ECU's history as a Year 1 bellwether

For first-year USC coaches, their performance against East Carolina has typically been a good sign of how the year will go.

Just like Will Muschamp before him, a too-close-for-comfort win over East Carolina was part of Shane Beamer’s on-boarding process at South Carolina. According to some oddsmakers, the Gamecocks’ 20-17 win was actually an upset. Most USC fans are clear-eyed enough about the state of the program to be content with the ugly road win, but there’s no point sp…