South Carolina GamecocksHead Coach: Steve Spurrier
66-37 Record at South Carolina (8 years)
206-76 Overall (23 Years)
Review of 2012 Season-
Back-to-Back 11 win seasons for the Gamecocks have them hungry for even more in 2013 and ready to take the program to the next level and capture their first SEC Championship and first conference Championship since 1965 when it won the ACC. If there ever was a season for this to finally happen, this is it. The Gamecocks will look to veteran Conner Shaw under-center who has a more-than-reliable back-up in Dylan Thompson. Both of the Gamecocks' losses last year came on the road and in hostile environments. A nail-bitter in that "other death valley" that could have went either way and a just an overall bad day in the swamp separated South Carolina from reaching the SEC Championship. Once again South Carolina ended the regular season with a win over arch-rival Clemson to make it four straight over the Tigers. And even more impressively, they did it without Marcus Lattimore and Conner Shaw on the road in Clemson. 2012 was a great year to be a Gamecock fan.
Key Losses/Key Returners-
The departure of WR Ace Sanders and RB Marcus Lattimore was certainly a significant blow to the Gamecocks as well as the loss of Safety D.J. Swearinger (who is now a teammate of his former rival DeAndre Hopkins), DE Devin Taylor and Safety DeVonte Holloman on the defensive side of the ball. However, South Carolina will have back QB Conner Shaw, RB's Mike Davis, RB Brandon Wilds, WR's Bruce Ellington and Damiere Byrd on offense and on defense, DE Jadevon Clowney will be back in the garnet and black and cause offenses to tweak their offense and blocking schemes to (TRY) and contain him this year.2013 Schedule-
Aug 29th. (Thursday Night) North Carolina
September 7th Georgia*
September 14th Vanderbilt
September 28th UCF
October 5th Kentucky
October 12th Arkansas
October 19th Tennessee
October 26th Missouri
November 2nd Mississippi State
November 16th Florida*
November 23rd Coastal Carolina
November 30th Clemson*
#- Home games in BOLD
* Denotes Key Game
Schedule Analysis-
If you are a Gamecock fan you have to be happy with this schedule. Although you play Georgia in week 2 on the road, you avoided LSU, Alabama and Texas A&M during the regular season. Furthermore, you get a Bulldog team that will be coming off a physical match-up on the road again Clemson just one week before. A three week straight road conference road trip isn't too bad considering the competition, and you get the Gators at home after a bye-week. Your back-ups should play most of the second half against CCU giving your starters plenty of time to be rested and ready to go for Clemson the following week. In Closing, opening week against North Carolina could have the Gamecocks on upset alert but not sure the Tarheels have enough speed and weapons on offense to off-set Clowney on the other side. I expect South Carolina to have one or two more big plays down the stretch in that game that ultimately make the difference.My Thoughts-
A part of me wants to think this is the year South Carolina makes a serious run at a SEC title while the other part reminds of what happened the last time the Gamecocks actuallly reached the Championship Game in 2010.( 56-17 loss to Auburn) The winner of the South Carolina-UGA game this year not only has very important SEC title implications but BCS title implications as well. Assuming ESPN's CollegeGameday comes to Death Valley in week 1 for Clemson/UGA, they will likely follow the Bulldogs back to Athens for the showdown against South Carolina in week 2 especially if Mark Ricth's crew can get the job done in Clemson Aug 31st. The first three weeks will tell us a great deal about this years squad.
Bottom Line: Expect another 11 win season in Columbia this year.
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