Rattler & Beamer Dish On Different Feel Surrounding UNC Matchup

South Carolina's Football team has a much tougher challenge in week one compared to years past, and that sentiment is felt in the building.

If you think about the past couple of season openers for South Carolina, it aligns perfectly with where the football program was. In 2021, the Gamecocks won in blowout fashion against an FCS team in Eastern Illinois, which provided a glimpse to a down program as to what the Shane Beamer era could look like. In 2022, South Carolina faced off against a more established program in Georgia State and was challenged in certain areas but managed to pull away in the second half, showing they had made progress.

This year, South Carolina will have a season opener versus the North Carolina Tar Heels that will challenge them more than their last two season-opening opponents. Combine that with the fact that College Gameday is coming to town and the game being nationally televised in an evening prime time slot, and there's no question from the outsiders that this game is different. Quarterback Spencer Rattler feels the same way.

"We try to say that you wanna have the same mindset for every game, but you know we'd be lying to ourselves if we said this game isn't bigger than what we had last year. Every game is big, but this is on a big-time stage against a great team, and we got a challenge on Saturday," Rattler lamented. "So I'm excited to go out there and compete and have fun with the guys."

Shane Beamer came up to the podium later on Tuesday afternoon and agreed with Rattler's sentiments when asked the same question.

"I'd be sitting here lying to ya if I told ya that it was the same as Georgia State last year or Eastern Illinois the year before." "Just the attention on the outside. I just did an interview with Jim Rome before I came in here at 1 o'clock, and I wasn't doing interviews with Jim Rome talking about the matchup week one last year, but you love that. You want to play in big games where you're on a national stage - There's a different feel and a different electricity."

These answers are a clear acknowledgment of the opportunity that's in front of South Carolina. Should they exit Charlotte with a win on Saturday night, the team could quickly catapult themselves back into the national conversation due to the notoriety Drake Maye and the Tar Heels have garnered this offseason.

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