the last 18 straight at home. Sumlin is 0-2 in SEC openers, but he does have a pretty good SEC road record.

Steve Spurrier is 23-1 in season openers, the lone loss coming to South Carolina when he was at Duke.


I'm nervous about the Gamecocks shutting down a sophisticated passing attack. We just haven't been that good at it. However, we've been very successful against Clemson, who also likes to run a fancy hurry-up spread, at simply playing keep away. In 2013, Clemson only held the ball for just under 22 mins. In 2012, Clemson held the ball for a grand total of 6 mins, 41 secs in the 2nd half and only 20 minutes for the entire game. In 2011, they held the ball for just under 23 mins.

I expect a similar game plan from Carolina tonight. It will be hard for an aTm offense to tire out a Carolina defense that spends close to 40 minutes of the game on the sidelines.