[Bamabeachlivin]

For the past three games, Blake Mitchell has been pretty much a forgotten man.
But South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said the fifth-year senior quarterback from LaGrange, Ga., might play against Vanderbilt on Saturday.
The reason?
“He’s practiced well. And maybe he deserves to play,” Spurrier said Tuesday. “How’s that for a reason? He deserves it.”
Mitchell has been riding the bench since the second half of USC’s 28-16 loss at LSU on Sept. 22. He was replaced by redshirt freshman Chris Smelley at that time and Smelley has started the three games since then.
Smelley will start against the Commodores, as well, Spurrier said, and putting Mitchell in the game shouldn’t be interpreted as a warning to Smelley.
“He (Smelley) is doing fine. He’s doing fine,” Spurrier said.
Spurrier said Mitchell’s Monday night practice caught his eye, though.
“Maybe because he practiced so well, we as a coaching staff said, ‘Hey, he needs to play some,’” Spurrier said.
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[garron]

He needs to keep Mitchell oiled. Smelley is 1 play away from an injury that would force mitchell back. I do think Smelley is the better of the two but SC has some critical games down the road against some aggressive defenses..... so it's wise IMO to cont to give Mitchell some game time to help keep him from going too cold in the unfortunate event Smelley goes down. Particularly since SC has a legit shot at the SECE.