Home

Buy Sports Picks

Free Sports Picks

Sports Betting Forum

Members Login

Article Archives

Contact Us

Leaderboard

Who's Hot

Recent Results

Southern Miss at South Carolina

This Thursday the South Carolina Gamecocks will host the Southern Miss Golden Eagles, as both teams get their 2010 seasons underway. The Gamecocks finished up the 2009 season at 7-6 but were just 3-5 in SEC play. This year the Gamecocks have 16 returning starters, and this could very well be the season that head coach Steve Spurrier gets them in the SEC title picture. The Golden Eagles also finished the 2009 season at 7-6, but were much better in conference play, as they went 5-3 in Conference USA. BetUS currently has the Gamecocks 14-point favorites over the Golden Eagles, with the total sitting at 47.

South Carolina figures to make some significant improvements on the offensive side of the ball this season, as junior Stephen Garcia has a ton of experience with 16 career starts under his belt, and the Gamecocks welcome in the very talented freshman running back Marcus Lattimore, who should drastically improve the Gamecocks running game this season. South Carolina should also make some nice improvements on the defensive side of the ball as well with seven starters back.

Southern Miss has just 12 starters back for the 2010 season, and only three return on the offensive side of the ball, so it could be a struggle early for the Golden Eagles to put points on the board. They do bring back junior starting quarterback Austin Davis, but have just one starter returning on the offensive line. The Golden Eagles should be a little more competitive on defense with seven starters back, but I don’t know if they have the talent to stop what looks like will be a pretty potent South Carolina offense.

Looking at the Odds: I believe you have to lock in the Gamecocks to cover the 14 point spread in this one. South Carolina has won 10 consecutive home openers, including four on Thursday night. Spurrier has dominated the first game of the season going 24-1 as a head coach. The Golden Eagles were 0-6 on the road in 2009, and are 2-11 in their last 13 road openers, losing the last five by an average of 15 points a game. As far as the total is concerned, I think it will go under the 47-point mark, as I really don’t think the Golden Eagles are going to be able to manage much of anything against the Gamecocks defense. I believe South Carolina wins this game 31-10.