South Carolina Football Way-Too-Early Schedule Preview: Florida Gators
By Kevin Miller
South Carolina football’s difficult schedule continues after their 2023 bye week as the Gamecocks welcome the Florida Gators to Columbia on October 14th. Florida will be coming off of a home game against Vanderbilt the week before and will likely be coming in feeling confident. Last season, the Gators gave Carolina their worst loss of the season, and the Vanderbilt game should be a Gator win the week before the South Carolina-Florida matchup.
After five games leading up to the home showdown with the Gators, the Gamecocks will have played four Power 5 programs in North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi State, and Tennessee. Georgia and Tennessee will be on the road, and the North Carolina game will be in Charlotte, so the Gamecocks’ early-season slate is extremely daunting. A 4-2 start to the season should be viewed as a positive result, and anything better than that would be indicative of a special season for Shane Beamer’s team.
Florida enters next season with no good answer at quarterback. Anthony Richardson is set to be a first-round pick later this week, and Wisconsin cast-off Graham Mertz seems like the early favorite to win the job, but the signal caller threw more interceptions than touchdowns a season ago in Madison. Both Mertz and backup Jack Miller haven’t had good springs in Gainesville, either. The Gamecocks have the clear advantage at the position as long as Spencer Rattler can adapt well to new offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains’ offensive system.
Both teams bring lots of defensive question marks into the summer. Florida had a poor season on that side of the ball in 2022, and the Gamecocks were among the worst run defenses in football. Both teams are losing multiple starters to the NFL, potentially making inconsistent units worse this fall. The Gators and the Gamecocks each have lots of young defensive talent on their respective rosters, but most of these young players are unproven heading into the 2023 season.
Austin Armstrong is the new DC in Gainesville, and the former Southern Miss coordinator will be at the forefront of the key matchup in this game between the Gators and Gamecocks. Dowell Loggains will be in his sixth game at the helm of Carolina’s offense while Armstrong will be in his seventh. Whichever coordinator has settled into his new role best likely will have the advantage in this one.
Another key to the game will be South Carolina’s run defense vs. the Florida rushing attack. The Gators return their two leading rushers from 2022 as both Montrell Johnson and Trevor Etienne ran for over 700 yards and combined for 16 touchdowns. The best run defender up front for Carolina was Zacch Pickens, and big #6 is likely a top-100 pick in tomorrow’s NFL Draft. Because of Graham Mertz’s deficiencies as a passer, offensive coordinator Rob Sale will likely feature the run heavily in his game plan, and the Gamecocks must be able to slow down the run to win.
The last two games in this series have been blowouts won by the home team. South Carolina routed Florida 40-17 (with a UF score late to make it even that close) in 2021, and the Gators beat up on the Gamecocks 38-6 in Gainesville in 2022. With the game in Columbia this time around, the trend could continue, but it seems far more likely that the contest will be a close one.
One of a large number of “swing games” on the schedule, South Carolina football’s game with the Florida Gators will be a potential litmus test of the 2023 season. As of now, South Carolina should be viewed as a heavy favorite in three games this fall (Furman, Jacksonville State, and Vanderbilt) and a heavy underdog twice (@ Georgia and @ Tennessee). The other 7 games on the schedule should have much closer odds, and the Florida game might be the closest of the bunch unless things drastically change from now until then.
With home-field advantage at Williams-Brice Stadium and the likely advantage on offense, South Carolina football fans can be realistically hopeful for a win against Florida, but college football viewers should be in for a highly-competitive game when October 14th arrives.