On Wednesday morning, the South Carolina football program announced that this Saturday's contest against the Akron Zips was a sellout.
All three South Carolina football home games this year have been sold out (Old Dominion, LSU, and Akron), and it is unlikely that those are the only three sellouts on the 2024 schedule. The Akron contest will be the first night game at Williams-Brice Stadium so far this year, and as things stand right now, only one more night game is promised. The annual Battle for the Bonham Trophy against the Texas A&M Aggies will be at night the first Saturday of November, and the return of former USC wide receiver Juice Wells could be flexed to nighttime when the Ole Miss Rebels come to Columbia on October 5th.
Despite this Saturday's game being against a lowly Akron squad, there is some intrigue surrounding it for the fanbase. The Gamecocks are dealing with prominent injuries to quarterback LaNorris Sellers (ankle), defensive lineman TJ Sanders (foot), and wide receiver Jared Brown (hamstring), but without an SEC matchup on the docket for USC, an accurate injury report is not required this week. Head coach Shane Beamer has said that all three players are some variation of "fine," but there have not been many details shared.
The Gamecocks also have some special things planned for Saturday. Throwback uniforms celebrating George Rogers and the 1980 team (the year Big George won the Heisman Trophy) will be debuted against Akron, and the University of South Carolina has pushed heavily for the fanbase to download the Gamecocks App as part of an updated version of the light show at Williams-Brice Stadium.
Kickoff on Saturday is scheduled for 7:30 PM ET, and the broadcast will be carried by ESPNU. The game also will be streamed on the ESPN app.