South Carolina football aims to end year on high note with Belk Bowl win

South Carolina football looks to end the year on a high note with another bowl victory. The Gamecocks take on Virginia in the 2018 Belk Bowl.

South Carolina football has won five out of its last six bowl games, including last year’s victory over Michigan in the Outback bowl. The Gamecocks will be making their first appearance in the Belk Bowl and facing Virginia for the first time in 15 years.

The 7-5 record may not indicate it, but South Carolina had a better season than most think. Their five losses were to Georgia, Kentucky, Texas A&M, Florida and Clemson. All those teams had solid seasons and it was a dogfight against the Aggies and a collapse against the Gators. Ultimately, a team is as good as their record indicates, but the Gamecocks play an entertaining brand of football. They should have another close game against the Cavaliers.

Virginia also finished 7-5 overall, but at the beginning of November, the Cavaliers were sitting in the drivers seat to the make the ACC Championship game. The rails came off as the Cavs lost three of the next four games with their only victory in that stretch against Liberty. It was coach Bronco Mendenhall’s best season so far in Charlottesville, but the fans have to be wondering what could have been. A victory over a solid SEC team in the Belk Bowl will help cure some of the late season woes.

One note about the Belk Bowl itself. It has one of the best Twitter accounts. Check it out if you have not done so already.

Date: Saturday, Dec. 29
Time: Noon
Location: Charlotte, N.C.
Venue: Bank of America Stadium
TV: ABC
Live Stream: WatchESPN or FuboTV

Keys to Victory

The Gamecocks will be without the services of wideout Deebo Samuel, who has decided to skip the bowl to preserve his health for the NFL Draft. However the Gamecocks still have Jake Bentley under center. Bentley fell just a bit shy of 3,000 passing yards this season, throwing for 27 touchdowns. In a losing effort against Clemson, he threw for over 500 yards and five touchdowns. Against a playoff caliber defense in Clemson, that is solid work. Virginia’s secondary has trouble against teams that can sling around the rock. Expect the Gamecock game plan to let Bentley air it out.

For the Cavaliers, the key will be to keep the ball away from Bentley and the Carolina offense. The Cavs need to keep the chains moving and they converted over 47 percent of their third down chances on the season. Junior quarterback Bryce Perkins is a good dual threat. He threw for close to 2,500 yards and tacked on another 840 on the ground, all while scoring 31 total touchdowns. Perkins will likely give the South Carolina defense fits and they key will be to win the time of possession battle.

Betting Odds

Odds courtesy of oddsshark.com

Point Spread: South Carolina -5.5
Over/Under: 53.5

Prediction

In many cases, bowl games are about the more motivated team and who wants it more. Even though they faded down the stretch, Virginia had a solid season. There is a little more pressure on Will Muschamp and the Gamecocks. This was supposed to be a big year with even a SEC championship run a solid possibility. After losing to Georgia early in the season, those hopes were gone and the Gamecocks took a slight step backwards compared to the 2017 season.

South Carolina is the better team overall on paper. They have the better offense and the better defense. But Virginia is in search for their first bowl victory in 13 years. The Cavaliers will need everything to go their way to pull it out but it probably won’t happen. Carolina is the more battle tested team. It will be close for a half, maybe even three quarters, but Jake Bentley leads the Gamecocks to quality scoring drives later in the game to pull away.

Final Score: South Carolina 31, Virginia 21