Games that could define how South Carolina's 2025 season goes

Nine Saturdays from now, a full slate of college football games will kick off the 2025 season. Well, maybe not an entire full slate.

South Carolina will be one of the few teams not to play on Aug. 30, instead playing one day later on Sunday, Aug. 31, against Virginia Tech in the Aflac Kickoff Game in Atlanta.

Expectations will be high for the Gamecocks in 2025 after a promising nine-win campaign last year. This year’s schedule is filled with many intriguing matchups, ones that could shape how the season goes.

Of course, the Clemson game at the end of the regular season is one that everyone already knows the importance of. But there are other games, some more underrated than others, that come at points in the season where it could be pivotal to get a win.

Neutral site vs. Virginia Tech, Aug. 31

There’s a lot to take in with this matchup. It’s one that head coach Shane Beamer, who played for and coached with his father Frank at Virginia Tech, will certainly have circled on his calendar. And with only two games on Aug. 31, it puts the Gamecocks squarely in the national spotlight, kicking off at 3 p.m. on ESPN.

On paper, this isn’t South Carolina’s most pivotal game of the season, especially with the Hokies coming off a disappointing 6-7 season. The Gamecocks will be favored as FanDuel currently has them listed as 9.5-point favorites.

Still, this game will be important as they look to build off last year’s success and get off to a good start in 2025.

Away at Missouri, Sept. 20

With how the schedule shakes out, there’s a real possibility that South Carolina could be looking at a 5-0 or 4-1 record through the first month of the regular season. Compared to the next two months, playing SC State, Vanderbilt and Kentucky is much more favorable than what comes next.

Sandwiched in between those three home games is a trip to Missouri, where the Gamecocks haven’t won since 2017. They snapped a five-game losing streak to the Tigers with a thrilling 34-30 win at Williams-Brice Stadium last season. Now this year, they’ll go on the road to a place where they’ve lost by 20-plus points in two of the previous three matchups in CoMo.

Missouri, which won 10 games in 2024, will have a different look without starting quarterback Brady Cook, lead running back Nate Noel, and its two leading receivers, Theo Wease Jr. and Luther Burden III, on offense. Even on defense, the Tigers are only returning 58 percent of their total production.

The same could be said for South Carolina, which lost a lot of key pieces as well. But if the Gamecocks are going to make a serious run at the College Football Playoff, this feels like one of those games that they must find a way to win, especially with the schedule getting much tougher once October begins.

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Home vs. Alabama, Oct. 25

October hasn’t been the best month for Beamer-led teams in Columbia. In the last four seasons, the Gamecocks are 5-8 in October games. This year figures to be just as tricky with three tough matchups in the month, any of which could be labeled as “defining” games.

LSU and Oklahoma in the prior two weeks will be tough, but there’s something about the Alabama to close out October that stands out. It’s the first meeting between these two teams since South Carolina nearly took down the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa last season.

Alabama will have a new quarterback with Ty Simpson under center. Six offensive and eight defensive starters return for the Tide. This is also a team that, by its standards, is fresh off a disappointing 9-4 season and should be much better in 2025.

The good news for South Carolina is that this matchup will be in Columbia and could potentially be under the lights. If it came away with a win at Alabama a season ago, it might’ve found its way into the CFP with 10 wins. Instead, the Tide were one of the teams ahead of the Gamecocks in the rankings as both teams were on the outside of the playoff picture at the end of the year.

To avoid the same dilemma as last year, South Carolina will have to take care of business against Alabama. It’s that simple. If the Gamecocks can win this one, it will lead straight into a month that has been very good to them over the years.

Away at Ole Miss, Nov. 1

There was only one game that South Carolina didn’t look competitive in last year. Coming off a bye week, the Gamecocks immediately fell into a two-touchdown hole and lost 27-3 to Ole Miss at home in the first weekend of October.

So much went wrong in that game to the point where Beamer felt “the most disappointed that I have ever been as a head football coach.” With South Carolina set to make the trip to Oxford, it’s a game that many of the players, and of course, Beamer, probably would like to play a lot better in and get November started on the right foot.

Ole Miss returns 15 starters, including seven on offense and six on defense. One noticeable difference will be who’s under center for the Rebels, with Jaxson Dart beginning his NFL career with the New York Giants. Austin Simmons is expected to be the starter at quarterback, and it’ll be interesting to see what this offense looks like if that’s the case.

This game will begin a two-game road trip with a bye week in between before heading to Texas A&M on Nov. 15. The four road games on the schedule will all be tough, but Ole Miss should be a good indicator of how much South Carolina has evolved since its 24-point loss to the Rebels in 2024.

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