South Carolina Football: Gamecocks snubbed in USAToday preseason Coaches Poll
By Kevin Miller
A common refrain of the 2023 offseason has been that Shane Beamer’s South Carolina football team has outperformed expectations in each of Beamer’s first two years at the helm.
Heading into 2021, some over/under betting lines for the Gamecocks sat as low as 3.5 wins, and Carolina won 7. Heading into 2022, some were as low as 5.5, and the ‘Cocks won 8 games.
South Carolina football fans are hoping for their favorite team to beat the odds yet again in 2023. While some analysts are bullish on the Gamecocks and are predicting 8 or 9 wins for USC in 2023, most have aligned themselves closer to the betting lines where Carolina has typically been sitting at 6 or 6.5 wins this offseason.
The USAToday Coaches Poll was released on Monday, and it appears that the nation’s coaches feel similarly, as well. Despite the seeming upward trajectory of the program, South Carolina football was left out of the preseason Coaches Poll.
South Carolina appeared in the “also receiving votes” portion of the poll, landing the second-most votes of all teams that did not make it into the top-25. Essentially, the Gamecocks are ranked 27th heading into 2023 according to the coaches who voted in the poll.
A common argument given by those with lower expectations for the Gamecocks is the schedule. South Carolina football plays the most difficult schedule in the country in 2023.
That is best illustrated by the fact that Carolina will play 3 top-10 teams in the USAToday Coaches Poll (Georgia, Clemson, and Tennessee), 2 more from the top-25 (North Carolina and Texas A&M), and 4 more from the “also receiving votes” group (Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi State, and Missouri).
Essentially, this argument says that because 9 of South Carolina football’s 11 games are against good opponents (sorry, Vanderbilt, Furman, and Jacksonville State), tallying more than six or seven wins is just too difficult.
There is some validity in an argument like that, however, the Gamecocks must be able to beat good teams with some level of consistency to take the next step as a program, moving from plucky almost-contender to real contender capable of winning double-digit games every season like at the height of the Steve Spurrier era in Columbia.
The entire USAToday Coaches Poll is listed below.
- Georgia Bulldogs
- Michigan Wolverines
- Alabama Crimson Tide
- Ohio State Buckeyes
- LSU Tigers
- Southern Cal Trojans
- Penn State Nittany Lions
- Florida State Seminoles
- Clemson Tigers
- Tennessee Volunteers
- Washington Huskies
- Texas Longhorns
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish
- Utah Utes
- Oregon Ducks
- TCU Horned Frogs
- Kansas State Wildcats
- Oregon State Beavers
- Oklahoma Sooners
- North Carolina Tar Heels
- Wisconsin Badgers
- Ole Miss Rebels
- Tulane Green Wave
- Texas Tech Red Raiders
- Texas A&M Aggies
Also receiving votes (in order): Iowa Hawkeyes, South Carolina Gamecocks, Florida Gators, Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners, Pittsburgh Panthers, UCLA Bruins, Kentucky Wildcats, Baylor Bears, Troy Trojans, Arkansas Razorbacks, NC State Wolfpack, Fresno State Bulldogs, Boise State Broncos, Auburn Tigers, Minnesota Golden Gophers, Miami Hurricanes, Mississippi State Bulldogs, Oklahoma State Cowboys, Missouri Tigers, Maryland Terrapins, SMU Mustangs, South Alabama Jaguars, Illinois Fighting Illini, Wake Forest Demon Deacons, Air Force Falcons, Toledo Rockets, Washington State Cougars, Houston Cougars, Duke Blue Devils, BYU Cougars, Arizona Wildcats, Memphis Tigers, Kansas Jayhawks, James Madison Dukes