South Carolina is set to open SEC play on Saturday night in front of a sold-out Williams-Brice Stadium, where the No. 11 Gamecocks will take on Vanderbilt in a primetime clash. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:45 p.m. on SEC Network, with streaming available on the ESPN app.
The Gamecocks enter week three ranked No. 11 in the AP Top 25 and No. 10 in the USA Today coaches poll, while the Commodores sit just outside the rankings in the “also receiving votes” category of both polls.
History is firmly on South Carolina’s side. The Gamecocks have won 16 straight meetings against Vanderbilt, a streak that stretches back to 2009. That run spans four different head coaches in Columbia—Steve Spurrier, interim Shawn Elliott, Will Muschamp, and Shane Beamer—and five in Nashville: Bobby Johnson, Robbie Caldwell, James Franklin, Derek Mason, and Clark Lea. Overall, South Carolina holds a 30-4 record against the Commodores, the best winning percentage any SEC team has against a conference foe with at least 30 matchups.
South Carolina will also be debuting a new look for the occasion. Under Shane Beamer, the Gamecocks have prided themselves on mixing up uniforms, rarely repeating a combination. That trend continues in 2025. According to the program’s official social media account, USC will take the field wearing garnet helmets with white facemasks, paired with garnet jerseys and white pants.
“Threads for tonight 🔥,” the team posted alongside photos of the full gameday look.
The garnet helmets with white facemasks first appeared last year in a win over Vanderbilt in Nashville. However, the full garnet-helmet, garnet-jersey, white-pants set has been worn only once during Beamer’s tenure—a disappointing home loss to Missouri in 2022. The Gamecocks will try to change that history on Saturday night.
On the other side, Vanderbilt announced it will take the field in all white uniforms, setting the stage for a classic garnet-vs-white SEC matchup under the lights.
