Rant Preview: No. 9 South Carolina Faces Vanderbilt, Mike Leach Returns to College Football

Here’s a look at Rant Preview for August 30, 2012.

No. 9 South Carolina heads to Vanderbilt

After finishing 11-2 during the 2011 season, expectations are higher than ever for Steve Spurrier and South Carolina heading into the upcoming season. The Gamecocks have enough talent to compete with some of the other top contenders in the SEC and a key factor for this squad will be how effective Marcus Lattimore can be in the ground game.

Lattimore missed the final six games for South Carolina last season after suffering a knee injury and should be back to full strength to carry the ground game in 2012. Lattimore has rushed for over 2,000 yards and 27 touchdowns over the last two seasons–so he should be a key factor for the offense this season.

Mike Leach to Make Debut With Washington State

Texas Tech let go of one of the top head coaches in college football back in 2009 considering he let the school to 10-straight bowl games and he hopes to turn around a Washington State program that finished with a disappointing 4-8 record during the 2011 season. Washington State will face some tough competition in the Pac-12 this season and they’ll certainly give fans a preview of what’s to come in 2012 with an opening game against a BYU team that finished 10-3 last season.

There’s high expectations for Leach to turn around Washington State’s football program and it should be interesting to see how quickly he can make an impact with his aggressive style of coaching.

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