USC to Kickoff College Football Season on ESPN

The early storyline for college football in the Palmetto State this year will be the renewal of old rivalries.

Clemson will open its season against former fierce rival Georgia. Meantime, South Carolina will open its season against the border rival UNC Tarheels in a nationally televised Thursday night contest on ESPN that will kickoff the national 2013 college football season.

The Gamecocks will follow that up the following week with a road trip to Georgia, giving the Bulldogs two straight weeks of the best the Palmetto State has to offer on the gridiron.

In it's home opener against the Tarheels, the Gamecocks will seek to extend coach Steve Spurrier's impressive 6-0 streak of winning Thursday night openers on ESPN.

The Aug. 29 contest will mark the 56th meeting on the gridiron between the two schools and the first since 2007. North Carolina holds a 34-17-4 lead in the all-time series, but South Carolina won that last meeting in Chapel Hill by a 21-15 count, and has won four of the last five contests, dating back to 1988. UNC holds a 14-9-1 advantage in games played in Columbia.

The Gamecocks are very familiar with Thursday night games on ESPN. Since head coach Steve Spurrier took over the program in 2005, Carolina has played 10 Thursday night ESPN contests. Carolina is 8-2 in Thursday night tilts under Coach Spurrier, including a 5-1 record at home and a 3-1 record on the road.

While no SEC schedule is ever easy, the rest of the season shakes out favorably for the Gamecocks, who return a slew of starters from a 11-2 squad that finished the season in the top 10, including veteran QBs Connor Shaw and Dylan Thompson, and consensus All-American defensive end Jadaveon Clowney. However, the Gamecocks will face the season without star running Marcus Lattimore, and a with a depleted linebackers corps.

The Gamecocks will not face any of the perennial West division heavyweights in 2013, including national champion Alabama, LSU, and second-year conference member Texas A&M — all three of which ended the 2012 season ahead of USC in the polls. USC's West division foes include Mississippi State and Arkansas.

In addition to the Tarheels, USC's non-conference schedule includes Central Florida, first-time foe Coastal Carolina, and, of course, the season-ending  tilt against arch-rival Clemson.

OK all you Gamecocks fans (or haters) here in Mount Pleasant, tell us in the comment section below what you think about the upcoming season and USC's chances.

USC Gamecocks 2013 Football Schedule:

August 31 NORTH CAROLINA

September 7 at Georgia*

September 14 VANDERBILT*

September 21 Open

September 28 at Central Florida

October 5 KENTUCKY*

October 12 at Arkansas*

October 19 at Tennessee*

October 26 at Missouri*

November 2 MISSISSIPPI STATE*

November 9 Open

November 16 FLORIDA*

November 23 COASTAL CAROLINA

November 30 CLEMSON

*-Denotes SEC Game. Games in all-caps are home games.