South Carolina Gamecocks 2021 Schedule Breakdown | Ft. ‪@SECUnfiltered‬

the following clip is from the north dakota show live every monday and wednesday at seven o'clock eastern standard time where we talk scc football everything now we'd love to have you out for next show but for now hit that like button down below hit that subscribe button and enjoy this clip i'll bring it up on the screen let's finish up with talking about and breaking down our rankings for how do you want to call this easiest two hardest games this season for the gamecocks so just looking taking a quick look forward on what our schedule is going to be our 2021 schedule our opponents and everything like that and breaking them from who we think 12 is going to be the easiest and then first is going to be the toughest so just looking at this straight off the bat i think we could both agree on eastern illinois being the easiest game there's nothing about that yeah like fcs team shane beamer's first game like it's gonna be my first game as a student there which i am so pumped about but it's gonna be a fun game it's just gonna be a fun game everyone's gonna be celebrating you couldn't ask for a better opening game yeah a brand new head coach than that one we'll just leave it there with all due respect to the panthers uh yeah it should be a fun night at willy b the only thing i don't like about that game is we i know it's a night game at willy b opening up for shane beamer's first season and everything like that but they had to schedule of course the georgia and clemson game i don't it was expected to be a night game and that's a game that i would really want to watch but i'll stream it on my phone and willy b i don't care that's going to be a good game okay so let's go on to number 11 and 10. kind of interchanged there's nothing really too much to argue about here that we have i have van or you have vanderbilt at 11 troy at 10 i have troy at 11 and vanderbilt at 10. i think that those should both be winnable games we should be pretty easily favored in both of them nothing too much to complain about for those two teams but i did watch your preview on troy talking about this might be a team to test you early not necessarily they're gonna come out and beat the gamecocks or whatever but troy could be a team to test the gamecocks early so just speak on troy for a second yeah i mean listen troy is a program really proud program they're doing a really good job there and i know they lost one of their biggest playmakers at wide receiver to transfer but i mean they've got talent there's no question man and listen certainly you look at the schedule when you're breaking down we'll do this in a couple of weeks wins toss-ups and losses everyone is going to and should list troy as a win when they are breaking down the gamecock schedule but noah i think you'd agree with this we're not at a point where we should be taking any game for granted right now i mean eastern illinois we all feel good you know eastern being an fcs team whatever that's going to be a win but the last time south carolina played a sunbelt team at home and again i know things were completely different i i know the era was different whatever but you lost to appalachian state troy has played power five teams really really tough so again that's why i ranked them ahead of andy i just think vandy you know you've won 13 straight i think it is against them um i just i you know and i i know at some point vanderbilt is going to beat south carolina football yet again it's not going to be a street that goes on forever but it's not going to get snapped this year at williams rice stadium danny with the first year head coach i mean they've got even more question marks than south kind of has so i think the gamecocks should have cruised to victory in that one but that troy game again it's a game we all expect salkin to win they should win but troy hey they beat lsu a couple of years ago they they've played power five teams really really tough and again a quality football team you know because of covid guys were able to come back troy is one of those teams that really benefited i think they have i think it was a 20 of 22 starters if i if i remember correctly are back for troy so hey this is a really really good football program they've done a really good job down there in troy and uh you know a game south kind of should win but we're not at the point like i said nowhere we should be sleeping on anyone or or taking anyone lightly especially after what happened the last time you played a sunbelt team at home so certainly a game you should win but that is the reason i ranked it ahead of andy yeah and you look at like sunbelt teams in general like you look at sec teams you know vanderbilt you pretty much know a lot about vanderbilt and what they're going to be this season some bell teams like last season who had coastal carolina doing as good as they did who had louisiana lafayette doing as good as they did and everything like that so you really don't know which sunbelt team is going to break out in which year and sadly if we get them early which we do what do we have them october 2nd something like that at willy b this could be a team to shock you so again like what you've said do not sleepwalk into any game i think we all think that we can easily win eastern illinois but the the rest of them i think we still got to come out and i think shane beamer part of the reason for like having a good attitude for the rest of the games like you're not going to just flip a switch one day and want to go out and compete against clemson if you come out with the same or if you come out with a completely different attitude than you did in a game against troy that's what nick saban does so well and i think that's why he's so successful he has his guys go through the same routine the same repetition and come in with the same attitude whether they're playing the citadel which a couple years ago they were tied at halftime or something like that or whether they're playing clemson in the national championship so shane bieber i know it yeah i was just gonna say you mentioned where it falls on the schedule too i think it's a really interesting spot you know it's week five after that kentucky game let's say south kona does beat kentucky and they take care of business early in the season you know you're sitting you're flying high under shane beamer you're three and one you've got the tennessee volunteers the week after troy which of course is one you always have circled as a gamecock fan it kind of falls in a weird spot on the schedule in regards to how it's sandwiched between the kentucky game at home and the tennessee game on the road again