Where will South Carolina football end this bowl season?
South Carolina football has had a disappointing year, having fired its head coach in the middle of the season in the midst of a two-win campaign. Still, the team can meet at a bowling game in late December. In fact, with the SEC draws and the recent deactivations of the Power Five programs across the country, it looks like a guarantee that Gamecocks will be in action this post-season.
College football insider Brett McMuprhy certainly thinks so, as South Carolina has landed on its most recent projections. McMurphy presents a very interesting opponent for Gamecocks, as he pairs the show with Liberty in a Gasparilla Bowl showdown.
Liberty is led by Hugh Freeze, a senior coach who many believed was the top candidate for the job in South Carolina when it first opened. For one reason or another, Gamecocks rejected Freeze in favor of Shane Beamer, who was hired on December 7.
The game may present a bit of a “revenge game” for Freeze, who may have an extra motivation to make Gamecocks regret having passed him during the hiring process. Or he could be more focused on an Auburn debut, who knows?
If the confrontation does materialize, Flames will present a solid confrontation for South Carolina in this postseason. Liberty went 9-1 this season, knocking down two ACC members along the way (Va. Tech, Syracuse). His only loss was a loss of a point on the road in the state of North Carolina, with Wolfpack blocking Liberty’s attempted field goal attempt in the final minutes of a 15-14 victory.
Flames had one of the biggest offenses in the country under Freeze’s leadership, ranking 17th in the scoring with more than 38 points per game. The group is also in 18th place nationally in defending goals, providing a rigid test on both sides of the ball if they meet the Gamecocks.
South Carolina seems more than willing to accept a bowl shot, no matter the location, as it seeks to get more repetitions for a group full of young people and inexperience. Gamecocks are likely to know their destination in the coming days as the conference championships end. This projected confrontation with Liberty would attract the attention of Gamecock fans, giving them a glimpse of what it might have been like if they had taken a different direction with the hiring of the head coach.