South Carolina Football Way-Too-Early Schedule Preview: That Team from the Upstate
By Kevin Miller
South Carolina football fans care about every game on the schedule, but there is something more significant about the final game of the regular season. Almost every year for the last 100 years, the two largest schools in the Palmetto State have faced off in the last game of the year before hopeful conference championships and bowl game appearances.
The Gamecocks’ nation-leading strength of schedule finishes up with a home date with Dabo Swinney’s team, and South Carolina football is looking to start a winning streak over their in-state rivals after a big win on the road in 2022.
Carolina’s rival from Pickens County could look a lot different on offense from a season ago. Quarterback DJ Uiagalelei is now in Corvallis, Oregon, and former 5-star Cade Klubnik is the man under center for the orange and white. Offensive coordinator Brandon Streeter was relieved from his duties, and more proven play-caller Garrett Riley will hold the play sheet moving forward.
Running back Will Shipley and wide receiver Antonio Williams are the only major skill position contributors returning from last season’s offense, but the Tigers have recruited well and are expecting other young players to produce in 2023, especially new quarterback Klubnik.
The Gamecocks will look very different from a season ago, as well. While Spencer Rattler and Juice Wells are returning for the Carolina offense, no one knows who will play running back for new offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains, the offensive line is replacing four starters (two to the NFL, one to graduation, and one to injury), and the defense lost five players who are now on NFL contracts.
South Carolina football dominated the air in last year’s matchup. Uiagalelei really struggled against a Gamecocks’ defense that had two elite cover corners on the outside (Cam Smith and Darius Rush), a pretty good showing from Marcellas Dial when tested often, and a great game up front from defensive tackle Zacch Pickens. The Carolina offense also racked up over 300 yards passing from the arm of Spencer Rattler (and almost 200 yards receiving from Juice Wells).
The ground game was a different story. South Carolina could get almost nothing going up front against a solid defensive front for the Tigers that had two NFL first-round picks on it. Will Shipley, though, ran all over the Gamecocks.
In one of the season’s biggest battles between new offensive coordinators (Riley and Loggains), a willingness to “stick to what’s working” could be the key to the game. Last season, both teams ran into trouble moving the football when they attempted to do things that weren’t working for the sake of “offensive balance.”
In Streeter’s offense, DJ Uiagalelei’s struggles made passing the ball a dangerous venture at times. For former Carolina offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield, the run game was virtually non-existent while MarShawn Lloyd was out or limited with his quad injury. However, both teams were too stubborn at times (throwing the ball for Dabo Swinney’s squad and running the ball for Shane Beamer’s team).
Both offenses were much more successful when they stuck to what they were good at executing as evidenced by the Tiger rushing attack equalling DJU’s total passing output for the season and by South Carolina football’s best games in 2022 coming behind Spencer Rattler throwing the ball all over the yard. In the regular season finale last year, Rattler outpassed Uiagalelei 360-99, while ball carriers wearing orange outgained the Gamecock rushers 237-55 on the ground.
Now, with two new coordinators at the helm, fans on both sides of the rivalry are hoping the play-calling will rely on whatever gets the job done.
With South Carolina’s upset victory in Memorial Stadium a season ago snapping numerous Tiger winning streaks, Dabo Swinney’s team likely will be out for blood, but so will a Williams-Brice Stadium crowd that hasn’t witnessed a victory in the rivalry since 2013.
If both teams have the types of seasons that support their preseason rankings (both programs are in multiple outlets’ preseason top-25 polls), the regular season finale will likely be at night, only adding to the home-field advantage for the Gamecocks.
Perhaps the safest bet of all when thinking about this game is that Dabo Swinney won’t be calling any ridiculous special teams plays in an effort to “one-up” South Carolina football’s award-winning special teams coordinator Pete Lembo. Last year’s “muddle huddle” on a kickoff resulted in a costly turnover for the Tigers.
Emotions will be high in this one as usual, and if the Gamecocks can continue their ascent up the college football hierarchy, the stakes could be higher than they’ve been in a decade. For the first time in a long time, South Carolina football is not expected to be heavy underdogs to their in-state rival; in fact, other than a road contest against Georgia, they aren’t expected to be heavy underdogs to any team on the schedule.
If Shane Beamer and company win the majority of their “swing games” in 2023 (@ Missouri, Kentucky, Florida, @ Texas A&M, North Carolina, etc.), the Gamecock-Tiger rivalry could be a top-15 matchup.
Still five months away, the 2023 version of the Palmetto Bowl is shaping up to be another good installment of one of college football’s best rivalries.