NC State versus South Carolina

The 2009 college football season gets under way Thursday, in a nationally-televised contest between the South Carolina Gamecocks and the NC State Wolfpack. The game is a rematch of last year's season opener, which saw the Gamecocks win in a rout, 34-0.

I have spent a some time over the last week or so in message board conversations at GamecockAnthem.com, the South Carolina scout.com affiliate. According to most of the fine people there, NCSU shouldn't even bother to take the field. Granted, the people there aren't coaches or players, so there opinions don't matter anymore than mine, but I've never seen a fanbase so convinced that a game is over before it starts.

"johnnyplaid" wrote:

"It should be an easy win for us. We'll probably hold back so as to not give too much away to Georgia, our first real test."

"kickatigerinthearse" wrote:

"Your WR corps is about the 10th best we'll see this season."

It goes on and on.

The most entertaining idea they have come up with is that NC State's offense is not any good. Since South Carolina shut out the Wolfpack, obviously the Wolfpack is no good. Nevermind the firepower that the offense showed down the stretch last season. Forget that Russell Wilson was All-ACC as a redshirt freshman. NC State's offense returns almost everyone from last season, so the most likely occurrence will be that the offense will come out of the gate firing on all cylinders.

I'm not going to suggest that Wilson will only throw one interception. That was a highly unusual event, and isn't likely to repeat. However, Wilson doesn't seem to be the type of QB that is going to make huge mistakes, as some recent NCSU QB's have done. The running game is solid, with a healthy Jemelle Eugene and a rejuvenated Toney Baker. The wide receivers are talented, fast, and experienced.

Most of the time, teams whose lineup is peppered with freshmen and RS-freshmen (or upperclassmen who haven't played a lot) are much better in the last half of the season than they are at the beginning. That's what happened to NCSU last season. Just don't suggest that to a South Carolina fan.

The Gamecocks have (by my non-scientific count) 13 freshmen listed on their two-deep depth chart. 3 RS-FR and 1 true FR will be starting, the other 9 players will be coming off the bench.

South Carolina fans seem to expect that these players will be able to step in and play without any first game jitters. They lost seven players to the NFL draft last year, and will tell you that every player who replaces them is an instant upgrade. They replaced their offensive line coach (among others), and don't expect the line to have any problems adjusting to the new philosophies.

Don't get me wrong. I don't pretend to see things objectively. I do, however, realize that NCSU has some question marks. There are several untested players in the secondary. Audie Cole has to live up to the hype he's been getting at LB, and Dwayne Maddox or Terrell Manning (or both) have to try to fill the gap left by Nate Irving's absence, which will not be easy.

I am very confident in the offense, though. I don't think NC State is going to have problems scoring points against South Carolina. South Carolina has talented players on offense, but they don't have a lot of talented players who have been productive. Their quarterback has had turnover issues (among other issues), and you can't tell if that is solved by preseason scrimmages (right, Daniel Evans?).

To sum up, I think any South Carolina fan expecting anything close to last year's result is in for a rude, rude awakening. This game is a big game for both teams, but it's bigger for NC State. South Carolina is basically playing for 3rd in their division. NC State has its eyes on a bigger prize: a division title, and a chance to win an ACC Championship.

I expect the Wolfpack to win, and I don't think it's going to be a terribly close game.