South Carolina vs East Carolina Preview
The Gamecocks coming off of a dominating 46-0 win over Eastern Illinois last Saturday, they will now travel to Greenville, NC to take on the East Carolina Pirates on the road. East Carolina lost 33-19 to App. State last Thursday to former Clemson and Duke QB, Chase Brice in Charlotte.
The Gamecocks who are led by first year head coach Shane Beamer were able to dominate the day last Saturday, as expected, but the first real test for this team will come the next week when they travel to Athens to take on Georgia. Don’t overlook East Carolina though, especially in Greenville with a chance to take down a SEC team on their own home field, you can expect that this team, crowd, and coaching staff will be ready come Saturday.
After Carolina announced that Luke Doty would miss some time, Beamer announced that Zeb Noland, a graduate assistant, would take over the starting role in place of an injured Doty. He did not disappoint, passing 13-21, for 121 yards, and 4 touchdowns in the first game of the season. Zaquandre White led the way for the Gamecocks in rushing and receiving yards last Saturday, rushing for 128 yards on 12 carries for one touchdown, and four receptions for 39 yards and one touchdown. The Carolina defense looked very well experienced with lots of talent, but time will tell with this group as they will be tested from better offenses throughout this season.
Holton Ahlers the Quarterback for East Carolina was 22-40 for two touchdowns and one interception last Thursday against App. State. Keaton Mitchell led the way for the Pirates in both rushing and receiving as well, rushing for 50 yards on four carries, and 79 yards with five receptions and one receiving touchdown last week. Obviously this East Carolina defense had a lot on their hands last Thursday against App. State, but with that saying they will also have a lot on their hands come Saturday as well. The biggest question for this East Carolina team is the defense, it just doesn’t seem like they have the formula to come up with a huge upset win at home after losing to App. State last week.
The Gamecocks are clearly the better team, and has the better coaching as well in this game, don’t expect this game to be close for long, as Carolina will pull away by half-time. Carolina will march out of Greenville with a 42-10 victory to improve to 2-0 in the Shane Beamer era!