South Carolina Football: How to watch, storylines, injuries, expert picks, predictions vs. Mississippi State

South Carolina football has a big game this Saturday. One of numerous “swing games” left on the schedule, the Mississippi State Bulldogs represent a major inflection point in the 2023 season. A 1-2 start has the Gamecocks needing a win in a big way.

An ugly loss to North Carolina, a nice win against Furman, and a really solid effort in a loss to Georgia have fans unsure what to expect from Shane Beamer’s team this Saturday, especially against a team of similar caliber like Mississippi State.

How to watch South Carolina Football take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs

Another sell-out at Williams-Brice Stadium will see a raucous crowd for the team’s first SEC home game of the season.

The game will kick off at 7:30 and will be broadcast on the SECNetwork and the ESPN App.

Storylines to watch for in South Carolina Football’s week 4 matchup

The Gamecocks and Bulldogs are relatively evenly matched from the standpoint of their respective rosters. However, the two middle-of-the-pack SEC programs play very different styles of football.

Mississippi State is in its first year of a drastically new offensive system after the death of Mike Leach this offseason. New head coach Zach Arnett brought in Appalachian State offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay to run the show in Starkville, and a shift away from Leach’s air raid system has come with growing pains.

The South Carolina football team also has a new offensive coordinator in Dowell Loggains, but the Gamecocks’ scheme is pretty similar to what they ran under Marcus Satterfield, just simplified and called more effectively.

The quarterback matchup was one of the most anticipated in the SEC heading into the season, but the two signal-callers are headed in opposite directions with their play on the field.

Mississippi State senior quarterback Will Rogers was an ideal fit in Leach’s air raid, but he has struggled to adjust to Barbay’s system. Rattler, on the other hand, is in the top-10 nationally in passing yards as he has played exceptionally well even with poor pass blocking from his offensive line for most of the season.

Juice Wells will miss the game for USC, and fellow receiver Ahmarean Brown might be limited coming off of a hamstring issue. The Gamecocks will need some receivers to step up for Spencer Rattler as he looks to take advantage of a State secondary that got torched in week 3 against LSU.

Receiver Xavier Legette will lead the charge out wide, and he and Spencer Rattler are in a position to make some Gamecock history on Saturday. Legette has more yards receiving than any Gamecock ever through three games, and Rattler could have the best four-game pace in garnet and black if he throws for 301 yards against MSU.

The running game for the Bulldogs is much stronger than the one for the Gamecocks. Jo’Quavious Marks leads the SEC in rushing yards, while the Gamecocks haven’t had a 50-yard rushing performance from any player yet this season.

Starting defensive back Shawn Preston will miss the first half of the game for Arnett’s Bulldogs as he was ejected for targeting in the second half against LSU.

The Gamecocks will be without offensive linemen Markee Anderson, Cason Henry, Jaylen Nichols, and Ryan Brubaker and could be without JonDarius Morgan, as well. Nichols was the team’s starting left tackle this spring, and Henry started the North Carolina game at right tackle. Anderson was viewed as the top sub up front prior to his season-ending knee injury.

South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer coached at Mississippi State for coach Sylvester Croom for three seasons before leaving to join the staff at South Carolina as an assistant.

What experts are saying about South Carolina Football vs. Mississippi State

The spread in this game is relatively tight. SI Sportsbook calls the Gamecocks a 6.5-point favorite in the game. Most other betting outlets have shifted their lines to match. The Gamecocks opened the week anywhere from a 4-point favorite to a 7.5-point favorite but have settled at 6.5.

ESPN’s Football Power Index gives South Carolina football a 59.8% chance to win on Saturday and views the Gamecocks as a 6-point favorite.

The team at Athlon Sports believes that South Carolina will win the game and cover the spread.

The Greenville News’ Emily Adams, who is an AP Poll voter in the 2023 season, predicted a 35-28 win for the home Gamecocks as she believes Spencer Rattler will be too much to handle for the Bulldog defensive backfield.

Official Garnet and Cocky Prediction for South Carolina Football’s week 4 game against the Mississippi State

South Carolina and Mississippi State both need a win on Saturday as the two teams are each 0-1 in the SEC. However, only one of them can come out on top.

The matchups in this game are extremely intriguing as the two teams’ weaknesses could be magnified by the strengths of the opponent. Mississippi State runs the ball well; South Carolina struggles against the ground game. The Bulldogs can’t stop a good passing offense; Spencer Rattler and the Gamecocks have been very good in the air this season.

Because of these matchups, it seems as if this game could be relatively high-scoring. In affairs in which points are plentiful, the team that makes the fewest major mistakes usually wins. The turnover margin, penalty discrepancy, and 3rd-down conversions could play a big role in the final results Saturday night.

Spencer Rattler will pick apart the Bulldogs if the Gamecock offensive line can give him enough time to do so. True freshman left tackle Tree Babalade was great against Georgia. If he can continue that level of play, South Carolina football fans should be optimistic about their team’s chances to win the game.

Conversely, if the Gamecocks allow Jo’Quavious Marks and backup quarterback Mike Wright to run all over them, it could be a long night for the USC defense.

Special teams coordinator Pete Lembo led Carolina to the best special teams units in the country in 2022, but that has not been the reality this fall. Fans should expect to see the Gamecocks make a concentrated effort to see these units make a difference. Fakes, exotically-designed returns, and aggressive decisions are all on the table from the Gamecock special teams.

Will Rogers could be the ultimate decider in the game. His team will likely be able to run the football well, but if he can also be as good as he was for most of last season, Mississippi State will be tough to beat.

However, based on the matchups, it seems most likely that South Carolina will have an easier time scoring than State does. In what will probably be a close game for most of the night, fans should expect the Gamecocks to pull ahead just enough to feel comfortable most of the way through the second half.

A reversal of scores in this game is not out of the question, but in close games, typically the better-quarterbacked team wins out. Right now, Spencer Rattler is far superior to Will Rogers, so #7 and the Gamecocks are the right pick in this one.