Defense

DL: Slight Advantage - USC
Giving a slight advantage to USC on the defensive line after their performance last year seems a little absurd, but that should show you just how bad North Carolina's defensive line has been. UNC was 117th last year in rushing defense and 92nd in team sacks, which looks bad. South Carolina was 103rd in run defense and 119th in sacks allowed. This could be a good game for these offenses to build confidence to say the least. The reason I gave South Carolina the edge is because IMO they added a more impressive group of players in Marquavius Lewis, Dexter Wideman, and Donte Sawyer who should help South Carolina average more than just over 1 sack a game this season.

LB: Slight advantage - USC
I think these two teams linebacking cores are actually very similar. Both have very solid players at the MLB position (Schoettmer for UNC, Moore for USC), and a little bit more of a question on the outside, but South Carolina definitely has more proven players at the position. Bryson Allen-Williams will move back to the linebacker position and Jonathan Walton will still be there as well. This group did miss a lot of tackles last season, but they should be much improved this year. UNC boasts on ok group with a little bit of experience (Shakeel Rashad is a Sr. at one OLB), but their players just aren't quite as talented as the Gamecocks' group and I think we will notice the difference a week from today.

DB: Slight advantage - USC
This is another position that South Carolina may not consider an advantage against most teams, because their cornerbacks definitely struggled a little bit last year, but both McWilliams and Lammons should be improved after starting for a full year, and this group also adds a transfer in from Kansas, Big 12 defensive newcomer of the year Isaiah Johnson. T.J. Gurley moved up to the SPUR position for this season which I think is a great decision, because it won't require him to cover as much, and he can be huge in run defense which is a major strength of his. The good thing for North Carolina is that they return 7 of their top 8 defensive backs from last season. The bad thing is that group ranked 101st last year in pass yards allowed per game and also allowed an ACC record 31 touchdowns.

Special Teams: Push
I'd definitely give the kicking advantage to Fry, and as of now you'd probably have to give a little bit of an advantage to SC because their new punter, FAU transfer Sean Kelley did average almost 43 yards per kick two years ago when he was still a member of the Owls. Corbin Daly is a Freshman punter who was ranked 2nd in his high school recruiting class, but you never know how that will translate to the college level. The returning edge makes this a push, because even though Pharoh Cooper is electric, he doesn't have the returning record that the UNC players do. It would be more of an advantage, but all of those returns happened two years ago, and last year there wasn't much of anything. Switzer had 5 punt return touchdowns his freshman year, and Logan had 2 kickoff return touchdowns. If they could get that magic back for this year it would be huge for UNC.

Coaching - Slight Edge: SC
The head coaching edge pretty clearly goes to Spurrier IMO, even though Fedora did a fantastic job at Southern Miss. I think Spurrier has one of the best offensive minds in all of football, and regardless of how much talent he has, he always seems to figure something out. I made this a slight edge, just because I believe that the Chizik upgrade for UNC is more impressive than Lorenzo Ward has been at SC. Chizik may have been poor at the end of his time at Auburn, but he has two national championships, and has proven himself to always be a good defensive coordinator. Ward was very good at the beginning of his career, and new co-DC Jon Hoke should help the pass defense, but it's not like the Bears have been great in pass coverage the last few years.

Overall, this should be a game with a lot of points, and a really fun way to start the season.