SEC schedule tells same old difficult story for Gamecocks

The USC football team has played a difficult football schedule annually since they joined the SEC in 1992, and the 2009 football season will be no exception. I suppose you could say that the upcoming slate of football games for the Gamecocks is a "doozy," even when compared to the schedules from the past 17 years.

USC will open the 2009 season with two road games. The first, a Thursday night non-conference matchup against the Wolfpack on ESPN. USC handily defeated North Carolina State last season 34-0, but the Wolfpack rallied back to finish their regular season with four straight wins (over Duke, UNC, Wake Forest and Miami) and a trip to the Papajohns.com Bowl.

NCSU quarterback Russell Wilson was injured in the game in Columbia, but finished the season with 17 passing touchdowns and only one interception. The Wolfpack should prove to be much tougher competition than they were last year, especially considering this game will be on the road.

The second road game will be against SEC East rival Georgia. The Bulldogs lost their top passing, rushing and receiving weapons to the NFL and graduation in Stafford, Moreno and Massaquoi, but a game between the hedges will never be easy.

South Carolina will next get a four-game home stand, with two non-conference games against Florida Atlantic and South Carolina State. FAU won the Motor City Bowl last season and S.C. State features the MEAC offensive player of the year from last season.

Also making the trip to Columbia during that home stand will be Ole Miss and Kentucky, winners of the Cotton and Liberty Bowls respectively. The Rebel's Jevan Snead may be the second best quarterback in the SEC, and Ole Miss should be stronger than they were last season when the Gamecocks beat them in Oxford. Kentucky is 0-16 all time versus Steve Spurrier, and the Wildcats have lost eight straight games to USC.

Possibly the toughest game on the schedule for USC, the Gamecocks will play in Tuscaloosa, Ala. for the first time since 2004 as they square off with Alabama. The Crimson Tide will bring an elite defense and a smash-mouth offense into battle with the Gamecocks.

Road games in the SEC are already difficult enough, and despite their loss to the Utah Utes in the Sugar Bowl last season, the Crimson Tide is still one of the best teams in the SEC, and will be next year.

Following a should-win home game against the Vanderbilt Commodores (though that was said the last two seasons when they beat USC), the Gamecocks go back on the road for the final time in 2009 at Tennessee and at Arkansas.

USC beat both teams last season, but both teams may be far better as Tennessee has a new coach for the first time in 17 years, and Bobby Petrino is building a winner in Arkansas.

The final two games of the season bring the Gamecocks back home to face two of three parts of the Orange Crush, Florida and Clemson.

All that you need to know when the Gators come to town is that they have two national title rings and a Heisman winner in the past three years.

After a bye week, Clemson will bring C.J. Spiller to Columbia to face the Gamecocks (again), and Dabo Swinney should have his program fired up and ready to go for the last regular season game.

This schedule will be one of the toughest in the country next season, so should the Gamecocks come out with eight wins, that may be cause to celebrate. There are only three to four 'sure-wins' on this schedule (UK, Vandy, SC State and FAU), but that is difficult to say considering UK's recent gridiron success and Vanderbilt's small winning streak over the Gamecocks.

Conquering this schedule with at least eight wins would certainly be a step up for USC's program. And coach Steve Spurrier needs to have such a season because the results he has put up so far in Columbia has brought very little praise.