i feel good south kind of should win i hope like an idiot we might have 50 points or whatever it may be but just don't sleepwalk through that game i think that's a game if you do so you are making a mistake because troy has shown in the past you know like you mentioned they can sneak up and bite you and they're a really proud program and they probably you know they're they're they're looking at that south korean game probably expecting to win i mean that's just the way troy approaches these games so hey one you should certainly win one i don't want to spoil my predictions but one i'm gonna pick the gamecocks to win but just don't think you can show up and roll your helmets out there and uh and think you'll come up with a victory but you know i think that's the culture that that's the that's the thing that shane beamer is changing he won't allow this team to to think it's earned anything or no matter what the record hell south county could be 4-0 in that point but i i don't think shane beamer is going to allow this team to to not approach that game the right way and play their best football and all that but uh yeah so it does fall at an interesting point in the schedule for sure yeah okay moving on to nine eight now which we have the same teams interchangeable both at nine and eight at ecu going to greenville which i don't think the gamecocks have done in some time now it's been a while 1993 i believe was the last yeah well before yeah we've played when we last played ecu was that 2015 we played ecu 2016. it was somewhere around it was 20. it was 26 it was 2016 at home because with muschamp's first season the gamecocks won that game i believe oh yeah 2016 and got out gained by like 250 yards ecu's wide receiver set like a receptions record with like 19 or 20 i think 22 catches or something like that and the gamecocks won because of a pair of jamarcus king interceptions it really is the big the biggest reason i think south korea stopped them like four or five times in the red zone and escaped that one but uh you know it's been some really really interesting games against ecu where ecu fans i think probably feel like they should have gotten the gamecocks and they may be right to be honest with you there were some really interesting games in that series yeah so we travel to ecu that is gonna be week two um and then at eight or nine whatever we wanna do it interchangeable uh we got tennessee so explain to me i'm just curious why ecu over tennessee i feel like i know but i just want to ask you why do you have ecu over tennessee currently right now yeah and certainly that's a question i got when i you know we released this article a few weeks ago when i was talking about the schedule because it is interesting um you know a lot of it has to do where it falls in the season um yeah i think that early season match up week two i mean we're still really not gonna know anything about south carolina man that how much are we really going to learn against eastern illinois week one i mean you know we're gonna be able to do some nice things and build confidence and get a big win we all presume but i don't know that we're really gonna learn anything about south carolina that that game at ecu and you know what maybe i'm hyping this one up in my own mind i mean i i think that could be argued as the biggest game of the 2021 season for south korea noah just because of you know getting to a bowl game getting to six and six or better that is the expectation for the gamecocks that's the goal in shane beamer's first year there are games you can lose on this schedule and still get to that six win plateau hey you can lose to kentucky you can lose to texas a m heck you could lose to tennessee but you can't lose to east carolina and get the six wins you just cannot do it and when i look at the two programs right now again east carolina i just talked about troy ecu's another team that really really benefited from kovan man in the sense of they've got basically their entire team back they've got a game changer at quarterback now their biggest question is defensively they got a brand new defensive coordinator they were damn near as bad as south drawn on defense a year ago so they're gonna have to get things short up on the defensive side you'd like to think the gamecocks especially running the football be able to have success against ecu but on the road at dowdy ficklin a really really tough environment their fans are crazy i mean it's going to be a game they've got circled as their super bowl and when i look at the two schools you know the game at tennessee worries me also noah just because that has been a house of horrors for south carolina yeah i don't know yeah i don't care how bad ut is neeland stadium has just been so tough for the gamecocks i mean heck even with all the success they've had against tennessee in the last decade when steve spurrier decade plus when steve spurrier took over and and really just laid a whooping to tennessee for his entire tenure in colombia i mean the gamecocks have still only won in tennessee like three or four times in their entire history but when i look at the tennessee program man they've just got so many questions they have no idea what's going on a first-year head coach um so i i i don't know i mean i think at that point in the season you know i'll feel pretty good about south carolina as far as we're gonna kind of know okay this is what we're good at it's what we're not good at these are our strengths these are our weaknesses week two is just still still going to be for me such a question mark in regards to this football team you know who can we depend on on third and seven a big moment man because i can tell you right now as much as as crazy as it may sound to you and others i look at that ecu game and i'm like that looks like a one score game to me believe it or not so maybe i'll be wrong again maybe the gamecocks will take care of business but do not sleep on the east carolina pirates and for me it really was a coin flip you could argue both but i i don't know man that tennessee program is a disaster i mean would you disagree i mean that that tennessee program is just in complete shambles i feel right now so i honestly right now am more concerned about the ecu game than i am the tennessee game and i never thought i would ever say that but again um you know a lot of it where it falls in the schedule but east carolina is a good football team this year man there's no question if you don't think the pirates are gonna be bring their a game and and do everything in their power to take down the gamecocks finally because it's been a while since they've won one against us uh you're mistaken so again it's a coin