South Carolina vs. NC State
Free Pick: NC State -5.0 (-110 betting odds)
Thu September 3rd 2009 7:00p
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HC Steve Spurrier leads his South Carolina Gamecocks into battle with plenty of question marks. He still really hasn’t totally decided whether junior QB Chris Smelley or sophomore QB Stephen Garcia is his man under center. A defense which held its opponents to 21.1 points per game (#31 in the nation) and held opposing passing attacks to just 159.4 yards per game (#2 in the nation) now has plenty of holes to fill. On top of that, the Gamecocks struggled on the road last year, going just 2-3 SU and ATS in five road games.

The NC State Wolfpack believe that they can contend for the ACC Championship this season in spite of the fact that they finished with the worst record in the ACC Atlantic Division last year. QB Russell Wilson has been absolutely fantastic since taking over the reigns of the NCSU offense in the middle of last season. He holds the nation’s longest streak of passes without an interception, and he had the best TD/INT ratio of any quarterback in the country last year. With a bunch of returning starters from a defense that held three of its L/4 regular season opponents to 17 points or less, HC Tom O’Brien could find plenty of success this year.

There’s a reason that the football betting line in this game has jumped from three up to five. South Carolina cleaned NC State’s clock last year, winning in Columbia 34-0. The result won’t nearly be the same this year. We’ll look back at the line in this game and laugh in several weeks when the Wolfpack are contending for an ACC title and the Gamecocks are struggling to gain bowl eligibility.

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