First Glance: South Carolina Gamecocks

Aggies look to avoid an obvious hangover game.

Get to Know South Carolina:

Texas A&M is 7-1 (5-0) and ranked No. 10 in the country following a 38-23 win over LSU. The Aggies are alone in first place in the SEC.
South Carolina is 4-3 (2-4) and none of their wins have come against teams with a winning record. However some questionable penalty calls cost them a win over LSU and they were one play away from beating Alabama.
South Carolina is No. No. 16 nationally in rushing defense while A&M is No. 9 nationally in rushing offense. South Carolina is also No. 3 nationally in sacks and tie for No. 11 in tackles for loss against an A&M OL that is No. 12 in fewest tackles for loss allowed, so expect a big test for the Maroon Goons.
On the other side of the ball, Texas A&M is averaging 3.2 sacks and 8 tackles for loss in SEC play (averages with would be good for No. 11 and No. 7 nationally) while South Carolina ranks 133rd in sacks allowed and 130th in tackles for loss allowed.

Texas A&M leads the all time series 8-1, but the Gamecocks’ lone victory came two years ago in a night game in Columbia. The average score over those meetings is Texas A&M 34, South Carolina 18.
The winner of this game theoretically gets the Bonham Trophy, though in actuality the trophy’s permanent home is at the Alamo. But the teams do get a replica.

Famous South Carolina alumni include Darius “Hootie” Rucker, former Texas A&M President David F. Houston, actor Mike Colter (aka Luke Cage) and attorney Robert Kardashian.

Hangover? Texas A&M is coming off of their biggest win in recent memory, coming from behind to take down LSU and take sole possession of first place in the SEC, wearing black uniforms in front of a sold out Kyle Field. Now they’ll travel to South Carolina to face a hungry team coming off a bye. You can absolutely see the hangover effect happening. Let’s hope Elko, the staff and players mitigate this and are able to pull out the W regardless.
Signal caller situation. The assumption is that Marcel Reed gets the nod after his electric performance against LSU, but Mike Elko may not be as convinced as the rest of us. Let’s hope South Carolina similarly worries about which QB they’ll see on Saturday.
Raucous crowd. Williams-Brice is one of the more underrated environments in college football. At night against a top 10 team, they’ll be at their best, and if the Gamecocks have success early, it could have an impact.
Sophomoric jokes. I’m not gonna say it’s original, but when you call yourself the Cocks we really don’t have a choice.

Considerable clouds early. Some decrease in clouds later in the day. High 77, low 56. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.