flip you could interchange those out of eight nine nine eight whatever but uh yeah i went with uh east carolina as being a slightly more difficult game than that road trip to knoxville i i again like it was really tough for me east carolina like this team hasn't traveled with shane beamer yet this is going to be our first road test that chain bieber has ever done and you're really not going to know anything after the eastern illinois game so i think it's very intriguing i just that tennessee traveling to neeland state it's such a time i'll be at both i'll be at both so my my first ever road trip to knoxville and of course my first ever road trip to ecu so i'm really looking forward to it but uh yeah yeah it you know two two very tricky games and i think for different reasons um yeah should be fun i mean 2013 tennessee when we traveled there that was my first ever game i ever went to obviously not a good one because that screwed our sec championships and the national championship hopes because we were going to win the natty that year if that stupid what was it sideline catch by i can't remember who it was yeah the name that echoes and gamecocks fans mines at this point still and then freaking great for noah getting chirped out of all the tennessee bars on the walk back to the car but tennessee i think honestly their program yes is in complete shambles i think that they're gonna be decent at the quarterback position this year and i think that will help i don't know who's going to be the quarterback i'm guessing it's between harrison bailey and hendon hooker maybe even throw joe milton in there i know he did terrible at michigan last year but those are three talented guys and if you want to add in brian maurer i don't think that he's gonna come out as the starting qb for tennessee the whole season but the home field advantage for tennessee and just our history in tennessee really really scares me and the fact that they might have a comparable quarterback which might help the program as a whole when you have the guy who's an actual player who's leading the team who can do some stuff i think that's going to help tennessee so that's why i had them the slight edge over ecu now here's where it really gets interesting for us seven six five so seven we have something different six we both have auburn and then five we had the different ones so seven and five are interchangeable for us you have at missouri being your seven i have versus kentucky being my seven and then at five uh versus kentucky and there are five i have at missouri so which one do you want to talk about first you pick i i mean here's the thing i'll say this it's splitting hairs with all these games right yeah um especially when you're talking like five through ten i mean there that's really a bunch or five through nine that's a bunch of games you could really jumble up and put them anywhere but uh you know you want to talk about that kentucky game i mean dude i think that that is you know a lot of people will argue you know i talked about ecu a lot many will argue that's the most important game of shane beamer's first yeah is there really a must win in shane beamer's first year many will argue not necessarily and i i would agree to an extent because year one for me the record is secondary right what you want to see is a gamecock fan in regards to the culture being established and on the field um what we need to see from this team and the progression the overall changes in year one but the record is important man let's not act like it's not you know getting to a bowl game and having that to sell on the recruiting trail and sell to prospects you know because you can sell hey we're just a couple of pieces away man you you and you boom all of a sudden we're competing we're legitimately fighting for a shot to go to atlanta so winning games certainly is important it helps everything but that kentucky game um i know gamecock fans hate to do it but you have to give kentucky credit you have to give mark stoops credit man they're a really good football team and i'll tell you this noah and this might be shocking to hear for you and again i have not dropped my predictions i'll be doing so in two weeks i'll literally give my game by game predictions for the 2021 season but i'll be honest with you there's no reason south kona should beat kentucky and i know that might sound crazy to hear but when you look at it if god forbid we were kentucky fans i mean you think about it we have a ninth-year head coach who's built his program his culture is ingrained he's already got his systems in place he's got guys that are balled in and i understand they have to come to willy b and i know we all hope we you know i tend to think but we all hope that's going to be a night game for you um at williams bryce you know gamecock fan tech we've gotten to the point we absolutely loathe kentucky because they've beaten a six out of the last seven years but no south carolina fan will admit at this point right now or probably ever will that kentucky's a better football program than south korea nor should they i'm not fighting that but when you look at this game on paper and what mark stoops has built and the depth and everything else there's really no reason the gamecock should win other than again being at home and hopefully by week four you've seen this team sort of develop luke doty take that next step or at least begin to the running game establish itself as a strength and oh by the way that defense would that defensive front be one of the best in the sec as well but um you know mizzou is kinda i don't really know what to think of mizzou i'll be totally honest with you know it and mizzou is in a really interesting spot and i talked about them when i broke them down it's just kind of what are they you know are they a middle the pack sec team are they gonna take that next step this year because hey the sec east is wide open i mean it's georgia there's a huge gap yeah and then there's another gap but three through seven i mean does anybody really have any idea so who's going to be that team that fits in that three and four spot is it going to be missouri is it going to be kentucky is it going to be south carolina god forbid it's going to be tennessee i don't think it's gonna be vandy but hey you never know but uh mizzou is just one of those kind of up in the air you know i know they have a good quarterback they've got problems on defense as well eli drinkwits in his uh you know his second season um in como and then the auburn game at six i you know i i do think auburn's going to be a quality football team how good are they going to be not 100 sure of course the auburn breakdown for us dropped today