South Carolina will look to eclipse last season’s regular season win total and earn its third consecutive road victory when it faces off against Florida in Gainesville on Saturday.
The Gamecocks are coming off its best offensive performance in SEC play this season after totaling 492 yards in a 38-27 victory against Vanderbilt last week.
This upcoming week, the team’s offense will be challenged by a Florida defensive unit that has the highest turnover margin and commits the fewest penalties in the SEC. The Gators also had one of its best all-around games this past weekend — a 41-24 road win over Texas A&M.
“Coach Napier’s got a team that continues to improve each week,” South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer said. “(The team) played a great half of football two weeks ago against Georgia in the second half (and) carried that over to their performance in College Station last Saturday with probably their best performance of the year.”
A significant contributor to that victory was Florida’s sophomore quarterback Anthony Richardson, who scored four total touchdowns and accounted for 279 yards in the air and on the ground. Richardson’s output against the Aggies increased his season totals to 1,839 passing yards, 492 rushing yards and 17 total touchdowns.
“Obviously, everything starts with the quarterback. He’s an elite player and a weapon every time the ball’s in his hand,” Beamer said. “His size stands out, his speed stands out, his arm strength stands out … He’s immensely talented, and there’s a reason some of the gurus out there … see him as one of the top four, five quarterbacks in the draft for whenever he comes out.”
The Gamecocks have lost three of its last four meetings against the Gators, but last year’s 40-17 victory at home marked South Carolina's largest margin of victory in series history. Despite this result, redshirt senior defensive back Darius Rush said the team will have to play hard to pick up a win this year.
“We beat them last year, but each week is a new week, each season is a new season,” Rush said. “They’re trying to get bowl eligible now — I think they’re sitting at five wins — so going in there, they got the mentality of trying to get to that sixth win.”
South Carolina’s depth in its secondary has recently become a source of concern after a string of injuries, including one that ended redshirt junior defensive back David Spaulding’s season. Rush said he has a lot of confidence in younger players, like freshman defensive back Nick Emmanwori, who have replaced injured starters.
“It’s part of the game — you’re going to have injuries, you’re going to have people that get banged up, but there’s always a next man up mentality,” Rush said. “With a banged up secondary, the guys that we’re developing now, we’re not worried about anything because we know those guys are going to help this team the best they can.”
This weekend will kick off a stretch of games – including matchups against top 10 teams in Tennessee and Clemson — which some have called the “orange crush” because of the quality and primary colors of the Gamecocks’ upcoming opponents. Beamer said the increased competition will present the team with a challenge, but also an opportunity to improve on last year’s record.
“We’re going to be seeing a whole lot of orange the next three weeks for sure, and it’s absolutely an opportunity,” Beamer said. “There’s the old saying ‘They remember November’ … and I think our guys realize that we got bowl-eligible the first weekend in November, but we’re not satisfied. There should be a great hunger, and there’s a great opportunity to do some special things.”
Junior punter Kai Kroeger said “(breakfast) tastes sweeter” after earning bowl eligibility and reiterated Beamer’s goal to finish the season strong.
“We’re definitely happy to be where we are, but like Coach Beamer always says, job’s not done. We’re happy to at least reach last year’s win total, but still more opportunities to go, so we’re striving to win out and do the best we can and make a great bowl game,” Kroeger said.
The game between South Carolina (6-3, 3-3 SEC) and Florida (5-4, 2-4 SEC) will kick off at 4:00 p.m. and air on the SEC Network.