South-Carolina
Darren Uscher Named Director of Player Personnel and Recruiting
University of South Carolina head football coach Shane Beamer has named Darren Uscher as the Gamecocks’ Director of Player Personnel and Recruiting, it was announced today.
Uscher returns to his alma mater after most recently serving in a personnel and recruiting role at Oregon. In 2023, the Ducks posted a 12-2 record, reaching the Pac-12 Championship Game, while Uscher helped construct a recruiting class for the 2024 season that has been ranked as high as No. 3 nationally. He briefly joined Chip Kelly’s staff at UCLA as the executive director for recruiting for the 2024 season before returning to Eugene following a coaching change in Westwood.
Prior to his time in Eugene, Uscher spent two seasons (2021-2022) in the SEC as Auburn’s director of football recruiting. During his time on The Plains, he oversaw all areas of recruiting, player personnel and roster management, while also serving as football’s liaison with the compliance department. Uscher helped produce a pair of top-25 recruiting classes, including the No. 21 class for the 2022 season and the No. 18-ranked group for 2023.
Uscher came to Auburn after spending seven seasons (2014-2020) at Boise State, serving as the Broncos’ football operations/recruiting coordinator for two years before being promoted to director of football recruiting and player personnel. The program boasted the Mountain West Conference’s No. 1 recruiting class in each of his seven years on staff and posted a 69-19 record during his tenure.
Uscher’s first full-time position came at Georgetown, where he served as the director of operations, assistant recruiting coordinator and video coordinator for the 2013 season. He earned his master’s degree in sports industry management during his time at Georgetown.
Uscher, who earned a degree in sport and entertainment management from the University of South Carolina in 2009, got his start in college athletics as an undergrad in the Gamecocks’ marketing department when he helped execute marketing plans for the football, baseball, men’s and women’s basketball and men’s and women’s soccer programs. He also interned with the Washington franchise in the NFL and Major League Soccer’s D.C. United during his collegiate days.
South-Carolina
Did the College Football Playoff Field Open Up Enough for South Carolina?
After this weekend’s action, did the college football playoff open up enough for South Carolina to get in?
It was a chaotic weekend of college football as Ole Miss lost to Florida, Oklahoma dominated Alabama, Auburn beat Texas A&M in a thriller, Ohio State handled Indiana and Kansas upset Colorado. A lot of teams that were ahead of the South Carolina Gamecocks in the rankings, but the more important question is did enough spots open up for South Carolina to potentially sneak in?
The Gamecocks will certainly rise closer to the top 12 in the next release of the rankings. They came in at No. 18 this last week and will likely be somewhere around 15 in this week’s rankings. South Carolina might have been too far back to be on the back end of the playoff this go around, but they are certainly inching closer and closer.
There is however one problem for South Carolina. Despite Alabama losing, the Crimson Tide have virtually every edge for a playoff spot over the Gamecocks if a decision came down between them. Alabama has the head to head, they have the better win against Georgia, South Carolina lost to LSU and Alabama dominated LSU on the road. South Carolina does have the better strength of schedule ranking, but that hasn’t seemed to matter too much to the college football playoff committee.
The bottom line is South Carolina has played like on the best teams in college football as of late and has certainly done enough to put themselves into the conversation. However, if the decision came down to “which three loss SEC team do we want to put in?” the Crimson Tide likley check more boxes than South Carolina does.
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South Carolina at Clemson odds: Early point spread released for Palmetto Bowl, How to Watch
South Carolina and Clemson are set to meet in a game that could potentially carry some College Football Playoff implications, however slim they may be.
The Tigers are looking to crack into the field with two losses, and they need every bit of momentum they can get to continue their climb up the rankings. A win over a very good Gamecocks team would certainly help.
According to lines listed by FanDuel, Clemson will open as a 2.5-point favorite over South Carolina in the contest. The game’s over/under point total has also been set at 51.5 points.
That sets the expectation going into the game: The Tigers are favored by a bit, but certainly not enough that you can make any sweeping generalizations about how the game should go. The Gamecocks can wreck games with their defensive line.
How to watch South Carolina at Clemson
Time: 12 p.m. ET, Nov. 30
Channel: ESPN, FuboTV (streaming)
Location: Memorial Stadium — Clemson, SC
Both teams have had a significant turnaround in the second half of the season after starting a bit slow out of the gates.
South Carolina had winnable games against LSU and Alabama slip by, but the Gamecocks have now ripped off five straight wins behind an improved sense of confidence and crisp execution from LaNorris Sellers and company.
The Gamecocks are playing with a different edge, perhaps following the tone set by a defensive line that can absolutely undress opponents at times. The Tigers will have to find a way to block that very good defensive front.
But Clemson has been good in its own right of late. The Tigers did let a game against Louisville slip away, but they’ve won nine of the last 10 games and have looked dominant in a few of them.
Both teams are coming off blowouts of inferior opponents, so they should be both well-rested and ready to roll on rivalry weekend.
Vegas has the Clemson-South Carolina contest pegged as a pretty close game, so buckle up and get ready for another edition of one of the south’s top rivalries.
South-Carolina
Gamecock uniform report for South Carolina-Wofford
Saturday marks the final home game of the 2024 season for South Carolina. The in-state and 5-6 Wofford Terriers will drive down I-26 from Spartanburg to Columbia to take on the 7-3 Gamecocks. Williams-Brice Stadium is sold out again, completing the program goal of filling the stands for all seven home games this fall.
Through the first ten games of the season, Shane Beamer’s South Carolina football team has not repeated a uniform combination. Alternating garnet, black, and white helmets, jerseys, and pants, the Gamecocks also have mixed in some additional looks with throwbacks, alternate face masks, and updated helmet stickers and stripes.
On Saturday, the trend will end as South Carolina will repeat a uniform combination for the first time this season.
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Around lunchtime, the Gamecock Football account on Twitter/X hinted at the gameday uniform combination. The post showed a picture of what looked like the team’s throwback white helmets in front of an American flag.
Then, a little while later, the social media team revealed the rest of the gameday combination.
South Carolina has once again will rock its 1980 throwback uniforms. The Gamecocks also wore the look during the team’s blowout win over Akron earlier this season.
Saturday is Salute the Troops Day at Williams-Brice Stadium and also Senior Day.
The full list of Senior Day participants can be found here.
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