South Carolina vs. Florida Preview

The No. 15 South Carolina Gamecocks (7-2, 5-2) will welcome SEC Eastern Division rival Florida (5-4, 3-4) to Columbia this Saturday afternoon for a 12 p.m. ET kick-off at Williams Brice Stadium.

The Gamecocks are coming off of a 44-28 loss at the hands of the Arkansas Razorbacks, leaving Georgia in the driver's seat in the SEC East.  If the Gamecocks are to make it back to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game, they will need a win over Florida and a Georgia loss to either Auburn or Kentucky in the next two weeks.

Both Florida and South Carolina had their starting quarterbacks taken out of last week's games due to injury.  John Brantley was injured late in Florida's 26-21 win over Vanderbilt and Connor Shaw left the game at Arkansas with a concussion.  Both Shaw and Brantley are expected to start this weekend.

"We think Connor will be alright by the middle of the week," said Head Coach Steve Spurrier at his weekly press conference on Tuesday. "Clint Haggard, our athletic trainer, gave him the test to see how he's doing and he's doing pretty well."

The injury to Shaw is not the only one that the Gamecocks will be worrying about this week.  Safety DeVonte Holloman was also concussed in last week's game and his status is doubtful for Saturday.  Antonio Allen sat out last weekend's game with a sore neck, but the Gamecocks expect to have him back for the Florida game.

"DeVonte Holloman is still hurt," said Spurrier. "Antonio Allen should be back. He was running around last night for the first time in a week. Hopefully he'll be able to play the entire game for us."

Florida snapped a four game losing streak last Saturday, defeating Vanderbilt 26-21.  John Brantley threw for 173 yards as Jeff Demps ran for a career high 158 yards in Florida's win.

This is a must win game for South Carolina, but the Gators will definitely be looking for revenge for the beat-down the Gamecocks delivered in The Swamp last November.

Predicton:
#15 South Carolina 17  Florida 14