College football is back and we’ve got a play in opening night action between South Carolina and Southern Mississippi. Make Oddsbay your home for the best free sports betting information all season long!
SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI AT SOUTH CAROLINA—4:30 PM PACIFIC
Williams Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina will be rocking for this nationally televised game and expectiations among the Gamecock faithful are running high. South Carolina 8 starters on offense and 7 on defense including their brutally talented quarterback Steven Garcia. Garcia has been the recipient of a lot of ‘tough love’ from head coach Steve Spurrier during his time in Columbia, and he’s matured from an obnoxious punk into a solid SEC quarterback. Spurrier still isn’t completely happy with his decision making at times, but thankfully the problems are now limited to his *on field* judgment. The Gamecocks need him to raise his game as they face the toughest schedule in the NCAA this year—in addition to the always tough SEC slate they’ll play at Clemson in the traditional rivalry game and have a challenging non-conference game at home against a decent Troy team the week before.
If the schedule had been different, we may have looked to play on South Carolina here. As it stands, however, this looks like a good spot for the underdog. The Gamecocks have a big home game on deck against Georgia next Saturday, which makes this opener against a Conference USA school something of an afterthought. At the very least, they’ll be keeping much of the offense ‘under wraps’ so as to not give the Bulldogs any more to work with than they already have. Look for a lot of rushing plays, particularly with Spurrier already unhappy about Garcia’s tendency to throw interceptions.
Southern Miss may not have the same level of talent as their hosts, but they’re a quality team that has been very good at taking advantage of opposing team’s miscues (+21 turnover margin in the last two years). We look for the Gamecocks to run a ‘vanilla’ offense here and be content with getting a victory without much regard to the margin. They’ll be without starting tight end Weslye Saunders for this game—he’s been suspended for an unspecified violation of team rules. With a tough year ahead starting next week at home versus Georgia, this doesn’t look like a spot where South Carolina will be able to extend a margin against a capable, well coached opponent.
BET SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI +14 OVER SOUTH CAROLINA
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