Steve Spurrier preached confidence this week as his South Carolina Gamecocks prepared for a must-win contest in Week 5 against Missouri in the Battle of the Columbias.

The Head Ball Coach’s squad got a shot of self-assurance last week with a 31-14 win over Central Florida. The Gamecocks 2-2 (0-2 SEC) will need to capitalize on that momentum if they want to earn a bowl berth. With winnable games against Vanderbilt and The Citadel remaining, a win over the wounded Tigers would leave South Carolina needing to pick up one win against either No. 9 LSU, No. 14 Texas A&M, Tennessee, No. 25 Florida or No. 12 Clemson to reach the postseason. Fortunately, after traveling to Missouri this week, only trips to Nashville and College Station remain on the road schedule.

South Carolina matches up well with Missouri, in that the two are struggling to establish both a run and a passing presence. The Gamecocks and Tigers will each have different starting quarterbacks — true freshman, nonetheless — this week than the original signal callers they employed in Week 1 victories.

This matchup is enormous for both squads. A loss for Missouri would drop the Tigers to 3-2, with both losses coming in SEC East play.

Here are five players to watch when South Carolina travels to Columbia to face Missouri.

1. Missouri QB Drew Lock — Drew Lock likely will start under center for Missouri against South Carolina with the suspension of Maty Mauk for a violation of team rules. The move is one that might have been coming somewhere down the line, regardless, as Mauk has struggled with his accuracy the last two seasons. He’s thrown for 654 yards and 6 touchdowns, but also has been intercepted four times. Lock has appeared in all four Missouri games and thrown for 225 yards and a touchdown. His 15-of-25 completion rate (60.0 percent) and 140.8 passing efficiency are both higher than Mauk’s numbers. With Lock, the Tigers are more of a pocket passing team, rather than one with the threat of a scrambling quarterback under Mauk.

2. South Carolina QB Lorenzo Nunez — It wasn’t the prettiest debuts, but Lorenzo Nunez can say he’s 1-0 as South Carolina’s starting quarterback. The true freshman rushed for a team-high 123 yards and threw for another 184 and 2 touchdowns in the win over the Knights. The freshman has earned another start after providing the spark on offense that Spurrier’s squad sorely needed. Nunez will need his arm and his legs — as well as WR Pharoh Cooper — to contend with a Missouri defense that’s as strong as it’s been in years past.

“We didn’t call a whole bunch of plays for Connor Shaw,” Spurrier said of the comparison of Nunez to former the Gamecock quarterback. “He would take off in pass situations. Right now, both of them are very good about running and not taking a big hit. We didn’t know what was going to happen last week, but when Lorenzo took off running he had the ability to get all that was there, get down, dive forward and not take a real hard hit.

“We were talking the other day, Russell Wilson at Seattle, he runs all the time and never gets hit hard. Some players have the ability to take care of themselves. Emmitt Smith ran for more yards than anybody in the history of the NFL and I don’t think he ever got hurt. It’s a knack to protect yourself when you go in there.”

3. Missouri LB Kentrell Brothers — The good news for Missouri is that the mother of Kentrell Brothers recently posted on Facebook that her son did not suffer any breaks or fractures during Week 4’s loss to Kentucky. The bad news is that the nation’s leading tackler (52) might not play this week against South Carolina and is listed as questionable with an ankle injury. If the senior linebacker can’t go, he’ll likely be replaced by Joey Burkett. The sophomore has 8 tackles on the year and 9 in four career games. Gary Pinkel’s defensive front is still strong, but the loss of Brothers is one that Mizzou will certainly feel if the senior can’t make a go of it. Missouri has only given up one rushing touchdown all year, while the South Carolina running backs have found the end zone only once.

4. South Carolina LB T.J. Holloway — As Missouri was losing its top linebacker last week to injury, South Carolina was discovering they had a pretty good one all along. T.J. Holloway impressed in his first start of the season, after co-defensive coordinator Jon Hoke decided to shake up his lineup by sending Skai Moore to the weakside and replacing him with the redshirt junior. Holloway responded with 6 tackles (one of them for a loss), 2 interceptions and a pass breakup, to go along with one of the team’s 7 quarterback hurries. The South Carolina front seven looked vastly improved against Central Florida, picking up 2 sacks, and 5 TFLs. They get a Missouri team this week that can’t run the ball. With injuries limiting Tigers star running back Russell Hansbrough to 13 carries on the year, the team’s leading rusher Ish Witter has just 214 yards on the ground.

5. South Carolina PK Elliott Fry — Elliott Fry is solidifying himself as one of the best placekickers in the SEC. The junior has connected on 9 of his 12 field goal attempts, tying him for best in the conference with Vanderbilt’s Tommy Openshaw. His 75 percent field goal percentage is tops among kickers with a minimum of 10 attempts. He leads the SEC from 20-to-29 yards with five and has two of the conference’s four field goals from beyond 50 yards this season. Only Cincinnati’s Andrew Gantz (10) has made more field goals than Fry. With Landon Ard’s 14 touchbacks on kickoffs and Sean Kelly’s 43.3 yards per punt, South Carolina has the makings of one of the better groups of specialists in the conference.