Mitchell: Gamecocks 2017 season forecast

I think it's important to remember that the team South Carolina trots out of the Bank of America Stadium tunnel Saturday is not the same team that we'll all see by week 6 or 7.

We've talked a lot about South Carolina's lack of depth at a number of positions, and rightfully so, but I do believe this is a team that has the opportunity to create some depth as the year progresses, they just have to hope to avoid major injuries along the way.

As we've talked about, there are major depth concerns at every single level of the defense right now, but is that fixable? At a number of areas, it could be.

Will Muschamp has never really been one to mince words and he's been extremely positive about his inexperienced - yet seemingly talented - reserves on defense.

For example, Muschamp on Thursday's call-in show on freshman linebacker Sherrod Greene: "He's as good as young linebacker as I've been around. He resembles a lot of T.J. Brunson a year ago, very instinctive, very intelligent, a guy that's going to play a bunch on Saturday, a bunch on special teams and is going to be a great player here at South Carolina."

Greene will clearly face some of the same growing pains that any freshman will, but Muschamp doesn't just make comments like that off the cuff. I take him at face value.

In the early part of the season Carolina will smartly plug in Greene for Brunson while Skai Moore is still on the field - and similarly sub in transfer newcomer Eldridge Thompson for Moore alongside Brunson - so that, in a perfect world, there's always a returning player alongside to direct them.

Some point along the way, the training wheels will have to come off and they'll just have to hope by that time that Greene and Thompson have enough experience to ride on their own. Muschamp is high on those guys and we're told the staff is high on the future of freshman linemen like Brad Johnson and Aaron Sterling, who I believe will be used in a pass-rush-specialist role early in the season.