Cluck of the Irish: TaxSlayer Gator Bowl lands No. 19 South Carolina vs. No. 21 Notre Dame

The TaxSlayer Gator Bowl has scored perhaps its best matchup since Bobby Bowden closed out his storied career as the Florida State coach against West Virginia in 2010.

It might be a stretch to hope that No. 19 South Carolina and No. 21 Notre Dame could threaten the all-time attendance record of that FSU-West Virginia game (84,129). After all, there won't be a beloved Hall of Fame coach bidding farewell to two adoring fan bases and stadium capacity has been reduced since then.

But there will be two young coaches on the rise, the Gamecocks' Shane Beamer and the Irish's Marcus Freeman.

Gator Bowl ticket information

There will be two offensive stars, South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler (who has said he will play in the team's bowl game) and Notre Dame tight end Michael Mayer (who is draft-eligible and hasn't indicated yet if he will opt out).

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And when they face each other at TIAA Bank Field on Dec. 30 at 3:30 p.m. (ESPN), it almost certainly will more than double the 28,508 that watched last year's game between Wake Forest and Rutgers and command the usual high TV ratings that follow Notre Dame whenever the Irish are on the air.

South Carolina coach Shane Beamer indicated that from his end, fans are already responding to their best won-loss record since going 9-4 in 2017 under Will Muschamp, the chance to play in a Florida bowl game and facing the Irish.

"Our fans are ecstatic about this opportunity," Beamer said on Sunday night during a Gator Bowl teleconference. "I talked to our AD [Ray Tanner] and our head of tickets and they said sales are insane. A lot of that has to do with who we're playing and a ton of respect for what they've done."

Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said the way South Carolina finished the regular season -- knocking off No. 5 Tennessee and No. 8 Clemson in back-to-back weeks, scoring 94 points in the process -- has gotten the attention of his team and the Irish fan base.

"I can't tell you how excited we are to play a great opponent in South Carolina," Freeman said. "We're all college fans and to see what they've done to finish off the season is remarkable."

Gator Bowl officials thrilled

"We got the game we wanted," said Gator Bowl president Greg McGarity. "We have a South Carolina team with an energized fan base against perhaps the most iconic brand in college football. They haven't been in Jacksonville for a Gator Bowl in some time, they haven't played each other in a very long time and we think it's going to produce a magnificent crowd."

Notre Dame and South Carolina are both 8-4 but the Gamecocks arrived at that record with two memorable victories to close the regular season, routing Tennessee 63-38 and edging Clemson 31-30.

Ironically, those two teams are playing five hours down I-95 in the Orange Bowl on the same day South Carolina plays the Irish.

Notre Dame bookended its regular-season schedule with losses to Ohio State, which made the College Football Playoff and will face No. 1 Georgia in the Peach Bowl, and USC, which is playing in the Cotton Bowl. In between, the Irish thumped both teams in the ACC Championship game, Clemson (35-14) and North Carolina (45-32), and scored 27 or more points in their last six games.

Both teams stumbled to begin the season, Notre Dame losing their first two and South Carolina getting off to a 1-2 start.

The Irish ran off five victories in a row at one point, and the Gamecocks four in a row, and five of six.

Both coaches said the journey back is what is making this post-season opportunity special.

"Both of us rebounded," Beamer said. "[Now] it's two good teams."

Freeman admitted that the 0-2 start, which included a home loss to Marshall, wasn't how he envisioned his first full season as a head coach would begin.

"It was a bumpy road ... not how we foresaw it," he said. "But our leaders helped us regroup. We started building our momentum, played a great North Carolina team, beat Syracuse, a big win over Clemson ... the ability to improve is the challenge we had."

Teams last met nearly 40 years ago

The game will be intriguing for several other reasons:

• The Irish last played in a Gator Bowl in 2003 and South Carolina in 1987. Notre Dame is 1-2 in the Gator Bowl and the Gamecocks are 0-4. But having either team in the game has been an attendance boost: Gator Bowls with the Irish have averaged 70,706, and except for the inaugural Gator Bowl in 1946, when the Gamecocks lost to Wake Forest 26-14, the average attendance for a game involving South Carolina is 78,851.

