What to make of USC’s complete 2020 football schedule: Where are the pressure points?
There was no great way for this thing to fall for South Carolina football.
When the revamped 2020 schedule has five top-13 teams and only 10 games total, there’s no real order that makes things appreciably easier. The Gamecocks got their full coronavirus-altered slate on Monday night, providing a course for an unknown season during a pandemic.
A few key takeaways from South Carolina’s road:
1. High-pressure opener
No matter where it fell, the Tennessee game was going to be a swing contest. The Vols project as the sixth-toughest opponent on the schedule, so in theory it’s one of games the Gamecocks would need if they hope to make a bowl.
Based on SP+ projections, the Gamecocks project to be an underdog by less than a field goal. A loss here, and they look to be an underdog by a touchdown or more in five of the final nine games. Game 1 won’t decide everything, and arguably isn’t even as crucial as the 2019 opener, but a win makes the rest of the road less harrowing.
2. Just a brutal early stretch
October is not kind to the Gamecocks. It contains the most likely win for the Gamecocks, at Vanderbilt. But it also has road games at No. 5 LSU and No. 8 Florida; and a home matchup vs. No. 11 Auburn. Oh, and after a bye week on Halloween, No. 13 Texas A&M rolls into Columbia.
That’s a stretch where anything better than a 1-4 result earns the coaching staff plaudits. Outside the Vandy game, the closest lines project to be A&M or Auburn by 8 1/2 in Williams-Brice.
3. A chance to make hay down the stretch
The flip side of that brutal run from late September into early November is that South Carolina gets three of its most winnable games in the final four dates of the season.
The downside is, there’s a lot of pressure to make those count.
The Gamecocks will know where they stand coming out of the A&M game. The trip to Oxford for Ole Miss is tricky, with a talented, quirky roster in the hands of Lane Kiffin. Missouri at home is a rare game where USC projects to be favored. Georgia is a bear wherever, especially coming off an upset in Athens last season. Then a road trip to Kentucky wraps things.
If South Carolina is as good as it would like to be and climbing the SEC East ladder after last year’s slip, 3-1 in this stretch would be proof of that.
4. That bluegrass menace
It’s worth sitting for a moment and thinking about that last game. Lexington isn’t exactly balmy in December, so that game projects to be unfriendly that time of year.
The Wildcats had been a thorn for the Gamecocks, stringing together a five-game winning streak that spanned the final two Spurrier years and dragged down Will Muschamp’s first few years (though the 2018 Wildcats team was quite good). Last year the Gamecocks got back on top in the rivalry, aided by the fact Kentucky was playing a quarterback with a bum shoulder and had not yet inserted star receiver Lynn Bowden behind center.
There would be something poetically painful for South Carolina if Kentucky wrested back the rivalry to launch the Gamecocks into the offseason, especially considering how much one late win could mean in a shortened season.
5. Flipped emphasis
When the original, 12-game Gamecocks schedule for 2020 came out, the beginning took on more importance because of the preponderance of winnable or swing games. It seemed as if USC was going to have to store up wins before the gauntlet of Georgia-LSU-Clemson across four late weeks with a FCS game thrown in.
Now the new schedule’s backstretch will likely have to carry the Gamecocks to whatever win total they get. A great deal still rests on the opener, and perhaps stealing one tough one between Auburn or A&M (or maybe at Florida or LSU) puts them at a better perch.
But with only 10 games, all in-conference, almost every win is going to be hard-earned.
Gamecocks 2020 football schedule
Sept. 26: home vs. Tennessee
Oct. 3: at Florida
Oct. 10: at Vanderbilt
Oct. 17: home vs. Auburn
Oct. 24: at LSU
Oct. 31: OPEN WEEK
Nov. 7: home vs. Texas A&M
Nov. 14: at Ole Miss
Nov. 21: home vs. Missouri
Nov. 28: home vs. Georgia
Dec. 5: at Kentucky
This story was originally published August 18, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
