Paul Finebaum: "South Carolina Would Have Beaten LSU Without College GameDay"

No. 16 LSU defeated South Carolina in the Game of the Week, Finebaum believes things could have gone differently.

Paul Finebaum, radio and ESPN television personality, gets ready to speak on television near activities outside the Superdome, before of the College Football Playoff National Championship game in New Orleans Monday, January 13, 2020. Pregame Fans Clemson Lsu Football Cfp National Championship New Orleans / Ken Ruinard / staff, The Greenville News via Imagn Content Services, LLC

The ESPN College GameDay crew made the trip down to Columbia to cover the LSU Tigers versus the South Carolina Gamecocks to kick off coverage of the Game of the Week.

No. 16 LSU scraped out a victory over the Gamecocks after battling back from a 17-0 deficit early in the second quarter.

After the win, analyst Paul Finebaum hopped on "The Matt Barrie Show" and said things could have gone differently if College GameDay hadn't made its way to South Carolina for the showdown.

“I think South Carolina would have beaten LSU without GameDay,” said Finebaum.

Through three weeks, the home team is now 0-3 this season when ESPN College GameDay is in town. Notre Dame beat Texas A&M in College Station to open the season before Texas won over Michigan the following weekend.

Now, the Bayou Bengals came back to take down the Gamecocks in Williams-Bricee Stadium on Saturday.

“I am convinced that [South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer] spent way too much time, you know, grabbing shots with McAfee and Saban and Herbie and not enough time working on the game plan,” Finebaum said. “The last couple minutes of that game, Beamer was atrocious.”

Following the showdown, Kirk Herbstreit, who was on the call for the SEC clash, took to Twitter to voice his thoughts.

“What a game,” Herbstreit wrote on Twitter. “Game could have gone either direction. Some tough calls late in the game that I’m sure many will be talking about for some time. Congrats ⁦(LSU) and good luck to ⁦(South Carolina) rest of the year.”

"You can't live like this..." is @CoachBrianKelly's big takeaway from LSU's escape in South Carolina: pic.twitter.com/yJroGCJYYa

— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) September 16, 2024

In a hard-fought SEC showdown, the Tigers came back to defeat a South Carolina squad that has an opportunity to exceed expectations in 2024.

Now, the Tigers prepare for the UCLA Bruins to come to town in a Week 4 showdown ready to take place in Death Valley on Saturday afternoon.

"You learn that this group understands that there's so much more to this game than between the lines, it's between the ears as well. When you have a resilient group like that, you wanna coach harder, you wanna do more for them and eliminate those mistakes," Kelly said.

"I think what's important is from an entire team standpoint, to win games like that you have to understand habits have a lot to do with it. Winning's a habit and losing's a habit. If you have losing habits, you can't win those games. We have the right habits, now we have to be able to clean up the things technically and they really come down to three things."

More LSU News:

The Caden Durham Show: How the True Freshman Running Back Led LSU to Victory

The Game Plan: A Look Into How LSU Will Utilize Whit Weeks Alongside Harold Perkins

Nick Saban Calls LSU Quarterback Garrett Nussmeier a "Sleeper" Ahead of 2024 Season

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