Coastal Carolina to open 2018 season at USC

It was announced on Tuesday, Sept. 19 that Coastal Carolina football would open their 2018 season at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia to take on the University of South Carolina Gamecocks.

The Southeastern Conference announced the schedule for all 14 conference teams for the 2018 season on Tuesday afternoon.

This is not the first time that Chanticleers and Gamecocks have clashed helmets on the gridiron.

On Nov. 23, 2013, Coastal Carolina traveled to Columbia, boasting a 10-1 record and was ranked 7th in the FCS standings. The Gamecocks were also 10-1 and were ranked 11th in the country in the AP Poll.

For just the sixth time in Gamecock history, USC would go on to put up 600 yards of offense and throttled Coastal Carolina 70-10. Coastal would eventually go on to make a deep FCS playoff run while USC would defeat Wisconsin in the Capital One Bowl.

While Coastal is no longer an FCS program, this will be a big challenge for the Chanticleers in their second full season as an FBS program. The announcement of the USC-CCU game completes the task of finding four non-conference opponents to play in the 2018 season.

After the Chanticleers open their 2018 season in Columbia on Sept. 1, the team returns to Brooks Stadium the following week for back-to-back home games against UAB on Sept. 8 and Campbell on Sept. 15. The Chanticleers will travel to Amherst, Massachusetts on Oct. 20 to take on UMass.

Coastal defeated UMass 38-28 on Sept. 2, 2017 to win their first ever game as an FBS program.

The Chanticleers will face another SEC program this season when the team travels to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks on Nov. 4.

The first time Coastal Carolina opened their season with a Power Five conference was in 2008 when the Chanticleers traveled to State College, Pennsylvania to play Penn State in front of 106,000 fans, ultimately falling 66-10.

Coastal Carolina is 0-5 against Power Five conference opponents, dropping games against Penn State, Clemson, Georgia, West Virginia and the aforementioned USC.