Texas A&M is coming into this game against South Carolina as a decided underdog, and they have more than earned that status with their lackluster level of play so far this season. This is the first time since 2014 that South Carolina has been favored in this yearly matchup, and with the way the Gamecocks are playing, it's not hard to see why.
This is a Carolina team, after all, that just put up 42 points on Oklahoma on the road in Norman, more than any other team— including Georgia at home— has been able to score on the Sooners. Shane Beamer's squad is operating at a playoff level right now, and with four games to go, they are squarely in the mix if they can win out down the stretch.
This game against Texas A&M to start November looked like a bit one for the Gamecocks in the preseason, but now, with where the Aggies are, you can't blame Carolina for coming into this one feeling like they should win. However, coming off of three straight big wins, and with a huge game against Georgia in two weeks that the Gamecocks could already be looking forward to, it's possible that the Aggies could sneak into this one a bit overlooked.
Can Texas A&M get a trap game boost over South Carolina?
That's a notion that's supported by the fact that the Aggies are coming off of a bye week, while Carolina has played two very physical games back to back against Tennessee and Oklahoma (though the Sooners started giving up near the end of that previous game). KJ Edwards and Noah Mikhail were both listed as "questionable" for this game, but other than that, the Aggies should be relatively healthy for this one.
The fact of the matter is, though, that this is a game that Carolina has likely had circled since the beginning of the year. If you somehow forgot, Texas A&M, as a top-3 team in the nation, fell behind by 27 points to the Gamecocks at halftime of last year's game in Kyle Field before mounting one of the quickest comebacks we've ever seen to win the game 31-30.
That was seen around Columbia as an extremely significant collapse by Shane Beamer and company, so there's a clear revenge factor at play for the Gamecocks here. If this were a different team, in other words, I'd feel better about Carolina potentially overlooking them, but that's not the case right now.
Of course, there is a palpable sense of worry around the Gamecock fanbase surrounding this game, as well. Carolina fans and Texas A&M fans tend to share a sense of pessimism in some ways— when things start going good, both groups are just waiting for the other shoe to drop a lot of the time.
Though the Carolina fanbase may have that sense, I don't think the Gamecock team does. They seem pretty hungry and motivated to get to the Playoff for the first time in school history, and they're going to come out and attackt his game with a high level of focus. A&M may end up winning this game, but if they do, it won't be for being overlooked by their opponent.
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