Week 3: East Carolina

After last week's performance, it's tough to pick the Gamecocks to win. I'm going to do it anyway though, because unlike last week I think South Carolina has the more talented team, especially on both lines of scrimmage. Now, I realize the offensive line didn't perform well last week and now have two significant contributors out with injury, but ECU is not an SEC team and where that shows the most is on the defensive line. The Gamecocks should have the edge here, which hopefully means some TDs in the first half. As for the Pirate's offense, they are have been putting up big numbers so far this year. They have really good players at the skill positions and are successful getting the ball to those guys in space, which doesn't bode well for our depleted secondary. ECU has the edge here.

The Pirates have been one of the better non-Power Five teams the last few years, and have been successful by running up points with their version of the Air Raid offense. An interesting note is that ECU has won all of their last 6 contests against ACC opponents. Yes, that's mostly against the North Carolina schools, but still impressive from a mid-major program.  I think this will be a close game, but the Gamecocks will show up to play in the home opener and win the game in the 2nd half.

Prediction: USC 27 - ECU 20

Below is the last time we met ECU in 2014, in the 2nd game of the season after face planting against Texas A&M the previous week: