Paul Finebaum: South Carolina laid an egg in Week 1 loss vs. North Carolina

The Southeastern Conference had some fairly lackluster performances in the conference’s opening weekend. South Carolina found themselves right near the top of that group after what happened to them against North Carolina in Charlotte.

Paul Finebaum shared his criticisms of the Gamecocks from their 31-17 loss to UNC during ‘The Matt Barrie Show’ on Sunday. He felt that they put up quite the dud in their opener considering how much hype was around them this offseason based on how they finished last season.

“All offseason long, I’ve been hearing about this momentum from beating Tennessee and beating Clemson. And the Gamecocks just laid an egg,” said Finebaum. “I mean they were manhandled.”

The issues start and end with the poor play from South Carolina’s offensive line. Spencer Rattler was left running for his life or found himself on the ground quite often as the Tar Heels posted nine sacks, which was over half of their overall total in that category from a season ago.

That also may have had an effect on their run game as the Gamecocks finished with -2 rushing yards on 31 attempts.

Now, as the season gets into full swing, Finebaum doesn’t necessarily see things getting much easier for Shane Beamer’s squad. That’s especially so considering where they’ll find themselves in less than two weeks and who they’ll be squaring off with on that Saturday.

“Not to ruin the Bloody Mary morning for Gamecock Nation even more…but, two weeks from yesterday, they go to Athens,” said Finebaum. “Good luck to people trying to build that up, saying, ‘Oh, you know, these two teams, when they meet?’. No, no.”

“South Carolina is going in there and hopes that Kirby Smart is in a good mood and not a bad mood.”

Beamer details long list of South Carolina injuries: ‘Too many to name’

South Carolina was bullied by North Carolina during the season opener on Saturday night. As a result, injuries began to pile up and began to hamper the Gamecocks’ efforts to win the game.

“We were an absolute mash unit out there tonight with injuries,” Shane Beamer said postgame. “Lost a lot of starters for the game early, early in the game. Proud of some of these young guys who came in tonight and played a lot more than they expected.”

Beamer listed off the players who fell prey to injuries against the Tar Heels.

“(Ahmarean Brown) didn’t finish the game. Juice (Wells) didn’t finish the game. Cason Henry didn’t finish the game. Mo Kaba didn’t finish the game. There is no update. There are too many to name right now. We had some guys that came out that were able to go back. Some that weren’t able to go back. We will know more (on Sunday).”