South Carolina's Shane Beamer explains how playing Old Dominion in season-opener will be like playing against Tennessee

The South Carolina Gamecocks won't play the Tennessee Vols in 2024 (unless both teams make it to the SEC Championship game or meet in the College Football Playoff).

Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer, though, thinks that playing against Old Dominion in South Carolina's season-opener will be like playing against Tennessee, thanks to the Monarchs' style of play.

"Offensively, they'll look very much like Tennessee," said Beamer on Tuesday while previewing the game against Old Dominion. "With the tempo, the formations, the concepts they run in the passing game, the patterns, the run game. They were very much like that last season. And then in the offseason, they hired two assistants off of Tennessee's staff that are now at Old Dominion. So it'll be very much, we anticipate, a Tennessee flavor. A lot of tempo. So we gotta do a great job of handling the tempo as a defense."

Old Dominion hired former Vols offensive graduate assistant Kody Cook as their wide receivers coach this offseason. Cook, who played college football at Kansas State, spent two seasons on Tennessee's coaching staff.

The Monarchs also hired former Tennessee offensive analyst David Weeks this offseason. Weeks is serving as Old Dominion's tight ends coach after spending one season with the Vols (Weeks was also a student assistant at UCF under current UT head coach Josh Heupel in 2018 and 2019).

After playing against Heupel and the Vols the last three seasons, Beamer and the Gamecocks should be well-prepared to go up against Old Dominion's offense. Of course, that doesn't mean it'll be easy -- Old Dominion nearly knocked off Wake Forest last season. And they played Virginia Tech tough on the road.

South Carolina should (and probably will) win this game, but that doesn't mean the Gamecocks will easily cruise to a win -- they'll have to earn it.

Related: Chattanooga coach references Tennessee's Jim Mora controversy from last season ahead of season-opener against Vols