COLUMBIA, S.C. — It is a high noon showdown Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium as South Carolina hosts top-ranked Georgia in the SEC opener for both teams. The defending national champion Bulldogs are coming off a 33-0 win over Samford from the Southern Conference. While Georgia was playing, the Gamecocks were headed back to Columbia after a 44-30 loss to Arkansas.
While Carolina will not be favored in Saturday’s matchup, the head coach is not convinced his team has to be near-perfect in order to have a chance against the Bulldogs.
“I think we have to play smart football and efficient. That is one thing that we haven’t done the first two weeks,” said head coach Shane Beamer.
“We have done some really good things offensively the first two games. We have had way too many negative plays. We have had way too many drops. Way too many turnovers. When you talk about negative things on offense, we have had way too many of those the last two games. You could say the same thing defensively last game with mental errors and missed tackles. We have to have a lot more winning reps, winning plays than we have had the last two weeks. Have those winning plays and trying to stack one on top of another and see where we are at the end of the day.”
There is no doubt receiver Antwane Wells has caught the eye of the Georgia coaching staff. The Gamecock receiver is tied for the SEC lead with 15 receptions and is first in the league with 244 receiving yards.
Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett is second in the SEC with 668 passing yards with South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler third in the league with 603 yards through the air.