South Carolina Football: National analyst projects Gamecocks’ 2023 bowl destination
By Kevin Miller
Expectations for South Carolina football’s 2023 season have been all over the place this offseason. Some outlets are projecting the team’s over/under win total to be at just six games, while other outlets are predicting that the Gamecocks will win 9 games and be real players in the SEC. Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler is viewed by some as a Heisman candidate and future first-round draft pick, but he is looked at by others as a talented player who will still struggle just like he did at the beginning of the 2022 season.
The Action Network’s Brett McMurphy seems to see the Gamecocks on the lower end of possible outcomes for the 2023 season. The former ESPN personality has projected the South Carolina football team to take on the Kansas Jayhawks football team in Tampa, Florida in the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl. McMurphy also believed that the Gamecocks will win the Gasparilla Bowl.
The Gasparilla Bowl typically invites 6-6 teams to participate in its annual game. Some 7-5 teams have played in the Tampa-based bowl game, as well. If South Carolina matches or exceeds last season’s 8-win regular season win total, they will certainly have better bowl game opportunities than the Gasparilla Bowl, so McMurphy’s projection seems to indicate that the national pundit believes the Gamecocks are in for some regression from last season, something Carolina fans do not want to see.
The Gasparilla Bowl has invited the South Carolina football program to play its game once before (in 2020), but the Gamecocks have never played in the game. South Carolina declined an invitation to play against the UAB Blazers in the 2020 game due to a Covid outbreak on the team.
South Carolina football fans and the team are likely in agreement that they are hopeful that their streak of never playing in the game continues with the 2023 season.