LSU 2024 Opponent Preview: South Carolina

Our opponent preview series continues today with South Carolina, a fascinating program out east that had strong showings in 2021 and 2022, but fell flat last season. LSU faces South Carolina on the road on Sept. 14 at noon ET in Week 3 after facing Nicholls State in Tiger Stadium.

The buy-in for the Gamecocks fans is continuing to grow and with the SEC further gaining power, it’s a pivotal time for South Carolina to prove they can hang with the top programs in the conference more consistently.

We’ll be diving into LSU’s 2024 schedule in the coming week, looking at the top opponents in depth as we approach the month of July. Here’s our in-depth preview as we get to know the Gamecocks in 2024.

Previous opponent previews: USC

Head coach: Shane Beamer (4th season)

Offensive coordinator: Dowel Loggains (2nd season)

Defensive coordinator: Clayton White (4th season)

Last year

For the first time in Shame Beamer’s short tenure, the Gamecocks severely disappointed, ending the year 5-7 overall with only one of those losses by one possession. A 31-17 home loss to North Carolina set the tone for the year and a 16-7 home loss to a pedestrian Clemson team put an appropriate ending to it. Shane Beamer has long maintained the image of a fun-loving head coach who’s energy steered the Gamecocks towards the top half of the SEC, but after a troubling year, unable to take advantage of quality quarterback play, the pressure on this 2024 season turns up significantly.

Offense

An offense with Spencer Rattler at quarterback and Xavier Leggette at receiver yielded just 26 points per game? The Gamecocks were unable to compete with the top teams on its schedule repeatedly as its offense sputtered time after time. In its seven losses, South Carolina scored 20 or less in six of them. Rattler ended the year with 3,186 yards and 19 touchdowns to eight interceptions, while Legette totaled 1,255 yards and seven touchdowns on 71 receptions. The rest of the personnel was disappointing, especially on the ground where the Gamecocks ranked 131st in rush offense EPA. Third worst rushing attack in the country. 

Defense

The defense was hardly any better, in fact, the offense ranked 79th in EPA, while the defense ranked 80th, so technically it was even worse. TJ Sanders was a playmaker with 9.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks, while defensive back Marcellas Dial had 10 pass break ups and went in the fourth round of the NFL Draft. Still, watching teams like Florida, Texas A&M, Mississippi State, and even Jacksonville State all post 28+ on them was jarring. 

Offseason moves

Notable departures

Drafted: WR Xavier Legette (32nd overall), QB Spencer Rattler (150th overall), DB Marcellas Dial (180th overall), C Nick Gargiulo (256th overall)

Transfers out: S Keenan Nelson, OT Jaylen Nichols, EDGE Donovan Westmoreland, LB Stone Blanton, LB Grayson Howard, DL Xzavier McLeod, RB Mario Anderson, WR Juice Wells, WR Kelton Henderson.

Losing Wells and Henderson on top of Legette hurts the receiver room for South Carolina and forced them to turn to the portal. There was also a lot more attrition on the defensive side of the ball than you’d want considering there was not a coaching change at the top. Overall, the Gamecocks had 26 players transfer out and four players drafted, which is not an abnormal number in today’s college football landscape, but it’s still a lot of spots with turnover on both sides.

Important additions

2024 Class: EDGE Dylan Stewart, OT Josiah Thompson, LB Fred Johnson, EDGE Wendell Gregory, OT Kam Pringle, WR Mazeo Bennett.

Transfers in: WR Vandrevius Jacobs, WB Robby Ashford, DL Gilber Edmond, LB Bangally Kamara, WR Gage Larvadain, LB Demetrius Knight, IOL Torricelli Simpkins, WR Ahmari Huggins-Bruce, TE Brady Hunt, EDGE Kyle Kennard, RB Rocket Sanders, RB Oscar Adaway, WR Jared Brown.

Clearly, you can see the emphasis to replace all of the skill position players lost this past year. It’s a completely overhauled receiver room and multiple running backs coming in to help shore up those positions. They even added Ashford to help with the quarterback room. The offense is going to look completely different from last year in terms of personnel. On defense, I think there’s a hope that Stewart, the five-star freshman, can come in and help the defense right away, but if not, the Gamecocks added enough front seven help to hopefully hold up with or without him.

Going into 2024

Top returners: Safety Nick Emmanwori,  DT TJ Sanders, CB O’Donnell Fortune, LB Debo Williams, DB Jalon Kilgore, LT Tree Babalade, Safety DQ Smith.

Expectations

There’s a healthy amount of talent on this squad, especially with these aforementioned returners, but there’s a lingering question in the big picture: Can Beamer get South Carolina to a bowl game this year? Vegas has the Gamecocks’ win total set at 5.5 with pretty even value on both sides, so let’s look at it. The non-conference is Old Dominion, Akron, Wofford, and Clemson, which should at least be three wins. Unfortunately, the Gamecocks will be underdogs in seven of their eight SEC games, with a road game at Vanderbilt a presumed W. Who do you think South Carolina can upset in the SEC?

@ Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss, @ Alabama, @ Oklahoma, A&M, @ Vandy, Missouri. Can the Gamecocks win three of those games? I’m not betting on it. A bowl game appearance from Beamer would certainly buy him more time as he enters year five in 2025, but for now, it’s looking like he’ll be lucky to get to five wins and then put all his eggs into the basket for 2025.

Early thoughts on LSU vs. South Carolina

I actually think the Gamecocks have solid talent on this team, the problem is, in the SEC you need gamebreakers on your roster to get some of these big wins. The game is in Colombia, South Carolina at noon ET, which could work in their favor, but LSU’s offense is going to be primed to score points. This Gamecock team is looking a lot like last year’s Auburn team – extremely scrappy and can make games ugly but ultimately not good enough to get the big wins. SC’s secondary is certainly solid and can give the Tigers some problems, but there’s too much firepower in purple and gold to hold them off for 60 minutes. LSU should be more than one possession favorites going into this one.