5 final thoughts, prediction for South Carolina vs. No. 7 Ole Miss football game
Another week. Another ranked opponent for South Carolina. The Gamecocks (3-5, 1-5 SEC) will travel to Oxford on Saturday, where they’ll face No. 7 Ole Miss.
The Rebels (7-1, 4-1 SEC) have won the last two meetings against South Carolina (2020 and 2024), but the Gamecocks have victories in two of their last three trips to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium (2008 and 2018).
The game will kick off at 7 p.m. Saturday and air on ESPN. The Rebels are double-digit favorites.
Those are some facts. Here are some thoughts.
1. Does anyone care about a bowl?
I was thinking about titling this thought, “Is this South Carolina’s last shot at bowl eligibility?’ Then I thought, wait, does anyone care?
Truly.
It’s not that South Carolina fans seem checked out on this football team, but they seem ready to turn the page. What feels more pressing — certainly, more interesting — than watching USC play four more football games is what it’s going to do after those games.
Is coach Shane Beamer going to move on from offensive coordinator Mike Shula? And if he does, who does Beamer hire?
How successful is South Carolina going to be in the transfer portal — especially a year after failing to bring in a significant amount of immediate upgrades?
Maybe there are some folks genuinely rooting for South Carolina to make a bowl game, especially considering that means they would have to beat either Ole Miss/Texas A&M and, more importantly, Clemson.
Even with that, this season is still a disappointment. But perhaps not a failure.
Are Gamecocks fans still holding their breath, hoping South Carolina is playing in the Liberty Bowl? Or are they just counting on a win over Clemson and a fresh start in 2026?
2. Gamecocks need to be better in red zone
To have any shot at winning on Saturday night, South Carolina needs to score — at least— three touchdowns.
Sounds easy, right?
Not for this team. In SEC games this season, the Gamecocks have scored three touchdowns just once. Unsurprisingly, that was South Carolina’s only conference victory — a 35-13 win over Kentucky in late September.
The path to three touchdowns, to me, comes down to South Carolina finishing in the red zone. Which, again, has not been easy for the Gamecocks.
Through eight games this season, USC has reached the red zone 17 times. It’s scored a touchdown on less than half those trips (8 of 17). The Gamecocks might have to go 100% in the red zone if they want to beat Ole Miss on Saturday.
3. Historic performance by the secondary
One of the biggest reasons South Carolina even had a chance to beat Alabama last week was because the Crimson Tide’s offense — led by the Heisman frontrunner, QB Ty Simpson, and some of the best WRs in the SEC — couldn’t connect on a deep ball.
On passes thrown over 20 air yards, Simpson was just 1 for 8 against the Gamecocks.
And this was not a case of Simpson overthrowing his receivers by 15 yards and it going on the stat sheet as an incompletion. Most of them were well-placed balls that South Carolina’s defensive backs made stellar plays on. Heck, one deflection by Jalon Kilgore was an NFL-level play.
South Carolina recorded nine pass breakups against the Crimson Tide. And you may be wondering: Is that good? Well, in the Gamecocks’ previous five games against SEC opponents, they had recorded a just nine pass breakups combined.
Even better: They didn’t get called for a single holding or pass interference penalty.
Had South Carolina won, that performance by South Carolina’s secondary would have been legendary. Instead, it’s just a nice footnote.
4. Two-point strategy
Against Alabama, South Carolina had two different choices whether to go for a two-point conversion. Here are the situations:
1. Down 14-12 // 10:59 Q3 // South Carolina went for two and didn’t convert.
2. Up 21-14 // 10:00 Q4 // South Carolina kicks the extra point to go up 8 points.
I don’t think there is a perfect answer for what you should do in either spot. Some fans, broadcasters and podcasters certainly disagreed, arguing the Gamecocks were chasing points in the third quarter and, in the fourth quarter, that they passed up a chance to go up by two scores.
Special teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis heard this dialogue. And, in not uncertain terms during his Wednesday press conference, told those folks to zip it.
“I think there are a lot of announcers out there right now that, in my opinion — first of all, most of them haven’t coached a day of their life,” he said. “I think it’s a joke, in my opinion. Because I don’t think they’ve been in that arena.
“If I was going into surgery and I knew I was going to have a doctor that was going to cut open my leg, I hope he’s really, really good at what he does,” DeCamillis continued. “I hope that’s what he does over and over and over, not talking on a damn podcast. So, that’s how I feel about it.”
5. Ole Miss has been known to look ahead
If there’s any team prone to an upset, it’s the Rebels.
Last season, No. 6 Ole Miss lost at home to a Kentucky team that finished 4-8 on the season. A few months later, with a playoff berth on the line, the Rebels fell to a 5-5 Florida team.
All that is to say: This is a program that has proven to be susceptible to losing games it shouldn’t. Perhaps that gives the Gamecocks some hope going into Saturday.
PREDICTION: Ole Miss 33, South Carolina 24
