Week 11: Florida
I've got to catch a flight shorty so I won't be giving many thoughts on this one. Mainly I'm just really excited that I will be seeing South Carolina play a SEC game for the first time since 2010. Here's some brief thoughts:
- Looking over the roster, Florida is a lot more talented than their record and recent play would suggest, even after losing multiple players to injury / felony credit card fraud charges. This is the biggest indictment of the Jim McElwain regime, as they have failed to develop or provide a decent scheme to top talent in order to put them in position to win football games.
- Will Muschamp has said nothing but nice things about Florida this week, but you know he is licking his chops at a chance to embarrass that fanbase. And this is a fanbase that certainly deserves to be embarrassed. It is more than evident that Florida would be in a lot better position on the field and financially if they had showed more patience with Coach Boom. This is one of the reasons I'm always against knee-jerk 'FIRE COACH X' movements from fans. Continuous instability tends to degrade a program a lot in the long run, with Tennessee and now Florida being good examples of this.
- Florida actually threw the ball around a lot better with Malik Zaire under center last week in a blowout loss to Missouri than they have all season. I don't think he'll have as much success against a Gamecock defense that is playing well right now. Hopefully Skai gets that 14th interception this game against a home-state school.
- On Offense, the Gamecocks should be able to run it better than they have been against an injury-depleted Florida Defense. This will open things up for Bentley to torch their true-Freshman cornerbacks.
The line on this game opened around 9 in favor of the Gamecocks, then stayed at around 7 for most of the week. A lot of money appears to have come in recently on the Florida side, however, as the line currently sits at 5.5 as I type this. I think the Gamecocks defense is going to be too much for the Gators to overcome in this one. Prediction: USC 27 - Florida 13. The lady of house has USC 28 - Florida 21.
You can see last year's loss to the Gators below.