South Carolina at Vanderbilt

There is lots of excitement coming into the season for South Carolina, as the Gamecocks are a bona fide Top 10 team. This might be the best core of players that head coach Steve Spurrier has put together at South Carolina. QB Connor Shaw really progressed in the second half of the season when he threw for 14 TDs and rushed for eight more, and has become another dual-threat QB. One of the top backs in the country in Marcus Lattimore will be back off knee surgery and should be healthy once again. They have some guns on defense as well, and should be ranked high on that side of the ball too. Despite a 2-6 record in conference play Vanderbilt did enough outside the conference to earn a Bowl bid. While they have some good players returning on offense, they were completely overmatched vs. the Gamecocks last year, failing to get in the end-zone, gaining just 77 total yards on five first downs. While they may top those numbers, they are still far from being competitive against very good teams. Steve Spurrier has been 82-57 ATS in all the conference games he has coached since 1992. Venderbilt is just 1-5 ATS in their last six taking +3.5 to +10, and like last year they will find it tough to move the ball. Vandy has always had to rely on their defense at home, and that has left them at 16-2-1 to the UNDER in their last 19 at home as a dog of +3.5 to +10, and none of the last five meetings between these schools has topped the total. Play on South Carolina and take the UNDER.