Our intrepid sports reporter Reece Funderburk has already offered up his thoughts on this weekend’s University of South Carolina football matchup with East Carolina. In case you missed his preview, click HERE.
For those of you keeping score at home, the No. 21 Gamecocks (0-1, 0-1 SEC) are seventeen-point favorites at home against the unranked Pirates (1-0, 0-0 American). Reece doesn’t think head coach Steve Spurrier‘s team is going to cover that spread – and neither do we.
After last Thursday’s nationally-televised debacle at home against Texas A&M, there’s no shortage of questions surrounding the Gamecock football program.
Our founding editor Will Folks – who rarely ventures out of his compound – will be at Williams-Brice Stadium this weekend to check things out first-hand (and yes, he’s got ridiculously good seats). Which leads us to our first question: After 82,847 showed up for the Texas A&M game, how many empty seats will we see this Saturday? What personnel changes or scheme adjustments will defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward make (beyond starting Skai Moore at weak inside linebacker, T.J. Gurley over Chaz Elder at safety and David Johnson over Darius English at defensive end)? On offense, will running back Mike Davis play? Or will nagging rib issues continue to limit his availability? And how will that limit Spurrier’s playbook?
Most importantly, what will our partner-in-crime Liz Gunn be wearing?
Anyway … South Carolina should win this game. The Gamecocks are bigger, stronger, faster and more talented on both sides of the football. Of course they should have won last week – but played like a high school team on defense. Which brings us to the chief concern heading into this matchup: East Carolina has one of the best quarterbacks in the country in senior Shane Carden, and if the Gamecock defense plays like it did ten days ago – Carden will “make them pay,” as Reece put it.
South Carolina is 12-5 all time against the Pirates, including wins in 2011 (in Charlotte, N.C.) and 2012 (in Columbia). East Carolina’s last victory over the Gamecocks came back in 1999 – a 21-3 win in Columbia over a team that wound up going 0-11.
It’s been a rough year so far for the #FITSPick. We missed both the Texas A&M-South Carolina outcome and the Clemson-Georgia outcome.
So take these with an ocean of salt …
#FITSPICKS – SEPTEMBER 6, 2014
No. 21 South Carolina 41 – ECU 27 (7:00 p.m. EDT/ ESPNU)
No. 24 Clemson 52 – S.C. State 13 (12:30 p.m. EDT)
No. 7 Michigan State 33 – No. 3 Oregon 31 (6:30 p.m. EDT/ FOX)
No. 13 Stanford 27 – No. 14 USC 20 (3:30 p.m. EDT/ ABC)
Michigan 37 – No. 16 Notre Dame 20 (7:30 p.m. EDT/ NBC)
4 comments
I’ll be sure to share a photo!
Spurrier generally doesn’t meet the spread if it’s close.
He didn’t beat the spread this time either. It was 14 1/2 to 15 1/2.
yeah, they should have won last week. Hell, they would lose 10 our of 10 to the Aggies.