The week one college football slate is going to be a loaded one. Texas visits Ohio State, Clemson hosts LSU, Alabama faces Florida State, and Notre Dame and Miami renew their rivalry on Sunday night in primetime. One of the highlights of the weekend is going to be in Atlanta, GA in a game between Virginia Tech and South Carolina. The Gamecocks bring back a lot of talent to their team this season and of course, Shane Beamer (son of legendary Hokies head coach Frank Beamer) is the head coach of South Carolina. It is going to be a highly-anticipated matchup on opening weekend and CBS Sports Brad Crawford recently talked about why this will be a must-watch game:
“Must-know reason to watch: Shane Beamer takes on his father’s former program in a ACC-SEC clash.
“The Gamecocks were one victory shy of reaching the playoff for the first time in 2024 after winning six consecutive games — including three against top 25 opponents — to end the regular season. Half of South Carolina’s 2024 defensive starters are now in the NFL and pressure falls on redshirt sophomore quarterback LaNorris Sellers to pick up the slack. Former five-star EDGE prospect Dylan Stewart returns to try and harass a Hokies team that could be a contender in the ACC.”
In a recent way-too-early prediction for this week one game, 247Sports’ Brad Crawford likes South Carolina to win, but not by as much as some might think:
Early prediction: South Carolina 29, Virginia Tech 24
“LaNorris Sellers guided the Gamecocks to six straight wins to end his first season as a starter, but South Carolina fell just short of reaching the playoff for the first time. What does the talented quarterback have in store for his encore performance? That starts in Atlanta against Virginia Tech, a squad with a play-making signal caller of its own coming back in Kyron Drones. This one’s is an underrated opening weekend matchup, the last of four contests pitting the SEC and ACC.”
If Drones is healthy, this is one of the better quarterback matchups of the week. Sellers flashed elite ability last season, but also some inconsistency. Virginia Tech is going to be a brand new team this season and it is anyone’s guess how they might look in their first game against a quality SEC team.
When listing the top 16 non-conference games for next season, FootballScoops Zach Barnett ranked the showdown between the Hokies and the Gamecocks as the 13th best non-conference game next season:
13. No. 10 South Carolina vs. Virginia Tech at Atlanta (Aug. 31): “It’s Shame Beamer vs. The Program That Frank Beamer built. South Carolina appears to be in its strongest place since the Steve Spurrier era of the early 2010s, which should translate to a Gamecock victory here. If not, look out, because the 2025 SEC schedule is not forgiving.”
Of course the obvious headline in this game is going to be South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer coaching against his fathers team. Frank Beamer is the greatest coach in the history of Virginia Tech and there is certain to be a lot of talk in the lead up to this game about his son coaching against the Hokies.
While Virginia Tech is not going to have the same amount of hype that it received ahead of the 2024 season, South Carolina is going to enjoy plenty. The Gamecocks were one of the hottest teams in the country down the stretch of this season and made a case to be in the College Football Playoff at the end. They are going to return quarterback LaNorris Sellers and standout defensive end Dylan Stewart and may just start the year in the top 10. The Hokies on the other hand have been one of the hardest-hit teams when it comes to transfer portal entries and their roster is going to look a lot different when the two teams kick off the season at Mercedes Benz Stadium. To Brent Pry’s credit, he has done a solid job of landing talent in the portal after an early mass exodus, but they are going to be the underdog in week one vs South Carolina.
South Carolina leads the all-time series 11-7 between the two teams, but they have not met since 1991. Virginia Tech has not beaten South Carolina since 1974.
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