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Noon kickoffs on the road against a sneaky-good, non-conference opponent are a recipe for weird games, so it didn't come as a surprise to most South Carolina fans when next weekend's opponent, the Central Florida Knights, were spotted just seven and a half points by the Las Vegas oddsmakers.
In our bye week roundtable, ChickenHoops offered some insight into what makes UCF such a formidable opponent:
Obviously most Gamecock fans have heard by now about their win in Happy Valley, but they beat an Akron team on the road 38-7 that went into the Big House and nearly beat Michigan. Now I don't believe in the transitive property of scores to that extent, but their other win was a 38-0 win over Florida International. Neither of those teams are very good, but one thing we know in all areas of sports is that good teams blow out bad teams, and average teams struggle in those games. Between the two blowout wins and the victory over Penn State, there's no doubt in my mind that UCF is a very good football team. They have a bye week to prepare for us, they'll have an amped up stadium pumped to add a second BCS scalp, and we'd better be ready to play if we expect to walk out of there with a win.
Do you expect the point spread to go up or down from here? Do you think the Gamecocks will cover?