Know your foe, South Carolina: Which Gamecocks can give Notre Dame issues

Who do you think has a big game on the other side Irish fans?

There is a certain bowl allure about about facing teams you don’t normally do. There is an added bonus of facing the team that saw one of your schools most iconic coaches, [autotag]Lou Holtz[/autotag], last roam the sidelines for as well.

This [autotag]TaxSlayer Gator Bowl[/autotag] has all of that and more, as both teams enter their final contest of the 2022 season at 8-4. The Irish lead the all-time series, 3-1, but the last time these two went at each other was in 1984, the only win of the series for [autotag]South Carolina[/autotag].

Much has changed since these two teams previously met, all these players weren’t even born when it happened. The Gamecocks are coming off two very impressive wins, [autotag]Tennessee[/autotag] and [autotag]Clemson[/autotag], and boast a very formidable team. Here are five of them, excluding star quarterback [autotag]Spencer Rattler[/autotag], that could give [autotag]Notre Dame[/autotag] problems Friday afternoon.

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Tale of the Tape: Leading Receivers – Lorenzo Styles vs. Antwane Wells

Are the Irish in trouble with this area for the Gator Bowl?

Understanding why [autotag]Michael Mayer[/autotag] isn’t on this chart but still seeing it has to be a bitter pill for Notre Dame fans to swallow. With the best tight end in Irish history preparing for the NFL draft, the title of most productive Irish receiver falls to [autotag]Lorenzo Styles Jr.[/autotag] While Irish fans would have liked to see more than one touchdown for the player with that distinction going into the Gator Bowl, this is how it’s going to be. Still, maybe Styles will turn a bunch of heads.

South Carolina has retained its leading receiver for the season in Antwane Wells Jr. If all goes well for him in this game, he will reach 1,000 receiving yards for the season. That could be easy since the Gamecocks have NFL-bound quarterback Spencer Rattler available for this game.

All of this could lead to a rough contest for the Irish, but maybe it only looks rough on paper. Maybe they’ll be the program with the offensive showcase instead.

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