Tracking the enemy: How did South Carolina's past and future opponents fare on Saturday?

Join us as we take a look at what the Gamecocks' 2013 opponents accomplished this past weekend in an effort to gauge the quality of our wins and losses and ascertain our likelihood of emerging victorious in future contests.

By Connor Tapp Sep 23, 2013, 10:00am EDT

North Carolina (28-20 loss at Georgia Tech)

In any given year, it's difficult to know what to make of most ACC teams. But just when we thought we had a general idea of what the Tar Heels might amount to, they went and blew a 20-7 halftime lead against Georgia Tech and gave up 28 unanswered second half points to the Ramblin' Wreck. Of course the Yellow Jackets are another perennially enigmatic squad, often falling flat on their face just when you think Paul Johnson has that triple option attack humming in Athens.

I'd like to say that we'll know more about the quality of our 27-10 win over Chapel Hill on opening night after their next two games against East Carolina and Virginia Tech, but the 15-10 debacle between the Hokies and Pirates two weeks ago suggests that we won't know that answer until much later in the season.

Georgia (45-21 win over North Texas)

It was fun to root for North Texas as we watched them match Georgia's 21 points early in the third quarter, but we all knew there was no way the Mean Green were walking out of Athens with a win. The Bulldogs were sleepwalking through the first two quarters of this one (while possibly looking ahead to next week's game against LSU) before scoring 24 unanswered to pull away late.

Vanderbilt (24-7 win at UMass)

Letting terrible teams hang around late was a recurring theme of the early afternoon SEC games on Saturday, and Vanderbilt's road contest with the UMass Minutemen helped establish that trend. The Commodores led by a margin of just 10-7 at the half before putting the Minutemen away late with an Austyn Carta-Samuels touchdown strike to Joran Matthews and putting the game on ice with a Jerron Seymour touchdown run with a little over four minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Central Florida

The Knights were off this week, so George O'Leary spent Saturday polishing his résumé. You know, just in case.

Kentucky

#BBN never rests, but the Wildcat football team was idle during week four.

Arkansas (28-24 loss at Rutgers)

Gary Nova had a big day agains the Razorbacks for the second consecutive year, racking up 346 passing yards and three touchdowns in a come-from-behind victory for the Scarlet Knights. The Razorbacks' running back tandem of Alex Collins and Jonathan Williams was held in check for the first time this season as Arkansas picked up its first loss.

Tennessee (34-17 loss at Florida)

Nathan Peterman? Justin Worley? It didn't matter. The Volunteer offense was absolutely brutal on Saturday, gaining just 3.8 yards per play in a spectacularly ugly loss in The Swamp.

Missouri (45-28 win at Indiana)

The Tigers moved to 3-0 on the young season with a road win against an improving Indiana Hoosier team.

Mississippi State (62-7 win over Troy)

R.I.P. Troy

Florida (34-17 win over Tennessee)

The Gators won but lost Jeff Driskel for the balance of the 2013 season. Tyler Murphy did a great job filling in for the injured signal-caller, but let's see how he holds up when Florida travels to Death Valley in two weeks.

Coastal Carolina (50-17 win over Hampton)

Clemson (26-14 win at N.C. State)

Dabo Swinney's third-ranked Tigers had their least impressive performance of the season and could have easily lost this one if not for a pair of botched calls by the officiating crew that worked against N.C. State. Clemson was clearly the better team, but showed flashes of the same tendency to underachieve for which the Tigers have become so infamous.