ESPN analyst, former SEC quarterback, gives thoughts on South Carolina's season opener
On his Everything College Football podcast, ESPN analyst and former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy was asked about his top five under-the-radar non-conference contests ahead of the 2025 season. While McElroy didn’t limit his list to five, he did make mention of South Carolina’s season opener against Virginia Tech.
The Gamecocks and Hokies will open the year on Sunday, August 31st in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. According to McElroy, the game marks a meeting between two teams that have received heavy preseason expectations the past two years, with VT getting a lot of love before the 2024 campaign and USC being a team with high expectations heading into this fall.
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Said McElroy, “South Carolina, last year, they were the darlings, right? That was the team that everybody loved (at the end of the year), and they thought, if they made the Playoff, South Carolina would be a team you didn’t want to see.” Now, South Carolina has a lot of new faces on the defensive side, but they’re quarterback is back. Their best defensive player in Dylan Stewart is back.”
If the Gamecocks have any shot of making their first College Football Playoff, they have a strong start. Carolina opens the season as likely betting favorites in their first five contests. Following the Virginia Tech game, Shane Beamer’s group will face off against South Carolina State, Vanderbilt, Missouri, and Kentucky. With more difficult contests against LSU, Oklahoma, Alabama, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, and Clemson waiting in six of the final seven games of the year (and three of them coming on the road), starting well with a win in the opener is paramount.
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Virginia Tech did not live up to some 2024 preseason hype. McElroy, though, thinks this contest marks an opportunity for the Hokies to play spoiler. He said, “Now, they’re going against a team in Virginia Tech…if you look back at last year’s preseason prognostications, a lot of people were saying, ‘Hey, Virginia Tech is a darkhorse Playoff contender. Now they’re flying under the radar. They have their quarterback back, they have coaching continuity, they have some good pieces they have added from the portal. So, maybe they can make life difficult for the team with all of the expectations in South Carolina.”
Earlier this offseason, McElroy named South Carolina’s annual rivalry game against Clemson as a top 10 non-conference game of 2025. He called the Palmetto Bowl the No. 8 non-con matchup and the only one so late in the schedule. The national analyst believes the rivalry contest could have College Football Playoff implications.
