Gamecocks' season opener labeled one of nation's best matchups
South Carolina football’s 2023 season opener is still about 200 days away but it is truly never too early to look ahead.
That’s exactly what On3’s Mike Huguenin did Monday morning when he listed his 10 best games of college football’s opening weekend.
Not surprisingly, South Carolina’s neutral site matchup with North Carolina on Sept. 2 in Charlotte — featuring one of the top quarterback duels of the opening weekend — made the cut, checking in at No. 3.
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Here’s the excerpt:
A couple of interesting subplots with this one. The biggest is Tar Heels QB Drake Maye, who figures to be a Heisman frontrunner, vs. Gamecocks QB Spencer Rattler, who at one time was a presumptive Heisman favorite while at Oklahoma. Both are coming off surprisingly good seasons, though in different ways. UNC (9-5) played great early, then tailed off. The Gamecocks (8-5) struggled early, then played well, then struggled, then played well again. Maye makes UNC one of the favorites in the ACC; South Carolina looks as if it could vie for third in the SEC East. This will be the 60th meeting, but just the sixth since 1991 and 10th since 1983.
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Rattler and the Gamecocks will, of course, be breaking in a new offense under new coordinator Dowell Loggains, who took over the role in December.
Rattler joined an episode of the GC Takeover Hour on 107.5 The Game last week when he gave some early thoughts on South Carolina’s new-look scheme.
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“We finally got to sit down (and) go over formations, go over personnel groupings,” Rattler said. “Not anything play-oriented yet, but just the basic stuff. A lot of stuff that will be new to us, but a lot of stuff we already know, so we’ll be able to build off it.”
Rattler and Loggains have both said that the Gamecocks will continue to use pro-style concepts but they hope to be able to run a more efficient operation in terms of the literal play-calling process.
“A big point for us is speeding things up and getting that tempo down because we all like to play at a high tempo and get things going and hopefully score a lot of points,” Rattler said. “Everything we’ve talked about is just efficiency, tempo, making things clear… and just letting us go out there and play.”
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As for the No. 1 game that weekend?
That distinction went to a rematch between LSU and Florida State in Orlando on Sept. 3.
This is the other opening-week matchup involving teams that each won at least 10 games in 2022. LSU was 10-4, Florida State 10-3. FSU edged LSU 24-23 in 2022. It figures to be a match of preseason top-10 teams; at worst, it will be two teams in the preseason top 15. Both return quarterbacks coming off big seasons: LSU’s Jayden Daniels and FSU’s Jordan Travis. Both return defenders in line for big seasons: LSU LB Harold Perkins and FSU DE Jared Verse. And both also look to have hit it big in the transfer portal. In short, this is a big one and well-suited for a prime-time spot on Sunday night.
