re: Vanderbilt vs gamecocks on Thursday September 1st..... your thoughts

It shouldn't be a high-scoring game. The biggest comparisons will be regarding both team's defenses:

Vandy's defense should be stout again with a lot of leaders on that side of the ball returning, and the questions about our own offense. Meanwhile, USC's own defense wasn't that great last season, but perhaps they will be helped by a returning Vanderbilt offense that wasn't great either. As bad as USC's defense was last season, we held them to fewer total yds than our offense had, and sacked their QB more (3 vs 2).

The Vanderbilt game last season was the first game for USC after Spurrier quit, so there was some confusion but also some emotion for the Gamecock team. It would end up being the only win under interim HC Elliott. But this will be on Vandy's home field and I'm sure they will have the emotion on their side for the season opener.

There's just too many questions right now for the Gamecocks for me to have a clue how the game will go, but I still feel that the play of the defenses for both teams will decide the outcome....