on the podcast but uh beau nixon quarterback also tj finley yeah somehow i had a complete omission on the show today i don't know if you listened to it i had a complete omission of tj findlay and forgot he had transferred there i tend to still think it's probably going to be botnicks but either way they got a quarterback competition they've got tank bigsby who i know gamecock fans sort of have a grudge against not necessarily it's him but the fact that mike roberts yeah of course and then of course oh by the way mike bobo comes to down who if you didn't know guys and you're tuned in is is less than uh less than beloved by south carolina faithful all my homies hate mike bobo if you don't know but that's the game i'm most excited for 110 like even more than clemson i know it sounds insane i am so pumped up for that operating game yeah but that that kentucky game man i just think you really do have to give credit to and i understand why you'd rank mizzou ahead of that one because that one is on the road and yeah and and farat field is just a really strange venue and a really interesting place to play and heck that series with south konami zoo has been as crazy as any but i just think kentucky actually has a football team you know as wild as it sounds there's a chance they might go eight and four this year they might go nine and three this year i mean you truly never know but mark stoops you gotta give them credit then a really good job building up that program and again that game being early on in the season for southgun and coming the week after the game in athens against georgia you hope and pray you're at full strength you're not dealing with any lingering issues from that georgia game but i mean really like you mentioned man especially these five through seven four through seven on our list you could really jumble those up in in in any order and i wouldn't have much argument with you but uh yeah i mean listen you talk about this 2021 season i know i'm rambling right now no i apologize but you talk about this 2021 season and and what's going to make the difference and getting to six and six are better you could argue these three games we have listed five through seven that's your season right there yeah that's the difference that's your season those four swing games those three swing games we have listed there i would add really for you and your list five through eight five through eight missouri auburn kentucky tennessee those four games how south carolina does in those four will tell the entire story of this season they can go two or two or better in those four games the gamecocks are going pulling they go worse it's tough to say so um you know those are all four very winnable swing games but all present their own challenge and again that's why i put kentucky at fifth i i do think you've got to put some respect on the cats and and what stoops is built to this point yeah i talking about kentucky i think kentucky's a talented team i'm always really really harsh on kentucky i have no clue why i just think it's because when i see the word kentucky it's like oh of kentucky yeah stigma of kentucky is still there i mean kentucky could could could go win 10 games this year but you still when you think of oh it's kentucky we should be yeah it's best that's still how gamecock fans feel and i mean southgun has lost six or seven to them so yeah you know i that will always be there i don't i don't know what could make that go away but it's just kentucky's kentucky they have the vanderbilt stigma as well vanderbilt has that as well kentucky's just you look at a game like that it's a game you feel like you should win and honestly man i'll tell you this noah maybe not in year one but this was the biggest problem with the last staff you cannot justify your program as on the up and up and on the right trajectory and we're getting closer to being a true contender you cannot justif justify those things and lose to the kentucky wildcats in football you simply just can't do it well you got to overtake them somehow you got to beat them yeah exactly exactly yeah so talk about kentucky kind of the reason why i have missouri f5 in kentucky at seven just you look at the last game that kentucky played south carolina in south carolina the last time we won kentucky still had tons of talent on that team like you look at the guys on that team they still have limb bowdoin they still had jim and davis on the defense they had all those guys but you look at who was at quarterback position for them sawyer smith he didn't have a good game and he wasn't really the guy for kentucky and you had to put i think lynn bowden played wildcat a bit in that game too but you look um at kentucky guys this year like we kind of talked about it with luke doty if there's any list that does not have luke doty at 14 the number 14 spot is kentucky qb insert name here between like bow allen between joey gatewood between levis all of those guys do i feel confident enough that kentucky's quarterback will be able to go into south carolina and win that game when the guy isn't proven yet in the season that's where i don't know that's where i look at mizzou first of all traveling to missouri is going to be tough on its own the kentucky game we get from the comfort of willie b but traveling to como um the other columbia obviously missouri i really like that offense this year again like the defense is a struggle and everything but conor basilic man that kid's made some major improvements he's already being talked about as a top half quarterback in the sec like seven and above everything like that you look at the guys that you got on the outside you got chisholm you got knocks and then a running back position you got baddie and then also at the wide receiver position they just picked up mookie cooper from um or is it osu ohio state too so i think that missouri offense is gonna be really really good and for on off defense for us traveling with our secondary i kind of feel weary about that game you look at kentucky kentucky's strength is going to be that russian game this year because they bring back one of the best offensive lines in all the sec chris rodriguez is going to lead one he's one of the better running backs in all the sec you even look at wide i think you've got some talented guys that bring in the guy from nebraska wandel robinson and then you also got josh ali still out there it's just who is that quarterback who's gonna get the ball in those guys hands and you look at how this matches up if kentucky's strength is the russian game well our strength is our defensive line and everything like that and i mean missouri will beat our secondary if they're going to win that