1. Gamecocks pull a top 15 upset
This one loses but on a technicality. When the schedule was originally set, the South Carolina football team saw four preseason top 15 teams on the slate. Unfortunately, only one remained there.
South Carolina lost its only top 15 matchup to No. 2 Georgia in early September. By the time they faced off against the likes of Auburn, Clemson, Florida, and Texas A&M each had suffered multiple losses.
The Gamecocks did wind up beating both Auburn and Florida in November, which was something else we believed would happen early in the year. Still, neither of those programs was even ranked at the time of the meetings which ultimately leads to our missing on the first bold prediction.
2. No 1,000-yard rusher for the South Carolina football team
This one did come true, though not exactly how we expected. We thought that we’d see a running back by committee approach between Kevin Harris, MarShawn Lloyd, and ZaQuandre White. Instead, we saw a running game that was completely inept through the first eight games of the year.
White wound up being the rushing leader with 583 yards. Harris wound up with 476 while Lloyd wrapped up the season at 233. In all, Gamecock running backs combined for 1,492 yards on the ground, but none came close to cracking the century mark.
3. Gamecocks record 30+ sacks
This one missed as we expected the South Carolina front four to be a bit more disruptive. In all, the defense tallied 21 sacks on the season, nearly a sack per game off of the pace we predicted. It was an improvement from last year’s 14-sack total, so that’s encouraging.
The unit was led by potential first-round draft pick Kingsley Enagbare. Zacch Pickens, Jaylan Foster, Brad Johnson, and Aaron Sterling notched double-digit sack numbers, too. That wasn’t enough to top 30 sacks, though, a number the Gamecocks haven’t reached since Jadeveon Clowney was on the roster.