South Carolina Football Way-Too-Early Schedule Preview: North Carolina Tar Heels
By Kevin Miller
The South Carolina football team will play, arguably, the toughest schedule in college football this fall. With a grueling SEC schedule, the annual rivalry with Clemson, and a border state rivalry game against North Carolina, the Gamecocks will have very little margin for error if they hope to improve on their eight-win 2022 campaign. One of college football’s biggest risers in recent years, South Carolina hopes to continue their ascension in 2023.
To kick off Head Coach Shane Beamer’s third season, the Gamecocks will take on a familiar rival in a familiar location. For the fourth time in nine seasons, South Carolina football will face off against the Tar Heels of North Carolina in Charlotte at Bank of America Stadium. It will also be the fourth time in eleven seasons that the two teams open their seasons against each other.
South Carolina won the 2013 and 2015 season openers in Columbia and Charlotte, respectively, North Carolina won the 2019 season’s first game in Charlotte, and the Gamecocks won the Duke’s Mayo Bowl at the end of the 2021 season.
The two teams do not play for a trophy, but the winner earns bragging rights as the “true Carolina” until the next meeting. Some fans like to jokingly add, “The winner gets Carowinds!” Big news, if true.
With the best opening Saturday quarterback matchup of the 2023 season (Spencer Rattler vs. Drake Maye), College Gameday could be making its way to Charlotte for the neutral site matchup. If the end of last season is any indication, both offenses will be explosive. In the ten combined games the two teams played after the start of November, the offenses eclipsed 300 yards nine times and each put up 500 yards twice.
For the Gamecocks, any offensive success or lack thereof likely will center around new Offensive Coordinator Dowell Loggains. If Coach Loggains can have the offense clicking close to the level of the offense that dropped 63 points on the Tennessee Volunteers, South Carolina fans can expect Spencer Rattler and company to move the ball down the field against a somewhat porous North Carolina defensive unit. Questions still exist in the running game, but Dakereon Joyner is expected to have a bigger role carrying the football to help a depleted running back room.
The return of Juice Wells at receiver will be a huge boon to the Gamecocks as Spencer Rattler’s favorite target is looking to build off an All-SEC 2022 that was excellent despite four low-target games in which he had three or fewer catches. A more consistent workload for Wells is to be expected, and the former JMU transfer could have a big day against a North Carolina secondary that struggled last year and lost Storm Duck, Cam’Ron Kelly, and Tony Grimes to transfer.
The South Carolina defense has some holes to fill with Cam Smith, Darius Rush, and Zacch Pickens likely getting drafted in April’s NFL Draft. Sherrod Greene and Brad Johnson have graduated at linebacker, and two of the team’s top-three EDGE players have left through the transfer portal in Jordan Burch and Gilber Edmond. The starting lineup on defense is a bit of a mystery this early in spring practice, and Defensive Coordinator Clayton White has a lot to figure out before the September 2nd matchup with the Tar Heels.
North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye is one of the best in the country, and new Offensive Coordinator Chip Lindsey will be sure to call his number early and often. Maye is a dual-threat quarterback, and Lindsey has had success calling plays for mobile quarterbacks in stops at Southern Miss, Auburn, Troy, and UCF. Lindsey and Maye will look to improve the Tar Heels against quality defenses this season as last year, the Heels were 1-4 against top-50 scoring defenses and eclipsed the 30-point mark twice.
The key to this game will be pass defense. Last season proved that when South Carolina was able to exploit their opponents’ secondaries, they would score a lot of points. In Spencer Rattler’s 300-yard passing games, the Gamecocks averaged over 40 points per game and almost 500 total yards. North Carolina, when Drake Maye threw for over 300 yards last season, averaged just under 40 points.
North Carolina has three men in charge of their defense. Associate Head Coach of Defense Gene Chizik and Co-Defensive Coordinators Tommy Thigpen and Charlton Warren all share responsibilities on that side of the ball. They will be tasked to try and slow Rattler, Wells, and a Gamecock passing attack that added three transfer tight ends, including Trey Knox. Maye and North Carolina will probably be able to move the ball even despite Clayton White and his unit’s best efforts, but limiting them from hitting big plays will be critical.
The running game could certainly play a role, but neither team is expected to have an established rushing attack when the season opens. South Carolina has no players on their roster with more than 500 career rushing yards in Power-5 football, and North Carolina’s leading rusher a season ago was Maye. If either team rushes for a considerable total, it will likely be a direct result of poor play up front from the other team rather than a sign of big things to come running the football.
The two teams match up similarly from a talent perspective. According to 247Sports’ Talent Composite for the 2022 season, only five spots separated the two Carolinas. Both teams have NFL quarterbacks leading their offenses and big questions in the run game. The Gamecocks and the Tar Heels each lost multiple starters from the secondary a season and saw several other defensive defections. Two new offensive coordinators will try to outwit seasoned defensive minds on the other sidelines. The September 2nd showdown looks pretty even right now.
Kickoff is 166 days away. There is a lot of practice, offseason workouts, and even more transfer portal-ing to be done between now and then, so much could still change. Right now, though, Gamecock fans can expect a good game in Charlotte against their northern rivals that could go a long way in determining just how good this team can be in 2023.