South Carolina: Is this really ‘The Year’?

If South Carolina has been good at anything over the last few years, it’s been the ‘false dawn’.

It happened when Steve Spurrier arrived. There were fireworks, celebrations, a feeling that they would ‘get to the next level’, and stay there.

What actually happened in the ‘Old Ball Coach’ era is that they won 1 SEC East title – more because the rest of the division was so damned ordinary – and Spurrier crawled out like a lizard mid-season with a 44-40 SEC record (he’ll be arguing for the 86-49 record, but most of those games were against utter drivel…and he went 6-7 vs Clemson).

Look, there were highlights. Jadeveon Clowney eating some dude from Michigan for breakfast. Marcus Lattimore bulldozing everybody.

It happened when Will Muschamp came aboard – despite everyone and his wife saying that it was a terrible idea, since Muschamp proved in his years of head coaching that he’s a far better defensive coordinator than a head coach. The locals ignored us, and Muschamp went 17-22 in the SEC, 28-30 over all, and rode a four-game loss streak against Clemson.

But after the Gamecocks smashed Tennessee last season and Spencer Rattler finally looked like an excellent QB instead of the one who was a perpetual let-down during his Oklahoma and early ‘USC days’, the Gamecocks are the hot-topic, so much so that some journalists believe they could win the division (OK, 3). Personally, we think it’s a bit of a stretch, but fine. Shane Beamer’s got the energy to ‘make things happen’, but does he have the team beyond, er, Rattler?

WHO’S IN

The biggest arrival of the lot via the transfer portal is TE Trey Knox from Arkansas as a grad transfer. He played in all but 3 games in his four-year history at the Razorbacks, with 889 yards and 9 TDs. It’s not amazing, but he’s still considered NFL caliber. Otherwise, nothing of note.

Recruiting-wise, the Gamecocks’ biggest triumph was getting DL Elijah Davis, rated the 3rd-best player in the Nation by On3. The Juco will immediately start.

The team also brings in OC Dowell Loggains, who has a long history in the NFL but was previously the TE coach at Arkansas.

The Gamecocks also boosted their O-Line with the commitment of Jaxon Hughes from Charlotte, who expect to start.

WHO’S OUT

MaShawn Lloyd has taken his talents to California to play for the ‘other’ USC. That’s going to be a big blow. WR Jalen Brooks is gone to the NFL.

OFFENSE

South Carolina’s offense is really thin at running back, and Juju McDowell had 219 yards and 2 TDs next year. He’ll lead the line because of Lloyd’s transfer.

Rattler will be using Knox a lot, because quite frankly, he has to. One of his best wide receivers, Raheim Bell, has transferred to Florida State (his Mum bitched a lot about a lack of respect that her son wasn’t getting enough of the ball), so it means a lot of Knox. Top 40 wide receiver prospect in the 2022 class Landon Samson may have pick up some of the slack.

The offensive line has some massive questions about it, too.

DEFENSE

South Carolina’s defense was well below average last season (88th out of 133), where they were shockingly bad against the run.

That means that offenses haven’t had to throw at them a lot, and when they did they held passers to a SEC-high 53.7% passing rate. S Nick Emmanwori was the team’s best tackler with 65 yards comes back, as does Marcellas Dial and DQ Smith.

But that might all come for naught if they can’t stop the run….

SCHEDULE

Sept 2 North Carolina (in Charlotte) –  W
Sept 9 Furman – W
Sept 16 at Georgia – L
Sept 23 Mississippi State – W
Sept 30 at Tennessee – L
Oct 14 Florida – L
Oct 21 at Missouri – L
Oct 28 at Texas A&M L
Nov 4 Jacksonville State W
Nov 11 Vanderbilt W
Nov 18 Kentucky W
Nov 25 Clemson L

SO WHAT WILL HAPPEN?

We think it’s going to end up 6-6, with the Gamecocks beating who they are meant to, and going 2-2 in ‘toss-up’ games (Mississippi State, Missouri, Florida, Kentucky). It will be a season that will be ‘fine’, but not ‘great’.