3 reasons South Carolina will beat No. 10 Texas A&M, and 3 reasons they won’t
Texas A&M is the No. 10 team in the nation. It is 7-1 and hasn’t lost an SEC game. It is coming off a decisive victory against a ranked LSU squad.
And, somehow, the Vegas bookmakers have the Aggies as just a 2.5-point favorite over an unranked South Carolina team with three SEC losses. It feels off, almost as if Vegas knows something the rest of the world doesn’t.
Or, perhaps, it’s because Saturday’s conditions are ripe for an upset.
▪ 1. South Carolina is at home. Think of the big upsets this season in the SEC: Arkansas over Tennessee, Vanderbilt over Alabama. A field rush followed each because the underdogs were playing at home.
▪ 2. South Carolina is coming off a bye week. If you’re gonna give an edge on health, check the Gamecocks. While A&M was spending its Saturday changing quarterbacks and completing a second-half comeback against LSU, South Carolina was taking a week off from war.
▪ 3. There’s some trap game potential. Each of the last two ranked teams South Carolina faced — Ole Miss and Alabama — were coming off those aforementioned field-storming games. They were on high alert. There was no chance to look past the Gamecocks. Texas A&M is different. It’ll be seven days removed from the biggest win of its season, a week filled full of praise and talk of the College Football Playoff.
It is easy to buy into all three of those narratives. It is also hard to forget the other side of each.
▪ 1. South Carolina is just 8-6 (.571) against SEC opponents inside Williams-Brice Stadium since Shane Beamer took over. When 2001 echoes and the towels are flapping and that first beat of Sandstorm hits in the fourth quarter, it feels impossible the Gamecocks could ever lose at home. And, well, they’ve been just better than a coin flip.
“Our guys are excited about being back at home,” Beamer said. “But also realizing — one thing we talked about was just making sure we minimized the distractions, because being back home is different.”
▪ 2. Under Beamer, South Carolina is just 2-2 coming off bye weeks. Even worse? Arguably the two worst games of the past two seasons are the last two games following a bye week: The blown fourth quarter lead against Florida last year and the Ole Miss blowout a month ago.
▪ 3. It’s hard to know if Saturday could be a trap game for the Aggies. Perhaps they could get swept up in the tornado of hype and expectations, but there isn’t anything for them to look ahead to. After playing South Carolina, Texas A&M has a bye week then faces New Mexico State.
So what do we make of this? How does South Carolina make Saturday more 2022 Tennessee and less 2024 Ole Miss? Will it require some sort of offensive change that the Gamecocks couldn’t undertake before the Ole Miss game because quarterback LaNorris Sellers and running back Rocket Sanders were nursing injuries?
“You look at, OK, we’ve got five games left. Here’s kind of where we are,” Beamer said. “What are some things that we need to do over these next five weeks — one, better, but maybe differently as we look at personnel or we look at scheme? Is there a scheme we could be using?”
Last season, as the Gamecocks started November 3-0 all the talk was about the defensive revolution. Defensive coordinator Clayton White upped the amount he put South Carolina in a 3-3-5 formation and, all of a sudden, South Carolina went from giving up 35 points per game in October to just 16 a game in November.
So, are the Gamecocks planning a similar scheme change for an offense that ranks near the bottom of the SEC?
“Do you really think I’m gonna answer that question?” Beamer said with a smile. “You’re always looking at how can we be better and more efficient.
“Are we going to look like a completely different football team out there on Saturday?” He added. “I don’t think so. But will there be some tweaks that you always adjust? … Absolutely.”
SOUTH CAROLINA VS. TEXAS A&M GAME, TV INFO
- Who: South Carolina (4-3, 2-3 SEC) vs. No. 10 Texas A&M (7-1, 5-0 SEC)
- Where: Williams-Brice Stadium, Columbia, S.C.
- When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
- TV: ABC
- Line: Texas A&M by 2.5
This story was originally published October 30, 2024 at 8:20 AM.