game it's going to be because they're able to throw the ball will kentucky be able to throw that ball it's just a question mark for me right now so that's why it will be a huge will be a huge opportunity for salcon's defensive line because like you mentioned that is going to be the matchup of that football game as that gang cox defensive line slowing down that kentucky running game and also getting in the face of whoever's playing quarterback no question yeah 100 and then talking about auburn really quick i actually like how we match up in this game really nicely because auburn their strength is the russian game again like they're wide receivers you're still finding out who's the guy behind there but or who's going to be your main guy that's uh out there in auburn but you look at the russian game tank bigsby sean shivers are gonna be the two big guys again our strength is our d line so you got a good match up there and then offensively auburn strength is their secondary they're one of the best secondaries in all of college football this season but their d-line is one of the weaker spots on this auburn team so i like our russian game against auburn there so that's why i have them at six again i said that's the game that i'm probably most hyped for so let's move on to number four to one let's go through let's talk about four first because we have the same team we have florida down here talk about florida they travel to willie b i can't remember what week that's in but it's somewhere towards the middle of the season florida is a team that has still tons of question marks on what to be told like this season because you look at what they did last year and everything obviously you have traffic leave you have pitts leave you have canaries tony leave you have all these guys leave also a couple on the defense but i still think you have some talent on florida it's all going to depend on how does emery jones do i think that he is a talented guy he has the ability to have a really successful season with florida not only throwing the ball but running it as well you look at the russian game for them they bring in demarcus bowman transfer from clemson it looks like this russian game will be better than a lot of people expect them to be you look at the receiving game it's still you got jacob copeland there still you got zippier you got gamble at the tight end position i still think that there's tons of talent all over this florida team especially looking at the defensive line i look at them too and a bunch of the linebackers you got like brenton cox you got zachary carter tons of talent on this florida team them coming to willy b though i don't know what it is i'm feeling i'm not feeling that south carolina's gonna be favored in this game and i don't feel like they're gonna win but i feel like the gamecocks have a good chance that if any upset's gonna happen for the gamecocks this season i think it will be florida coming to willy b yeah florida's a really interesting team this year noah because they just lost so much from a year ago and as we saw with lsu you know the year after they won the national title and and we've seen at south carolina we've seen it all over college football right when you lose generational type talent like a guy like kyle trask was and kyle pitts and some of the others they lost how can you not feel the impact of that which i think they will but of course florida's still florida they didn't stop recruiting right many are high on emory jones and the playmakers they have come back and what they have defensively i i know they struggle on defensive side of the ball but they cleaned house in regards to all of their defensive assistance if you will of course todd grantham's still there as the dc but florida is still florida like you mentioned they've got talent all over the field what makes this game so intriguing and again i've still we've both got it ranked fourth i've got it ranked fourth i think it's a tough game because like you said the gators are still the gators they've got talent they they you know one through 22 they're better than you there's no question they're more talented than you there's no question but this game this year this is certainly the one this is going to be that sexy pick that when people look at the gamecock schedule they say okay if there's an opportunity for a big time upset in shane beamer's first season it is this game and i'll tell you why noah where it falls on the schedule the week before this game florida has to play their annual rivalry matchup against the georgia bulldogs mind you they'll have already played alabama at this point this season but they'll be coming off of that really emotional physical game against georgia as we all know it to be on the contrary the gamecocks will be coming off a bye week so you factor that in you factor the games at home you fact the way that southgate has played florida the last couple of years i mean there's been you know we all remember god forbid the 2019 game that we won't even talk about the sec referee roderick on the fourth down the whole game if we if we knock that ball down i think the gamecocks come at a will and then and then last year and florida back to back and then last year even with as as porous as that south kind of team was i mean you really could argue took floor to the wire and it weren't for some baffling coaching decisions down the stretch where the time clock management whatever that could have been an even closer game maybe the gamecocks have a chance to tie that game or god forbid maybe even win that game so we had to drop the touchdown in the last couple of minutes too like yeah just it he'll miss shy smith wide open he'll that's what it was but it was like eight minutes left in the game and you took seven and a half minutes on i mean just the most absurd thing ever either way you've played florida really tough and again just where that game falls on this schedule again you coming off the buy florida coming off the georgia game it'll be later in the season so you'd like to think again southgun as a team and i talked about this with perryorth one of the things he wants to see and certainly you and i both want to see we want to see this team progress and get better week to week to week this should be a better football team in week 10 which is where this game falls than it is in week one and if that's the case and they're progressing and getting better and luke doty's making those strides and the running game is only getting stronger and defensively hey maybe by this point in the season the secondary started to figure things some things out and find some answers so if you can do that come off the buy florida comes