The Verdict: South Carolina needs to “out-Georgia State” Georgia State
South Carolina football superfan and lawyer Chris Paschal writes a column for Gamecock Central called “The Verdict.”
The Verdict: Carolina needs to “out-Georgia State” Georgia State
It’s finally game week.
Rejoice my Gamecock brethren, all that waiting is finally over.
Gamecock Football is finally back. And what do we have awaiting us this opening weekend? A Sun Belt team with a roster full of players that will not be intimidated by an SEC program.
Make no mistake, the 2022 opener (while sharing the Panther mascot) is unlike the 2021 opener. Last season, Carolina welcomed to Columbia Eastern Illinois. If you need a refresher, Eastern Illinois was not very good at football in 2021. By the time they had reached Williams-Brice on September 4th, the EIU Panthers had already lost a game in Week 0 and were on their way to a 1-10 season.
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I’m not a betting man, but I feel confident that Georgia State is not going to finish the 2022 season with a mere single win. Georgia State is a dang good football team with a chance to make some noise in the Sun Belt Conference.
More so than any other conference, in some ways I think many SEC coaches would argue that the conference that scares them the most is not the Big Ten or ACC, but the Sun Belt. Why? Because not only does the Sun Belt play dang good football, but because their coaches, players, and fans relish the opportunity to beat up on SEC opponents. UL-Monroe has beaten Arkansas. UL-Monroe has beaten Alabama. Appalachian State beat Carolina. South Alabama beat Mississippi State. And Georgia State has beaten Tennessee.
This is not a doomsday post. You can find plenty of those on various other websites. But this is not going to be an easy game. Georgia State will come into Williams-Brice unscared and unphased. Their head coach was on App State’s staff when the Mountaineers went into Michigan and beat the Wolverines. And as many of y’all know, their head coach was one of the pillars in building Carolina into a perennial SEC contender in the early 2010s. Shawn Elliot is going to roll into Columbia with nothing short of embarrassing Carolina on his mind.
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By now you know all the reasons why many pundits have labeled this game a potential upset in the making. Georgia State returns almost its entire roster from last season’s eight-win ball club. They return experience, one of the game’s best defensive coordinators in Nate Fuqua (a Wofford Football legend), and a rushing attack that ranked 8th in the country last season in rushing yards per game. This team is physical and loves to dominate teams along the lines of scrimmage.
Something I have repeated ad nauseam is the fact that if Carolina is to take the next step as a program, the Gamecocks must compete in the trenches like an elite SEC team. Like Georgia State, Carolina has returned a lot of key contributors along both lines of scrimmage. Even with Spencer Rattler at quarterback and all the playmaking options at his disposal, for Carolina to win this game, the Gamecocks must “out-Georgia State” Georgia State.
What do I mean by that? Allow me to provide some context. One of the great college football rivalries of the 21st Century has been Alabama-LSU. No other series has produced as much NFL talent as the Tigers and Tide. (I didn’t look that up, but I would be absolutely shocked to find a rivalry that comes close.)
In 2007, Nick Saban was in his inaugural season as the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. From 2007 to 2018, Alabama and LSU played 13 times. LSU scored more than 25 points once. And they only won three of those games. In fact, in the final eight games of that 13-game stretch, LSU was winless and averaged less than 10 points per game.
During that stretch, LSU was ranked #1, #5, #10, #16, #2, #13, #19, and #3 when they faced the Crimson Tide. LSU was really good at running the football and stopping the run and asserting their will against their opponent. But so was Alabama. And during that stretch, while LSU might have been the second-best program in the country to play that style of football, they were never as good as Alabama. LSU was unable to “out-Alabama” Alabama. Only twice in those eight games was LSU able to outrush Alabama. In many of those games Alabama outrushed LSU by a large multiple. LSU was unable to assert its will against Alabama. While most opponents withered and cowered to the Bayou Bengals and their imposing rushing attack and stout defense, Alabama approached that game with a similar rushing attack and defense and did not flinch.
Here’s the difference with this Saturday’s game. As good – as dang good – as Georgia State is running the football and controlling the line of scrimmage, they are not the mid-2010s Alabama Crimson Tide. If Carolina is going to take the next step in their rebuild under Shane Beamer, the Gamecocks must “out-Georgia State” Georgia State.
When Georgia State beat Tennessee in 2019, the Panthers outrushed Tennessee 213 yards to 93. They turned Tennessee over three times. They won the time of possession battle. And they left Neyland Stadium 1-0. Auburn almost suffered a similar fate last season when Georgia State outrushed the Tigers 267 yards to 166 and was only saved by second-half scores of a blocked punt return for a touchdown and a pick-six.
What does success look like for the Gamecocks? Look no further than Georgia State’s home opener in 2021. Georgia State welcomed Army to Atlanta and got subsequently stomped. If there was ever a program that could easily “out-Georgia State” Georgia State, it was Army. The Black Knights outrushed Georgia State 258 yards to 48. Army possessed the ball for over 42 minutes. It was a 43-10 massacre.
And while many Georgia State fans would quickly point to the changes at quarterback and the progression of the offense as the season went on, there was no mistaking what happened in week one of 2021 when Army asserted their will against the Panthers.
Regardless, those hiccups at quarterback will not be present for Georgia State in this season’s opener. For Carolina to win, the Gamecocks must dominate on the lines of scrimmage.
Last season I referred to East Carolina as a measuring stick game. ECU, like Sun Belt programs, views an SEC opponent as their Super Bowl. And last season ECU threw some haymakers. Carolina escaped Greenville, North Carolina because of a pick-six and a game-winning field goal by Parker White.
And while you take a win whenever you can, it is important that Carolina comes out of the gates this season with a physical and focused football team.
We must buckle up our chinstraps and “out-Georgia State” Georgia State to win this football game. I’m fired up to get into Williams-Brice Stadium and see what this Carolina team is capable of.
