The No.2 ranked Auburn Tigers travel to Columbia SC Thursday to take on the University of South Carolina Gamecocks in a football game televised nationally by ESPN. Game time is set for 7:00 pm (EDT),
South Carolina has posted a pair of non-conference wins over Southern Conference (Div-1AA) member Wofford and Sun Belt member Florida Atlantic in the last two weeks to run its record to 3-1 this season. They are 1-1 in the SEC with a win at Mississippi State and a loss to Georgia at home. This week’s game begins a stretch in which they will play six straight SEC contests. The loss to Georgia snapped a six-game SEC winning streak.
Auburn comes into this week’s contest with a 4-0 record including a 2-0 mark in the SEC. They have league wins at Mississippi State and over LSU and are coming off a 38-7 victory over Buffalo. They have won eight of their last nine and 13 of their last 15 contests. This is the first of three straight SEC tilts and only of four road games this season for the Tigers.
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This is just the eighth meeting between Carolina and Auburn and the second since the 1997 season. The Tigers lead the all-time series, 5-1-1. The teams have met three times as Southeastern Conference rivals, with Auburn winning all of those games. In the last meeting between the schools, Auburn defeated Carolina decisively 48-7 last year at Auburn.
The last time Auburn and South Carolina met, Tiger’s quarterback Brandon Cox threw for 245 yards and a touchdown and Auburn scored on five of its first seven possessions in a 48-7 win at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn. The Tigers held the Gamecocks to seven first downs and shut the ‘Cocks’ out until SC All-SEC wide receiver Sidney Rice caught a 45-yard scoring pass from Antonio Heffner with 6:14 to play. Heffner was starting for the injured Blake Mitchell. The Tigers held a comfortable 31-0 lead at intermission. Since that 41-point loss, the Gamecocks have rebounded to win eight of their last 11 games, including six of seven in the SEC. Gamecock’s coach Steve Spurrier thinks his team will have better confidence coming into Thursday nights game than last year at Auburn.
"I think we have a little more confidence going into this game,” Spurrier said. “Syvelle has played two in a row (at quarterback), we are fairly healthy at wide receiver, Kenny and Sidney are healthy, and hopefully some of those other receivers can come around and help us. Our running backs, if our line holds up pretty well, hopefully we can hang in there tough with them. Our defense I think will play better this year. It is all wait and see."
The Gamecocks had their best offensive outburst of the season in a 45-6 rout of Florida Atlantic last Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium. The pitch-and-catch combination of quarterback Syvelle Newton to Sidney Rice worked in record proportion, as they hooked up for five touchdown strikes, connecting from 23,21, 8, 41 and 19 yards out. The running back tandem of Taylor Rank (101-yards) and Mike Davis (92) helped USC grind out 200 yards on the ground, the most of the Steve spurrier era at Carolina. After giving up a score on FAU’s first possession, the Gamecock’s defense settled in and held the Owls scoreless the rest of the way.
Despite missing last Saturday’s game against Buffalo, Auburn All-SEC running back Kenny Irons is still ahead of the pace he set last season when he led the SEC in rushing with 1,293 yards. In fact, Irons had more yards rushing on Auburn’s first offensive play from scrimmage this season then h e had in the first two games combined last season when he had just 34 yards rushing through two contests. Irons leads the SEC in rushing with an average of 107.3 yards per game, and his 322 yards rushing is 30 more than he had after four games last season.
Although Auburn lost three wideouts to the NFL following last season, the Tigers are not without a talented returner at that position. In fact, senior Courtney Taylor has more career receptions (117) than any other active player in the SEC. His 1,618 career receiving yards already ranks seventh in Auburn history and his 117 catches are fifth best.
Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville knows what it takes to go on the road in the SEC to win. “Our guys understand what they are in to, going on the road.” Tuberville said. “We are playing a football team that has won their last two games and we are playing them at home.”
The odds makers have established Auburn as a – 14-point road favorite and the total is set at 37 ½.