off the georgia games also florida if i remember correctly i don't have their schedule pulled up they've got a really big game the following week as well so it falls at a really interesting spot on the schedule for them it's one of those games kind of how i talked about auburn last year where it sort of just felt like you know what the stars sort of aligned like everything makes sense going into this week and again these two teams we'll know a lot more about them as we get into that matchup but it does set up well for south carolina at home because you'll be looking for that statement win in year one ashamed again record secondary it's all about laying the foundation and making sure this team's playing the game the right way and they're all fired up but hey winning solves a lot of problems and if you can get that statement win like against an auburn or against a florida where when you're in recruiting and to your fan base you have that to hang your hat on that is going to pay off major dividends for shane beamer and i think that florida game could be the game remember maybe south gonna maybe you catch florida off that robbery game you catch them napping a bit whatever it may be and you're able to pull that big upset so certainly it sets up well i don't think anybody in the preseason necessarily is going to be picking the gamecocks to win but i think if you have to circle one game where you say that right there that's the one if they're gonna get the big upset there it is i think you look at that florida game as your top candidate yeah and you look at the florida games the last bunch of years and everything there was there hasn't been a game in some time that you just come out of it and be like that hurt to watch in terms of right just it being like a complete blow it like south carolina has hung around with florida even going like you go back 2017 we won i remember i was at that game 20 years i mean 2018 2018 you were up 17 and you just and you just fell apart i mean i mean yeah the last 29 seasons you could realistically argue the gamecocks had a i mean you were leading going in the fourth quarter in 2014 and then the reps happened so you know there's been many chances and maybe this is the year the gamecocks finally break through and and get one back from the gators yeah and that kind of transitions nicely into what we're gonna talk about now because talking about how there hasn't been a florida game that has really killed us to watch in terms of it being a blowout we have two teams that have certainly done that to us talking about we have this interchangeably three texas a m for you two versus clemson and then i had three climbs in to texas a m i just want to state i'll talk about clemson first and texas a m i do not think that texas a m is a better team than clemson just putting that out there i still think clemson's a better team than texas a m clemson has an amazing defensive line the best in the country clemson dj uh angela is still gonna have a great season i know i hate saying this because i'm a gamecocks fan i hate clemson but why i do have texas a m above them you look at the talent take away the quarterback position because i think clemson i think dj trumps haines kig in this case but you look at the units compared side to side for texas a m and clemson i take texas a m's running back position you look at anaya smith you look at et chain you look at isaiah spiller obviously you look at the wide receiver position in a tight end position i take texas a m with lane with d mass with like wider mire you look at the offensive the offensive line is the struggle for texas a m so i take clemson's but even defensively like texas a m has tons of talent you look at the guys like de marvin lille on the defensive line add that with traveling to college station which if i'm in i'm pretty sure uh i think college station might be a bit closer than missouri i was about to say this will be the furthest the gamecocks travel but i think geographically i think columbia missouri is a bit closer the gamecocks have never played well against texas a number oh and what oh and 607 against the wall seven seven straight never won a single game against them and the last time we went to texas a m was one of the most painful games we've had to watch and then the game last season against texas a m was the most painful game we've had to watch so just our history against texas a m and having to travel there i feel like that's tougher than going up against a clemson team who yes i think they're better than texas a m i think clemson's one of the top teams in the country still but you have a rivalry game you're at home in front of your home fans and everything the players know how much this game means to them so you're kind of coming into that game with more juice and more in that sense than going up against texas a m which you historically have not played well against at all so that is my reason for having texas a m at two and clemson at number three that's probably the shock of this whole list having those two teams interchange because i still think clemson's the better team but that is why i have those there so you talk on texas a m and clemson and just your thoughts on those two teams yeah and i saw your list and i i i was a little surprised but i wasn't totally shocked because fans should understand this too these rankings it's the toughest games of the season it's not the most the best teams you play right because i mean i'm not sitting there saying that east carolina is necessarily a better team than tennessee but as how the game hey there are things that factor into each game like i've mentioned many times where it falls on the schedule what time of the year you play them you know a lot of those things factor in to the toughness of these games but you know again we're splitting hairs here but i still look at it you know clemson is clemson what they've done in recruiting you know the type of talent they have this year we're turning 10 of 11 on defense and like you mentioned unfortunately probably oo young galele is going to be an incredible player they get justin ross back they you know they do what they do in the running game and i know they've got to replace a lot but clemson's going to reload and of course they'll be well rested at that point in the year because they basically play 10 spring games before they play south carolina so yeah their players will probably play about half of the football that ours have played by the final week of the season but uh yeah i mean that texas a m game you know it's unfortunate man because you know when we first added them to schedule in 2014 i thought to myself wow what a great cross-divisional