Opponent preview: South Carolina enters rowdy atmosphere

Florida’s Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, more famously known as “The Swamp” is one of the prime venues in college football.

While it’s not the largest stadium, it can still hold nearly 90,000 screaming Gator fans, creating a difficult environment for visitors.

But South Carolina isn’t worried about that as it hits the road this weekend.

“It’s about us and preparing the right way to go play well,” Shane Beamer said. “We don’t make a big deal about where we’re going into. We make sure they’re aware of what it looks like—we’ll go look at the stadium on Friday, which is something we’ve done this year.”

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The Gamecocks will look to make it three straight road wins—last done in 2011—when they play Florida Saturday afternoon.

Under first-year head coach Billy Napier, the Gators have had an up-and-down season. They sit at 5-4 and most recently beat Texas A&M in College Station.

Offensively, Florida has a need for speed. It averages 208.8 rushing yards per game, with 5.91 yards per carry. The Gators are 5-0 this season when running for more than 210 yards. However, they are 0-4 when they rush for less than that.

When the offense is scoring in bunches, it’s usually due to a trifecta of imposing runners.

Montrell Johnson Jr. followed Napier from Louisiana and has been hard to stop. The sophomore running back has run for 549 yards and eight touchdowns with the Gators. Alongside him is freshman Trevor Etienne, who has rushed for 467 yards and four touchdowns.

But Anthony Richardson presents the biggest threat to South Carolina’s defense. He might not be the best pocket passer but his ability to run has made up for it. He’s run for 492 yards and eight touchdowns, with 6.65 yards per carry.

The 6-foot-4, 231-pound quarterback isn’t easy to take down. He showed this against LSU when he broke three tackles to score an 81-yard touchdown.

South Carolina’s primary objective will be taking away its opponent’s best asset.

“When anything breaks down and can get outside the pocket, he wants to run it,” Darius Rush said. “Eliminating that run game for him, keeping him contained, is something that’ll help us.”

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After scoring 38 points against Vanderbilt, the Gamecocks will get a crack at another bad defense.

Florida’s defense has allowed 30.8 points per game. One of the group’s biggest issues is getting off the field. Opponents are converting .500 on third downs (61-for-122), leading to more first downs. In this situation, the Gators are giving up nearly 24 first downs per game, the 116th-worst in the country.

Still, the defense could cause some issues for South Carolina’s offense. Florida has forced two or more turnovers in six of its last seven games, and the Gamecocks haven’t been the best at taking care of the football. They’ve turned the ball over 20 times. That’s an average of 2.2 per game.

“When you think of Florida, it’s no different this year — big, lengthy athletes, explosive speed,” Marcus Satterfield said. “We’re going to have to be playing and executing at a high level to be able to move the football and score points.”

Above all, the Gamecocks will have to try to win by silencing the home crowd.

“It’s a very hostile environment, but we can’t let an environment change and dictate the way we play,” Rush said. “Going down there, I mean, we’ve just got to play South Carolina ball and I know our fans are going to be there with us.”

South Carolina will face the Gators in Gainesville at 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon. The game will be televised on SEC Network with Taylor Zarzour and Matt Stinchcomb on the call.

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