait….
Arkansas got a decent QB transfer and the best DC in all of football. That’s all that’s changed there.
Officals are upset they couldnt find enough opportunities to save the game for Auburn. Too much running at the end by Nix and not enough backward spiking, which is of course NOT a fumble.
Kevin Steele Chad Morris of the Dumbo Swinney coaching stump picked up from old days getting smacked by the cocks. Glad to get that monkey off our back.
If I was anywhere near you I’d buy you a beer! Great win…..
Congratulations Carolina on a great win! A bit off topic but I have a question for SC fans. I’m collecting helmets of all the SEC teams and I was wondering which helmet y’all consider your most traditional look: white, garnet, or black. Personally I really liked that garnet lid with the script Carolina on the sides. I know it was an alternate but it was a nice look. Anyway, again, congrats on the W.
The white is more traditional, but the classic garnet with white circle and block c wouldn’t hurt either
Th script Carolina is not popular amongst us fans.
Thanks guy!
*guys
White helmets with the block C logo are definitely the most traditional
Put the for sale in Malzahn’s front yard NOW!!
What’s going on with the QB’s? A&M’s Kellen Mond, State’s Garrett Shrader, UT’s JG, and Auburn’s Bo Nix are the literal definition of Live & Die by the QB. They do things great, then do mind numbingly stupid stuff.
Nice win for Carolina though!
Congrats on the win Cocks !
Now , SC needs to get the UK, and A&M monkey off their back
Both look much better than Auburn …
( fingers crossed )