Predicting the best- and worst-case scenarios for South Carolina football in 2023
South Carolina has had two winning seasons in Shane Beamer’s first two years as head football coach. So what can the Gamecocks do in 2023?
The State asked a handful of national writers and pundits at SEC Media Days about the outlook for USC this season. Here’s what they said about how many games the Gamecocks could win in 2023.
What’s best case/worst case for South Carolina?
Andy Staples, On3: “The best case is the second best team in the East behind Georgia. I don’t see them being better than Georgia or beating Georgia, but I don’t see that with anybody else in the East.
“The worst case scenario, like I said, all of those teams are bunched together. So the worst-case scenario is you miss a bowl game, you finish sixth in the East, that sort of thing. I would say that’s a possibility for probably four different teams.”
Brandon Marcello, 247Sports: “I would say the floor for South Carolina is five wins, missing a bowl game. I think the ceiling for them is nine wins. Based off the schedule, I don’t see how they go into Tennessee and beat Tennessee this year. Tennessee’s going to be on fire for that game. But there are opportunities there to still win nine games elsewhere. Playing Georgia that early in the season, I think, is actually more detrimental to South Carolina than it is to Georgia. If Georgia was coming to Carolina early in the year, I think we’d be in for a Shane Beamer special and it would just be early in the season and we’d see an upset, potentially. But it’s not. Five to nine wins (feels right) and I think South Carolina fans should only be disappointed if it’s anything less than seven wins.”
Blake Toppmeyer, USA Today: “Best-case scenario I would say is in the conversation for a New Year’s Six. That might sound lofty, but when you’re good enough on a single day to beat Clemson — which played in a New Year’s Six — to beat a Tennessee — which played in a New Year’s Six — that tells me that you can be that type of team playing in a New Year’s Six yourself.
“The floor, maybe like a 7-5-type thing. They do feel like a team that has a decent amount of variance between their floor and ceiling. I kind of lumped them in a category of like an Ole Miss. I can see Ole Miss having a really strong season. I can sort of see them just kind of being an also-ran, and I kind of feel the same way about South Carolina.”
Matt Fortuna, The Inside Zone: “Best case, I guess you’d say New Year’s Six. You won (eight) last year and if you want to build on that, I don’t think you’d want to settle for anything less.
“Worst case … missing a bowl would be bad just based on the success they had the last few years in the SEC. That’s possible, because someone’s got to finish seventh place in that division. But best case, I do think if the cards align and they stay healthy, they could possibly make a New Year’s Six bowl game.”
South Carolina 2023 schedule
- Sept. 2 – North Carolina (at Charlotte) – 7:30 pm, ABC
- Sept. 9 – vs Furman – 7:30 p.m., SEC Network
- Sept. 16 – at Georgia – 3:30 pm, CBS
- Sept. 23 – vs Mississippi State – TBA
- Sept. 30 – at Tennessee – TBA
- Oct. 14 – vs Florida – TBA
- Oct. 21 – at Missouri – TBA
- Oct. 28 – at Texas A&M – TBA
- Nov. 4 – Jacksonville State – TBA
- Nov. 11 – vs Vanderbilt – TBA
- Nov. 18 – vs Kentucky – TBA
- Nov. 25 – vs Clemson – TBA
This story was originally published August 1, 2023 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Predicting the best- and worst-case scenarios for South Carolina football in 2023."
