South Carolina Football 2016 SEC East Prediction: 7th
With Spring Practice in full swing, I make my annual SEC predictions for the upcoming 2016 football season.
The South Carolina football team took a pretty big step back in 2014, and then just fell off the cliff in 2015. Steve Spurrier retired midway through the season, and another former Florida Gator head Coach is coming to take his place in Will Muschamp. Will the Gamecocks rebound in 2016? I say no.
| Opponent | Home or Away | Predicted Outcome | Wins | Losses | SEC Wins | SEC Losses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vanderbilt Commodores | Away | Loss | 1 | 1 | ||
| Mississippi State Bulldogs | Away | Loss | 2 | 2 | ||
| East Carolina Pirates | Home | Win | 1 | |||
| Kentucky Wildcats | Away | Loss | 3 | 3 | ||
| Texas A&M Aggies | Home | Loss | 4 | 4 | ||
| Georgia Bulldogs | Away | Loss | 5 | 5 | ||
| Umass Minutemen | Home | Win | 2 | |||
| Tennessee Vols | Home | Loss | 6 | 6 | ||
| Missouri Tigers | Home | Win | 3 | 1 | ||
| Florida Gators | Away | Loss | 7 | 7 | ||
| Western Carolina Catamounts | Home | Win | 4 | |||
| Clemson Tigers | Loss | Away | 8 | |||
| Overall 4-8, SEC 1-7 |
Will Muschamp took a a pretty talented Florida team and ran it into the ground while he was the head coach. He inherits a not very talented South Carolina team, and he hired basically the same staff he had at Florida. Do we really think the South Carolina football program is going to make any major step forward? It’s hard to convince yourself that under those circumstances.
The South Carolina football team has a huge hill to climb for the Gamecocks to be relevant in the SEC again. The situation they are left in reminds me a lot of the way the Mississippi State program was after Jackie Sherrill retired after the 2002 season.
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The Bulldogs had a guy who took the program to places it had never been, but he lost touch with how to lead and coach a team. The South Carolina football program is in much the same shape.
Maybe Will Mushcamp just needed one head coaching job to work the kinks out of what he does. Or maybe he simply isn’t fit to be a head coach at all. One way or another, we’ll find out for sure in his time as the South Carolina football coach.