2023 Kentucky Football Foes: South Carolina Gamecocks

Greetings, BBN! Continuing our previews with the Week 12 game, we arrive at the second to last week of the season with the Kentucky Wildcats traveling to Williams-Brice Stadium for a difficult road test.

The South Carolina Gamecocks have been on the rise as of late under Shane Beamer, defeating Tennessee and Clemson in back-to-back games to end the regular season in a 14-day stretch USC fans won’t forget for a long time, but UK has held their own on South Carolina’s turf over the years.

Let’s dive into this matchup.

Kentucky at South Carolina

• Time/Date: TBD time on November 18th
• Location: Williams-Brice Stadium
• TV Channel: TBD
• Early Odds: ESPN FPI gives the Cats a 51.3% chance of winning.

The Sandstorm-crazed Gamecocks are coming off an action-packed 8-5 campaign that saw them snatch victories against Texas A&M and Tennessee at home and Kentucky and Clemson on the road, and just narrowly losing the Gator Bowl to Notre Dame by seven.

This will be Shame Beamer’s third year, and the Gamecocks will be returning last year’s QB who led them in all their big wins—Spencer Rattler. Their schedule is loaded as usual, but get UNC and Clemson at home for the rare eight home games and end the year with four straight at home. This could be a nine or 10-win season if they hit the ground running and stay healthy.

Kentucky’s beaten South Carolina in seven out of the last nine meetings, but last season lost their first home game against the Gamecocks since 2012 when Joker Phillips was coach. Will Levis was out, and while Kaiya Sheron did ok, the Gamecocks used a strong second half to come away with a 24-14 victory.

The Cats are 3-2 in Williams-Brice under Stoops. Most of his tenure has seen the Cats have the upper hand in this series, but this might be one of the most difficult wins in the series to get yet.

Prediction: I don’t like predicting that UK will lose, because they are good enough each year to just about always have a chance, so long as they don’t blow it. Let’s say they come off an Alabama loss, get a chance, and “don’t blow it.”

Kentucky 28, South Carolina 24