Georgia matchup a 'mentality game' for South Carolina
Dakereon Joyner knows what it’s like to go on the road in the SEC and has experienced various levels of success too in his time at South Carolina.
He was on that Gamecocks team that upset Georgia in 2019–finishing the game at quarterback in that win–but also has seen the lows with just five road wins since then in 17 tries.
So with South Carolina set to go down to Athens to play the top-ranked Bulldogs, Joyner called this week a “mentality game.”
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“I think previous teams I’ve been on, we’ve lost the game before we got there,” Joyner said. “I think in this game we have to be locked in and focused. This is a mentality game. Go in there with an edge ready to compete and win.”
The Gamecocks are 5-12 on the road since upsetting Georgia in 2019 and just 4-11 in the SEC. Under Shane Beamer, the Gamecocks are 3-7 on the road and just 2-6 in the SEC.
The league wins away from home came last year at Kentucky and Vanderbilt. The other road win was an overtime victory at East Carolina.
Slow starts have marred those losses. Opponents have outscored South Carolina by 72 points on the road in the first quarter the last two seasons. They’ve outscored the Gamecocks by 121 overall in the first half of road games.
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It’ll be an even tougher test this week against a Georgia team that has outscored opponents 93-10 in the first two games. But Joyner said the Gamecocks can’t worry about the atmosphere and just have to go out and play their game.
“I mean, with this team we approach everything as nameless and faceless opponents. It’s a mentality game, man. It’s football. We can’t be caught up in the atmosphere. We can’t be caught up with the logo on their helmet,” Joyner said. “We just have to be us. Just go play ball. We had a lot of self-inflicted wounds in previous games beating ourselves. We just have to lock in the details.”
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For a lot of players on the roster, it’ll not only be their first trip to Georgia but also their first road trip in the SEC. This means the veterans have to lead the charge of getting them ready to play.
Eddie Lewis hasn’t played in the SEC but has been to road venues in the Big 10 and American and understands what it’s like going into a hostile environment.
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“Just play your game. The noise is going to be there no matter what stadium you’re going to be in. You play in the SEC. it’s the best conference in college football. It’s going to be sold out every time,” he said. “You have to be poised, be humble and be confident in yourself. Know that everything you did during the week is going to show up on Saturday.”
If the Gamecocks can pull off the upset, it would be the third win over a top-10 team over their last six games.
It would be the first road win over a top-five team since beating Georgia in Athens in 2019 and first win over a No. 1 team since 2010 against Alabama and the second ever in program history.
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“It’s a statement game. We’re trying to go in there, hope for the best and knock them off. Last year against Tennessee and against Clemson everyone counted us out before the game started thinking we can’t compete with them. We’re trying to go down there and make a statement. And show everybody we can compete with anybody and create another miracle like we did last year.”
