The Notre Dame and South Carolina match up in Friday’s Gator Bowl is probably one of the best matchups among all the bowl games, save the two semifinal national championship contests.

The Irish and Gamecocks match up pretty well on both sides of the ball. Both have also suffered losses of key players deciding not to play in the game either because they will be entering the NFL draft in April of 2023, or because they entered the transfer portal.

The Irish have lost starting quarterback Drew Pyne to the transfer portal. Tyler Buchner - who Pyne replaced in the Marshall game when Buckner went down with a injury that ended the regular season for him - is back in the starting position for Friday’s game. His backup will be freshman Steve Angeli.

ND’s other notable losses include All-American tight end Michael Mayer, and defensive end and career sack leader Isaiah Foskey - neither of whom is a surprise.

Of course, Buchner steps in without any playing time since early September which is a lot to ask of a player. The real problem is the loss of Mayer on offense - a go-to receiver that opposing teams would designate a player to shadow throughout a game.

Now that won’t be necessary, for the Gamecocks also took some big hits. They lost two keys players on defense in cornerback Cam Smith, a projected first-round pick, and defensive end Zacch Pickens, who accepted an invite to the Senior Bowl. Starting DE Gilber Edmond and CB Darius Rush have also opted out. In addition, starting running back Marshawn Lloyd and tight ends Jaheim Bell and Austin Stogner have entered the transfer portal and won’t play.

The Gamecocks have a fine QB in Spencer Ruttler, who has 2,780 yards passing and 16 touchdowns this season. His top receiver is Antwane Wells Jr. with 898 yards on 63 catches and six TDs.

South Carolina comes in at 8-4, just like the Irish. They finished strong with major wins over Tennessee, 63-38, and Clemson, 31-30, in their final two games of the regular season. Its other wins have been over Georgia State, 35-14; Charlotte, 56-20; SC State, 50-10; Kentucky, 24-14; Texas A&M, 30-24; and Vanderbilt, 38-27.

The four losses have been to Arkansas, 44-30; Georgia, 48-7; Missouri, 23-10; and Florida, 38-6.

ND leads the series between the two schools, 3-1. SC won the last meeting, 36-32, in 1984 in South Bend. ND enters ranked 21st, while the Gamecocks are 19th. ND is favored by 4.5 points.

The game will be televised nationally by ABC from TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Florida, with a 3:40 p.m. kick off.

IRISH NOTES ... One big shortcoming for the Gamecocks is their defense is rated among one of the worst against the run. So the Irish potent run game (-) which showed such great flashes during the season (-) has to take control with the big front offensive line taking over ... Jayson Ademilola, who missed his final home game against Boston College while in concussion protocol, rebounded to play 45 snaps in the season-closing loss at USC ... Freeman spoke for the first time about the three grad transfers Notre Dame has been able to add thus far in December. Kaleb Smith, the former Virginia Tech wide receiver, is “going to be a huge addition to our offense” and not just in the literal sense. Smith, at 6-foot-2 and 222 pounds, boasts a 41-inch vertical jump and large hands (9 ¾ inches). Former Penn punter Ben Krimm and former South Florida kicker Spencer Shrader have also joined the Irish. Freeman credited special-teams coordinator Brian Mason with finding portal specialists for a second straight year. Last winter, it was Harvard punter Jon Sot and Arkansas State kicker Blake Grupe who transferred in ... This was a season with plenty of up and downs. The two most notable downs were the losses to Marshall and Stanford. If the Irish had won those games, they would probably be in a much stronger position in the rankings, just below the teams playing for the national title. Freeman’s first year was one you would expect from a rookie coach. He was able to get the recruiting under control, and has brought in a lot of potential talent that could lead to a national title a year or so down the road. But in today’s college football world, with the transfer portal, it hard for any coach to keep talented players with so many other schools throwing offers at them. Drew Pyne is such a player. Reportedly, he asked Freeman to be named the starting QB for the spring drills. When Freeman told him that would not happen, he immediately entered the transfer portal. That is the way of life now in college football ... ND is favored by four-plus points today, and with the losses South Carolina has suffered due to “transfers” and the like, the Irish should be able to come away with a victory and finish at 9-4 ... Early signing day occurred last week. When Marcus Freeman took over as head coach, the Irish 2023 recruiting class jumped into the top five, and for a period of time was rated the No. 1 class in the country. However, when signing day came, there were many players who decided to not honor their original commitment and that changed the top five. ND dropped to sixth at the beginning of the signing day, and then when it was all finished, the Irish were rated ninth. Part of the reason for the drop was that five-star safety Peyton Bowen of Denton, Texas, switched from the Irish to Oregon Ducks, then the same day he switched again, to Oklahoma. A kid like that it not a “team player” and probably won’t help you much. Despite the drop, and some switching Freeman’s first recruiting class is a good one, filled with top-300 ranked players at each position, and filling areas of need on the team. The ND class includes three four-star receivers, four signees from Texas, four flips from other programs and ND’s first Indiana Mr. Football since Jack Kiser in 2018. The South Bend Tribune said it best. “Many of the same multimillionaires who played a vicious tug-of-war over supposed five-star talents still in high school wanted to alert their cranky fan bases about the five-alarm wildfire that’s been ignited by the lethal combination of ‘name, image and likeness’ (NIL) and the transfer portal.” ...Thanks for reading this column during the season. GO IRISH!