NCAA Football Betting – South Carolina Aiming For Big Season

The South Carolina Gamecocks are a program with tremendous attendance figures, a big stadium, SEC membership, and no championships. The team tries to reach the next level, beginning Thursday against Southern Mississippi.   

Southern Miss Golden Eagles @ South Carolina Gamecocks 

Thursday, September 2nd – 7:35 PM ET 
Williams-Brice Stadium, Columbia, SC 
Broadcast: ESPN

NCAA Football Betting Odds: Southern Miss +14, South Carolina -14
Total: 47 

It’s one of the more agonizing dry spells in all of college football: The South Carolina Gamecocks, year after year, fail to reach the next level. The team regularly draws more than 70,000 fans per home game and has one of the most loyal followings in the sport. The Gamecocks are overshadowed by Georgia and Florida and Alabama, but they’re not a particularly cash-strapped program (no more than most).

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Every once in a while, you’d think this team would be able to make a serious run at the SEC East crown, but that just hasn’t materialized in the Palmetto State. The last time South Carolina won a conference championship was 1969, in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Will the Gamecocks make noise this year? They start their 2010 campaign on Thursday at home against Southern Mississippi. 

NCAA Football Betting: What Southern Miss Has To Do To Win 

It’s all about throwing the ball for Southern Miss and head coach Larry Fedora, formerly the offensive coordinator at both Florida and Oklahoma State. Fedora likes to push the ball down the field, and in junior quarterback Austin Davis, he has just the man to do it. Davis has thrown for nearly 4,300 yards in roughly one and a third seasons in Hattiesburg.

He missed eight of the team’s 12 regular-season games last year, but in the four games he played, he completed 69 percent of his passes for 10 touchdowns against only two interceptions. If USM’s retooled offensive line, with four new starters, can protect Davis, this could definitely become a very close game that the Golden Eagles can steal in the fourth quarter. 

NCAA Football Betting: What South Carolina Has To Do To Win 

The main reasons the Gamecocks never reach their potential are found on the offensive side of the ball. Throughout the years, Carolina sports a solid and capable defense, but its quarterbacks are typically head cases and its offensive line is usually quite porous. Junior quarterback Stephen Garcia has to come into his own in 2010 and start playing the position the way Steve Spurrier, his esteemed but notoriously demanding coach, wants him to play it.

The Cocks’ offensive front has to do a good job of picking up blitzes, especially from the backside, so that Carolina doesn’t cough up turnovers and hand cheap points to the visitors from Conference USA. 

NCAA Football Betting Outlook & Pick 

South Carolina usually wins its season opener, but if you go back over the past several years, the first games of the year are never pretty for the Gamecocks, who usually struggle on offense and lean on their defense at the very start. Might as well stick with that outlook, then.

The Gamecocks will rough up Austin Davis and contain the Southern Miss aerial attack. Carolina’s offense won’t do anything special, and Garcia should make a few bad mistakes, but as long as he contains himself and doesn’t try to do too much, the Gamecocks should be able to wear down USM in the second half and scratch out a not-very-convincing victory. Definitely take Southern Miss plus the two touchdowns. History suggests as much. 

NCAA Football Betting Pick: Southern Miss +14