game and i was there in 2014 for the debut of sec network and the first time we played them and it was just an absolute drubbing and you know we've just you know we've just really never had any success against them you know there were a couple of scares here and there especially when shane beamer first got on campus and i remember specifically i think 2017 at their place we came close but unfortunately a m right now man is one of those games you know i have some fans argue with me oh that's a toss up that i'm like until south kind of beats texas a m i'm listing is it a law it's an automatic l for me unfortunately when i look at the schedule and that's kind of where clemson is also so again we're splitting hairs there i i think clemson i just simply gave them a nod just because the overall talent you know yeah i look at it this way noah when i look at the schedule do could i possibly see south carolina pulling the shocker at texas a m believe it or not i could see it could i see the gamecocks pulling the shocker over clemson as much as i hate to say it more than like probably not this time probably not this season so again like you said you're splitting hairs with that one i definitely understand why you put a m2 just because again they've just been i mean we've literally never in our entire history beat them so i'm not even sure any of us are convinced that it's even possible at this point so um i do get that but i just put clemson at two just because they're they're one of the two most talented teams you'll play this season and of course we're about to talk about the most talented i believe at least at number one me too but uh you know two and three both are are two really really really tough football games for shane beamer in year one of his tenure yeah a hundred percent and then we both have the same number one at georgia i still stand strong and say that this is the toughest team that we play all season not just the toughest game that we'll have to play in terms of where falls on the schedule and we have to travel to athens and everything like that but georgia man the way that this team is shaping up this year you look at the quarterback position obviously jt daniels is looking like a heisman favorite he's going to be one of the better quarterbacks in all of college football you look at the running back room you got some beer white you got james cook you got all these guys back there the wide receiver position yes they do lose pickets but they still got a ton of guys out there you um go out in the transfer reporter you just gotta grab two huge guys eric gilbert from lsu and you grab um darian kendrick from clemson which is going to make that first week game a lot more interesting george is going to have one of the best defenses in the country especially looking at their defensive line their top three top two defensive line easily the secondary's going to be good the linebackers are going to be good everything about georgia this season is shaping up really well and the fact that even though even though the gamecocks did go between the hedges and take it home last time this year it didn't seem possible that year in 2019 but this year it's really really tough to think of a scenario where the gamecocks beat georgia yeah and i don't think georgia's forgotten about that either when we ripped up the hedges and went in there and took the w no i listen george is a legitimate playoff team there's no question like you just mentioned all the talented players they have and maybe they finally found the quarterback under kirby smart with jt daniels and and the transfers they got in the portal i mean you know i i think georgia is a a big time legitimate playoff national champion contender this year and just simply put man i i think asking shane beamer and his football team to go into athens third game of the season and at night too and pull out a victory is just it's asking way too much i mean i think listen this is going to be one of those this is going to be a moment in the 2021 season that i'm really really intrigued to see how this team responds because well this is testing your culture because this is going to be a cultural stock for them right most likely if we're being all honestly like take our fandom away obviously we ride or dive this team forever but georgia has the ability to run the brakes off of south carolina in this game and if that does happen this is where you're going to get that big culture chest up test of how does this team respond you just get run out of town on the road but yet you have to come back to columbia south carolina and you still got a big game against kentucky next week so again like i said it's it's one of those things where right now you know you're in the honeymoon phase everything's great the positivity the positive momentum which is awesome it's what this fan base this program this team absolutely needed but hey you play an sec schedule and when you've got georgia week three guess what you're probably going to get punched in the mouth like you mean it's like mike tyson said everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the face and then what so yeah like like you said man i'm really excited to see how this team responds to adversity how this team responds to probably getting knocked down kicked dragged everything else and hey i'm not sitting here trying to say that the gamecocks couldn't make this a competitive game and couldn't give georgia at least make it a second half game if you will but realistically the gamecocks don't match up well in this one um yeah the dogs are just i mean they they it's a juggernaut over there right now i mean there may be this you know maybe the second you know maybe the best team in the country heck i don't know it's them bama ohio state clemson uh oklahoma probably as it's been the last couple of years but yeah i just think early on in the season man it's it's going to be really really tough to go on the road at night and take down the dogs i think this is a game and unfortunately i hate to say this if you can lose this game by 17 or less that's a huge victory i mean yeah that's a huge huge victory for southgun and again it's just because of where you are with the roster and a first-year head coach and everything else i feel like i don't have to explain that but um yeah this one this one does not does not set up favorably for south carolina and i i'll i'll just put it that way but again it'll be a great opportunity for the gamecocks to run into adversity and respond the right way because like we mentioned that the kentucky game that home day is the following week so you cannot let georgia beat you twice and i don't think shane beamer will allow