South Carolina got the weekend off, but that didn’t mean the bye week came and went without consequences.
While the Gamecocks sat at 3-3 overall and 1-3 in the SEC, the chaos around college football and the conference kept reshaping the view of what’s left for USC. Florida’s upset of Texas made South Carolina’s 38-19 win over the Gators look even sharper.
At the same time, Mississippi State and Alabama - two SEC teams the Gamecocks have already lost to - both took losses of their own. For Carolina, the resume picture didn’t change much.
What did change was the outlook for the final stretch. With six games left, South Carolina’s path can now be lined up from the most manageable to the most difficult.
The easiest one on the board is the Nov. 14 trip to Arkansas. The Razorbacks are 3-4 and 1-3 in SEC play, and while they’re no longer the conference’s bottom feeder after beating Vanderbilt, there isn’t much evidence they’ve become a problem.
Arkansas still has the lowest-scoring offense in the league at 21 points per game, and its defense has already allowed 25 touchdowns, which ranks second-worst in the SEC. The Hogs have the same number of SEC wins as South Carolina, but there’s little reason to think they’re the stronger team, even at home.
Right behind them is Texas A&M, which visits Columbia on Nov. 7.
The Aggies have been a mess offensively, checking in with the fourth-worst offense in the SEC at 357 yards per game. Senior quarterback Marcel Reed has slipped in almost every major category, completing just over 55% of his passes and tossing six interceptions already.
Texas A&M has also already dropped games to Kentucky, LSU and Missouri, and after reaching the College Football Playoff a year ago, it’s now staring at the possibility of missing a bowl game. South Carolina has also had some success in this matchup since Mike Elko took over in 2024, including a win over the 10th-ranked Aggies in 2024 and a game last year that the Gamecocks probably should have won after blowing a 30-3 halftime lead.
If USC can handle Oklahoma on Halloween, there should be plenty of optimism heading into November.
The Halloween trip to Oklahoma lands next on the list. There was some belief the Sooners had turned a corner after beating No.
1 Texas, but Saturday undercut that idea when Texas and Oklahoma both lost at home, to Florida and Kentucky, respectively. Oklahoma’s offense has been hard to watch.
It owns the worst rushing attack in the SEC at 95.50 yards per game, converts barely one-third of its third downs and gives away possessions too often. Quarterback John Mateer has thrown seven interceptions, and the Sooners have lost six fumbles.
Their turnover margin, at -1.33 per game, tied for 134th in the nation. The one thing keeping Oklahoma afloat is Brent Venables’ defense, which has the best passing defense in the SEC at 151.33 yards allowed and forces opponents into third-down stops at a rate of about 26%.
Still, if South Carolina avoids self-inflicted mistakes, it has a real chance to leave Norman with a win, just as it did in 2024.
Then comes Clemson on Nov. 28, a game that should make the Gamecocks feel better just by virtue of where it’s being played. The home team hasn’t won the Palmetto Bowl since 2018.
Clemson also hasn’t inspired much confidence this season, getting outscored by a combined 69 points in its two games against ranked opponents, a 51-10 loss to No. 18 LSU and a 41-13 loss to No.
1 Miami. Still, this is Clemson, and rivalry games don’t always obey the form guide.
The last four meetings have been split 2-2, and each side has found ways to make things interesting no matter how the seasons looked beforehand. South Carolina may be the favorite in Death Valley, but this matchup is never simple.
Tennessee comes next on Oct. 24, and this is the kind of opponent that can change the whole tone of a month. The Volunteers just beat Alabama, and the cleanest path for South Carolina would be for Tennessee to get caught up in the aftermath and come out flat at Williams-Brice.
But the Volunteers are built differently from the version South Carolina upset in 2022. That team lived on shootouts.
This one wants to line up, control the clock and punish you at the line of scrimmage. Tennessee benched quarterback Faizon Brandon for George MacIntyre two weeks ago, but the real story in the Alabama win was the trenches: 41 rushing attempts for 150 yards on offense, and just over 2 yards per carry allowed on defense.
That’s a much tougher proposition for the Gamecocks.
And at the top of the difficulty list sits Georgia, which comes to Columbia on Nov. 21.
Yes, the Bulldogs lost to unranked Auburn on Saturday, and yes, that result showed they’re not invincible. But Auburn also needed a 3-0 turnover edge, a late Gunner Stockton fumble, and help from an uncharacteristic late-hit penalty to pull it off.
Even with that collapse, Georgia still looks like the SEC’s best team, and beating it would require South Carolina’s cleanest, sharpest performance of the season. That kind of upset is possible in college football.
It just isn’t the likeliest thing on the Gamecocks’ remaining schedule.
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Northwestern is among the teams still in the hunt, and the race is getting more interesting thanks to a busy week of notable results around the state. Fort Mills upset of Rock Hill and Hartsvilles win over Loris both helped reshape the conversation in their regions, adding another layer of urgency as contenders try to finish strong and avoid a stumble before the postseason picture comes into focus. [Read more 🡒]