Notre Dame played a regular-season game against Navy in Jacksonville in 2016, losing 28-27.

• The two teams have played four times in the past but not since 1984, when the Gamecocks won 36-32. Notre Dame won the other three meetings -- including a 13-6 victory in 1976, the year the Irish first came to the Gator Bowl.

• Beamer has a family connection to the Gator Bowl. His father, Frank Beamer, coached Virginia Tech in five Gator Bowls, winning twice. Shane Beamer was a long snapper on the 1997 Virginia Tech team lost 42-3 to North Carolina in the Gator Bowl.

"It was a fantastic experience and we had a good time until we ran into a really good North Carolina team that day," Beamer said. "The Gator Bowl was one of [his father's] favorites because of the way things were done in Jacksonville. It's no different now. I know it will be a great time."

Marquee game ends rough streak

The Gator Bowl is one of three games outside the New Year's Six lineup that will match two ranked teams. The marquee matchup is a welcome respite from a series of lackluster games that sent attendance plummeting in recent years.

Wake Forest, which has a small alumni base and enrollment, brought a good team but few fans to last year's 38-10 victory over Rutgers.

The Knights were an 11th-hour replacement for Texas A&M, which had to opt out of the bowl because too many of its players either decided to not play in the game to begin preparing for the NFL draft or had tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.

The year before, just over 10,000 fans attended Kentucky's 23-21 victory over N.C. State because of capacity limitations due to the pandemic. The game did well in 2019 when 61,789 watched Tennessee nip Indiana 23-22 but the previous two games, Mississippi State vs. Louisville and Georgia Tech vs. Kentucky, drew less than 45,000 in each case.

Rattler vs. Irish defense

The obvious matchup in the game will be Rattler against the Irish defense.

Rattler, a junior transfer from Oklahoma, saved his best for last in the Gamecock's two regular-season victories, throwing for 438 yards and six touchdowns against Tennessee and 360 yards and two scores against Clemson. He has 2,780 yards and threw for half of his 16 TD passes in the final two weeks.

The Gamecocks running game is by committee, led by sophomore Marshawn Lloyd (573 yards, nine touchdowns). Rattler's top target is junior Antwanne Wells (63 receptions, 898 yards, six TDs).

"He's special," Freeman said. "Their offense is explosive and it starts with the QB."

Notre Dame's defense is 23rd in the nation, allowing 327.4 yards per game, and tied for 18th in the nation in sacks with 35. That latter statistic is spread out, with 14 players getting at least a half-sack.

The Irish quarterback situation is unsettled. Starter Drew Pyne (2,021 yards, 22 TD passes) has already announced he is transferring, presumably leaving the job to the only other quarterback who has attempted a pass this season, sophomore Tyler Buchner, who started the first two games and threw for 378 yards before a shoulder injury knocked him out for the rest of the regular season.

Freeman said Buchner isn't the starter yet and will have to compete with two other backups, freshman Steve Angeli and Ron Powlus III. But he did say Buchner "was full-go" in recent practices.

Whoever is under center will have a huge target in Mayer, who has caught 67 passes for 809 yards and nine scores -- provided Mayer plays in the bowl game. He's at the top of most lists as the best college tight end for the 2023 NFL draft class and Freeman said he's asked Mayer and one of his other top NFL prospects, edge rusher Isaiah Foskey, to make their decisions sooner than later.

"We'll discuss it early this week," Freeman said.

Contact Garry Smits at gsmits@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @GSmitter.

78th TaxSlayer Gator Bowl

When: Dec. 30, 3:30 p.m.

Where: TIAA Bank Field.

Teams: No. 19 South Carolina (8-4) VS. No. 21 Notre Dame (8-4).

Coaches: South Carolina's Shane Beamer is 15-10 in two seasons; Notre Dame's Marcus Freeman is 8-4 in his first season.

Gator Bowl history: South Carolina is 0-4 and last played in 1987. Notre Dame is 1-2 and last played in 2003.

The series: Notre Dame is 3-1 against South Carolina. South Carolina won the last meeting, 36-32, on Oct. 20, 1984 in South Bend, Ind.

Bowl records: Notre Dame is 19-21; South Carolina is 10-14.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Gator Bowl lands dream matchup in Notre Dame vs South Carolina