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N.C. State (0-0) at South Carolina (0-0)
Thursday, August 28
8:00 PM ESPN
Williams-Brice Stadium (Natural Grass)
Sports.com Line: South Carolina -13, O/U 45.5

I usually start off my first Thursday night column of the year by talking about how quickly the offseason flew by and that I can’t believe we’re getting ready to kickoff another season of college football. And trust me; I’m just as shocked this year as in season’s past but even more than that, I can’t believe this is the start of my ninth season handicapping college football at VegasInsider.com.

Seems like just yesterday that I had my first conversation with Brian Edwards about doing some writing for the site and here it is almost a decade later. Crazy. Hopefully this is the start of my best season yet.

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Speaking of starts, the Thursday night season has to commence somewhere and this year we get to head down into SEC land – always an entertaining scene – to check in on the “ole’ ball coach,” Steve Spurrier, and his South Carolina Gamecocks. Spurrier will be welcoming Tom O’Brien and the N.C. State Wolfpack to Columbia for an SEC/ACC showdown.

This will be Spurrier’s fourth season in Columbia and I’m guessing if you were to poll college football writers – and they were being honest – by now they would have predicted at least one SEC title for Spurrier. But success hasn’t come quite as easily or quickly as it did for Spurrier in Gainesville, where he built up the Gators into a dominant program that reached the top of college football.

Probably the biggest reason that South Carolina has had moderate success thus far under Spurrier is the last thing you would have to explain to the coach: The SEC is one nasty conference with very few easy weekends. Especially tough in 2008 is the SEC East Division where the Gamecocks will have to duke it out with Georgia and Florida, two legitimate national title contenders, and a pretty stout Tennessee program. Especially big will be the September 13 game in Columbia when Georgia comes calling – likely still holding on to the #1 ranking – and looking for some revenge after losing in Athens to Spurrier last year. That loss probably kept the Bulldogs out of the National title game in 2007.

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves because South Carolina must deal with N.C. State first.

South Carolina should have a different look this year. Dropping your last five games of the season to keep you out of a bowl game tends to cause a coach to shake things up and predictably, the Gamecocks not only have a new starting quarterback (Tommy Beecher) and running back (Taylor Rank), but there is also a new defensive coordinator (Ellis Johnson) and special teams coordinator (Ray Rychleski).

The QB position is obviously important to every football team but playing the position under Spurrier – the 1966 Heisman Trophy winner as a QB – tends to make the spotlight shine even brighter. Come Thursday night we’ll get our first indication as to whether Beecher is ready for the starting job.

Spurrier believes the 6-2, 227-pound junior, entering his fourth year in the program, “deserves his shot.” While that doesn’t sound as if the coach has been blown away by Beecher’s play, there is no doubt he is more athletic (read: mobile) than Chris Smelley, who will serve as a backup despite going 4-2 as a starter last season.

That would seem to indicate that Spurrier might mix some QB running plays into the playbook. Then again, considering the South Carolina offensive line gave up 31 sacks in 12 games in 2007, maybe the coach just wanted someone under center that was better at running for their life.

Either way, when it comes time to pass Beecher will no doubt be looking early and often for WR Kenny McKinley, who led the SEC with 77 catches and had a team-high nine touchdowns with 968 receiving yards.

O’Brien knows all about searching to find answers at the all-important QB position. The coach of the Wolfpack dealt with very mediocre QB production for much of 2007 from Daniel Evans and Harrison Beck. That prompted O’Brien to open the job this past spring to anyone that wanted to give it a try. In all, five candidates vied for the job as Evans and Beck were joined in the competition by sophomore Justin Burke, redshirt freshman Russell Wilson and true freshman Mike Glennon.

The winner of the QB derby was a bit of a surprise as Wilson was recently named the starter for the season opener. That said, the diminutive signal caller out of a small prep school in Richmond, VA., doesn’t have a lock on the job, as O’Brien has already stated that Evans will see some action against the Gamecocks.

With inexperienced wide receivers and a reshuffled offensive line, the Wolfpack figure to be fairly conservative – at least at the outset of the season. You certainly can’t blame O’Brien for that line of reasoning after his squad was burned badly by turnovers to start 2007, committing 22 through the first six games en route to a 1-5 start.

Overall, N.C. State returns just 11 starters, only four on defense, from a 2007 team that finished 5-7 and 3-5 in conference. By comparison, South Carolina returns 17 starters from their 6-6 team last season, including 10 on the defensive side of the ball.