South Carolina Hosts Coastal Carolina Saturday, Nov. 22
South Carolina’s official game notes can be found here.
Coastal Carolina’s official game notes can be found here.
QUICKLY: The South Carolina Gamecocks (3-7, 1-7 SEC) play the front end of back-to-back non-conference home contests against in-state opponents to wrap up the 2025 season when they host the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (6-4, 5-2 Sun Belt) on Saturday, November 22. Game time is set for 4:15 pm at Williams-Brice Stadium (77,559) in Columbia. This week’s Senior Day contest marks the first game in which Carolina has not faced a top-15 opponent since September.
OVER THE AIRWAVES: This week’s game will be televised on SEC Network. Dave Neal will handle the play-by-play with Fozzy Whitaker providing the color commentary. Morgan Uber will work the sidelines. The Gamecock Sports Radio Network features a pair of Gamecock Hall of Fame quarterbacks in play-by-play voice Todd Ellis (34th season) and analyst Tommy Suggs (53rd season). Chet Tucker is back for his third year as the sideline reporter.
STATE BRAGGING RIGHTS ON TAP: While bowl hopes have vanished, the Gamecocks still have plenty to play for in their final two games as they look to stake their claim as the best team in the Palmetto State. After this week’s game against Coastal, they will wrap up the 2025 campaign next week against Clemson in the annual Palmetto Bowl. South Carolina, Coastal Carolina and Clemson are the only three FBS-playing schools in the Palmetto State.
SENIOR SALUTE: The Gamecocks will recognize 23 seniors prior to Saturday’s game. The list includes Oscar Adaway III, Nick Barrett, Jared Brown, Colin Bryant, Demon Clowney, Andrew Colasurdo, Jordan Dingle, Luke Doty, Bradley Dunn, Rahsul Faison, Monkell Goodwine, Jatius Geer, Nathan Harris-Waynick, William Joyce, Buddy Mack III, Chase McCracken, Rodney Newsom Jr., Cole Rasmussen, Eriq Rice, Larry Scott, DQ Smith, Chase Sweigart and Bryan Thomas Jr.
HOW WE GOT HERE: The Gamecocks enter this week’s contest with a 3-7 mark. Carolina opened the season with a 24-11 non-conference win over Virginia Tech in Atlanta, then rolled past South Carolina State by a 38-10 margin in the home opener. The Gamecocks had their eight-game regular season winning streak and their 16-game winning streak against Vanderbilt snapped in a 31-7 decision in the SEC lid-lifter, then fell by a 29-20 count at Missouri before bouncing back with a convincing 35-13 win over Kentucky. After a bye week, the Gamecocks went to Baton Rouge and came up on the short end of a 20-10 decision to 11th-ranked LSU, then dropped back-to-back home decisions to No. 14/13 Oklahoma (26-7) and No. 4/4 Alabama (29-22) before losing at No. 7/8 Ole Miss, 30-14, and at No. 3/3 Texas A&M 31-30.
CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR: The Gamecocks have played most of their opponents close this season but have not been able to finish. They have either lead or have been within a touchdown entering the fourth quarter in eight of 10 games this season. In their seven losses, they led No. 23 Missouri, No. 4 Alabama and No. 3 Texas A&M heading into the final stanza, trailed No. 11 LSU and No. 7 Ole Miss by just seven and six points respectively, before ultimately falling short, and even in the two “blowout” losses versus Vanderbilt and Oklahoma, were within one score at halftime in each contest. The Gamecocks are 24-5 when leading after three quarters under Coach Beamer, but just 3-3 this season.