that to happen but yeah that that road date in athens man that's george is for real i mean that's yeah it's it's really not even a knock on south carolina georgia's just they're they're for real this year they're they're they're not just playing to win the sec east or what have you they're they're playing to win it all and i i don't think they'll let the gamecocks derail their uh their national title dreams in week three yeah 100 like if we're talking realistically just like there's not going to be any first year head coaching team that does not have that kind of game where everything goes bad and everything like that like you look texas is not going to go 12-0 this year with sarc auburn is not going to go 12-0 this year tennessee's not going to go 12-0 this year vanderbilt's certainly not going to go 12-0 all these teams that have first year head coaches are going to run in to that tough spot eventually in this season no matter where it is like let's say texas goes out and loses to arkansas week two when they travel there it's how your team response for that is how the growth happens because none of these teams shouldn't be expecting a national championship this year what you are expecting what you are looking for is how is the culture changed and how can you get your team to rebound from these losses because they're gonna happen before you win a national championship this stuff has to happen you have to learn almost you have to learn to lose before you learn how to win because you got to learn how to bounce back from losses and everything like that no one walks into college football first year head coach and goes perfect it just doesn't happen so you got to learn how to respond to those losses and everything and if the gamecocks do like again this will be a perfect test because you've got a big game against kentucky the week after if the gamecocks can make it competitive against georgia i'll be happy if that team goes in let's say a 7 to 17 score at halftime or something like that or look at like 24 to 14 something like that if we would stay within that 10 range at half time or something like that and make it kind of competitive be like oh if we get a turnover here or something like that we could make this into a real good ball game but if we're able to go out put up really good stuff against georgia and then go out and come out just as good against kentucky in terms of this is just as big of a game and everything like that and we come out with the same firepower i think all the fans will be really really happy about the spot that gamecock football is in and and and with that being said no i mean the biggest thing is this and what the previous staff and regime struggle with just in a game like this you just can't get embarrassed yeah show up and play the game the right way i mean that's listen nobody's going to be picking you to win you're probably going to be similar to 2019 you're probably going to be a 21 24 24 and a half point underdog i mean nobody's going to be expecting anything crazy out of you but you can if nothing else make this a second half football game but like you said and something i've mentioned on my airwaves before and i'm just really excited because you know every team runs into adversity even teams that win national championships they hit adversity at some point of season but it's all about how do you respond and again like you said we're going to begin to see that culture that shane beamer is instilling because hey the culture right now like i said honeymoon phase everything is great but culture's built between the white lines to some degree it's built on the field it's built in moments of growth and if nothing else that georgia game it does give you the opportunity for a grow growing moment a learning moment a teaching moment for that coaching staff and that football team and again especially like i mentioned earlier going in that match up the next week against kentucky but you know certainly the toughest game georgia's for real they're legit like i mentioned earlier between the hedges should be a funnel but you never know south kind of georgia weirder things have happened i guess but yeah how this team responds like you mentioned man that's what i'm most excited to see not just from this game but really this entire 2021 season for uh for the gamecocks yeah a hundred percent like you could come out of this season realistically oh and 12 and if you see competitive games against each and every single team i know it's an exaggeration going on 12 against like eastern illinois and troy and everything like that you wouldn't be happy that you lost those games yeah but if you see improvement within your program that's a win for you that's improvement yeah my buddy to your point my buddy posed the hypothetical of would you rather in shane beamer's first season go five and seven but six of the seven losses are by a touchdown or less or would you rather go six and six but you just get blown out in like five of the six games i'm like i'd rather go five and seven and again but we want to see progress that is the biggest thing because the last staff's problem wasn't that they couldn't get a big-time upset win they couldn't get an impressive win we saw it 2019 and athens we saw it last year against auburn it was in the other games where you're getting blown out you're getting embarrassed you look like you don't even belong on the field you need to see progress if you're going to try to sell especially in these early first couple of years when shane beamer is going to be building his program recruiting getting his players into his program and building and establishing that culture you gotta at least be able though to hold your own make games competitive have something that you can sell your fan base your boosters recruits on the recruiting trail you can't sell a 48-3 loss at texas a m right there's a reason the old staff isn't here anymore so um i think that'll be the big thing and again like you said in a game like georgia it does give you that opportunity where if you can play them a little bit tighter than people expect all of a sudden you say hey look at south carolina look what shane beamer's doing early even if you don't win so um progress progress is what people want to see even in year one week to week progress and then season a season progress as his tenure unfolds uh in colombia yeah a hundred percent losing a game to georgia by seven will get you a lot more respect than making duke's mayo bowl or something like that like exactly in all honesty so the gamecocks got a tough schedule like we always do again top five hardest in the nation but we will see how shane beamer and his squad do this season