The South Carolina football team is looking to improve its overall record to 4-1 for the first time in over a decade when it takes on the No. 12 Ole Miss Rebels on Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium.
The Gamecocks are coming off its first bye week of the 2024 season, which was preceded by a 50-7 win against the Akron Zips on Sept. 21. South Carolina's victory was the team’s largest win by point differential since its home opener against Eastern Illinois in 2021, which resulted in a 46-0 victory.
The Gamecocks’ strong performance was headlined by redshirt senior quarterback Robby Ashford, who generated 376 yards of offense on his way to receiving the highest weekly Pro Football Focus grade of any quarterback in the country. Pro Football Focus, also known as PFF, is a company that analyzes a range of in-depth football statistics and produces NFL and NCAA football player ratings on a scale from 0 to 100.
The bye week provided multiple South Carolina players opportunities to return from injuries. Redshirt freshman quarterback LaNorris Sellers is still recovering from an injury suffered against LSU the week prior, while senior running back Raheim “Rocket” Sanders and redshirt junior wide receiver Jared Brown both left the game with injuries against Akron. All three players have returned to practice and are expected to start Saturday, head coach Shane Beamer said.
"(We) got back to work on Sunday afternoon and are full speed ahead on Ole Miss,” Beamer said. "(The Rebels are) really good defensively, and then offensively, you look at statistics, they’re pretty much number one in everything … We’ve got to be able to do a great job handling their tempo.”
Saturday marks South Carolina’s second top-25 matchup of the season, following a 36-33 loss to then-No. 16 LSU on Sept. 14.
Ole Miss comes into the matchup with a 4-1 record but is fresh off the team's third loss in two seasons following a 20-17 upset by an unranked Kentucky team — the same team South Carolina beat 31-6 earlier in the campaign.
One player on the Rebels' roster — redshirt senior wide receiver Antwane “Juice” Wells Jr. — is familiar to the Gamecocks and will return to Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday for the first time after transferring from South Carolina last summer. Through five games, Wells Jr. has gained 274 yards and 4 touchdowns on 14 receptions.
Beamer acknowledged that Wells is a "good football player", but multiple players, including senior linebacker Debo Williams, said they are not focused on the narratives surrounding their former teammate and his team.
“I don’t care who we play. It’s time to go,” Williams said. “We’re trying to dominate.”
Saturday will also mark the first time that Ole Miss has played in Williams-Brice Stadium since 2009, and the two team's matchup that year proved to be a pivotal moment in Gamecock Athletics' history. An unranked South Carolina team upset the then-No. 4 Rebels 16-10 with the help of the hit song "Sandstorm" by Finnish DJ Darude, which has become a staple at Gamecock sporting events.
Redshirt senior athlete Luke Doty said the team will be focusing on itself ahead of the game, rather than on any outside noise.
“It’s South Carolina football. We've got to play well. This game is about us,” Doty said. “There’s a lot of other narratives surrounding the game, but at the end of the day, it comes down to us, the team that we have and how well we’re going to play on Saturday.”
Ole Miss has relied heavily on its offense through its first five games of the 2024 season, as it leads all NCAA Division I FBS football programs in yards of offense per game (607.2). Beamer said it will be important for South Carolina's to keep players such as senior quarterback Jaxson Dart and senior wide receiver Tre Harris from generating explosive plays.
"We'll have to do a great job tackling, and that's a key for us this week ... to tackle well. That's one thing I thought Kentucky did a great job of last week is making one-on-one tackles," Beamer said. "Not just in the secondary, but all 11 guys on defense, to make sure that those five-yard gains don't turn into 30-yard gains."
Ole Miss is currently a favorite to win, and the game kicks off at 3:30 p.m. and will be aired nationally on ESPN.