South Carolina's 2014 Schedule: Into The Gauntlet

University of South Carolina head football coach Steve Spurrier is catching a little heat as usual after making some choice comments about the non-conference scheduling of a fellow SEC school.  While he has always been known to speak his mind, all it takes is a quick glance at USC’s 2014 schedule to see that the OBC speaks the truth.  Few schools in college football have the gumption to schedule as aggressively as South Carolina.

After their opening scrimmage against scrappy underdog Texas A&M, the Gamecocks will ramp up their schedule with a non-conference matchup against perennial Conference USA powerhouse East Carolina University.  The Pirates finished the 2013 regular season with a crushing defeat to Marshall before rallying to squeak by Ohio in the Beef O’Brady’s Bowl.  Many pundits consider this a dark horse candidate for ESPN Gameday early in the season.

From there the usual humdrum SEC conference play continues, but South Carolina fans have already circled their calendars for October 18^th when the Cocks will host the Paladins of Furman University.  Don’t expect to catch this game on the fancy new SEC network as it will almost certainly be picked up by CBS as the SEC Game Of The Week, where Furman will be looking to showcase their famous uniforms.

As the 2014 season draws to a close South Carolina will spend the second to last week of their schedule facing arguably the toughest challenge in college football by hosting The University of South Alabama.  Gamecock fans should revel in the opportunity as it was announced earlier this summer that South Alabama would be leaving Division I FBS and accepting an invitation to join the AFC East.

After that game the players will no doubt be ready for the relative relaxation of their matchup at Clemson which they should win easily because fuck Clemson.

As of press time it was announced that South Carolina is in early talks with The Wilson School For The Blind for a home-and-home starting in 2021.