South Carolina learns its bowl fate
It might not be a New Year’s Day bowl, but South Carolina is staying close to home with a chance to beat one of the stalwarts of college football.
According to the Action Network’s Brett McMurphy, the Gamecocks will travel to Jacksonville, Florida for the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl and will play Notre Dame for the chance at their ninth win of the season.
That game will kick off at 3:30 p.m. ET on Dec. 30.
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South Carolina and Notre Dame have played four times in program history with the Fighting Irish winning three of those. The last time the two teams played was the only South Carolina win in the series, a 36-32 Gamecocks win at Notre Dame in 1984.
That was during South Carolina’s Black Magic season where the Gamecocks were ranked as high as No. 2 in the country.
South Carolina’s last trip to the Gator Bowl was in 1987, a loss to LSU.
This season, the Irish have been a rollercoaster. Marcus Freeman, in his first season as the Irish’s head coach, have eight wins but a few bad losses.
They’ve lost at Ohio State and Southern California, two top-10 teams, but also have home losses to Marshall and Stanford, two struggling teams.
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The wins have come against California, North Carolina, BYU, UNLV, Syracuse, Navy and Boston College. The Irish did beat Clemson, dinging the resume before South Carolina put the final nail in the Tigers’ playoff coffin.
Notre Dame has been largely ranked in Freeman’s first season.
South Carolina found itself in this position thanks to an incredibly strong finish to the year that saw the Gamecocks go from six to eight wins.
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After a dismal loss to Florida, 38-6 in the Swamp, South Carolina rattled off consecutive wins over then top-10 teams to vault them into where it is now.
The Gamecocks rocked Tennessee 63-38 in the home finale then upset Clemson 31-30 in Death Valley.
That win snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Tigers and snapped Clemson’s 40-game home win streak that dated back to 2016.
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South Carolina has wins this year over Georgia State, Charlotte and SC State with a road win against Vanderbilt as well.
The Gamecocks also notched a win in Lexington over Kentucky for the first time since 2012 and beat Texas A&M for the first time in program history.
The losses this year have come to No. 1 Georgia, Arkansas on the road, Missouri and the blowout at Florida.
If the Gamecocks do win the bowl, it’ll be just the second nine-win season since 2013 and Shane Beamer will have 16 wins over his first two seasons with the Gamecocks.
