PREVIEW: An Early look at the South Carolina Gamecocks

The Georgia Bulldogs welcome a 2-3 South Carolina team to Athens, here's an early look at the challenges that the Gamecocks present.

If there's ever going to be a football team that scoffs at the thought of Georgia's size and physicality, it's going to be South Carolina. They don't have a single freshman in the front seven on defense. 

Their defensive line? They average 6'4, 276 pounds and they start 3 seniors and a junior. And say what you will about South Carolina being 2-3, and having lost to the likes of North Carolina, they have dudes, they have BIG dudes. Especially on the defensive end, so if Georgia's offensive line expects to just toss the helmets out there, it will be a long day. 

They also have a quarterback, a young one in Ryan Hilinksi. That might just be young and nieve enough to really not care about coming into Athens on a Saturday at noon as a 25 point underdog. 

A quarterback that Kirby Smart wanted desperately in the 2019 class. He even said so himself in the Monday press conference: 

"We recruited him, we recruited him hard" He continued, "This young man is talented, … just look at the Alabama tape, he went out and played one of the elite defenses in the country and spun the ball as good as anybody, he’s got a great release, he’s got intuition on throws, he’s very instinctive,”

And you certainly can see why Kirby wanted to see Hilinksi in Red & Black: 

Kirby even alluded to the offensive talent they have, Bryan Edwards is one of the more gifted wideouts in the SEC. He's 6'3 220 pounds with the ability to body any defensive back, and with a 75-yard score on the books already this season, he's got that "take the top off" speed that terrifies defensive coordinators. 

Not to say Georgia won't KirbStomp the Gamecocks in Athens this weekend, because despite how well the defense may play, I find it hard to believe Kirby Smart is allowing a freshman QB to beat him in Sanford Stadium. 

Hilinksi's played well for a freshman, but let's not act like he's setting the woods on fire just yet. In four games, he has a 121.6 passer rating (12th in the SEC). He's thrown 5 TDs to 3 INTs on 61.1% completion. 

Sure... it's looked okay, and there's certainly room for improvement. But it's going to take something just shy of a miracle this weekend in Athens for South Carolina to walk out victorious.