South Carolina Football Picked 13th In SEC Preseason Media Poll

Shane Beamer had a feeling the projections would be low.

“We’re going to be picked 13th, 14th, 15th or 16th I’m sure at the end of the week, which is fine,” Beamer said.

He was right.

After South Carolina’s head football coach mentioned on the podium at SEC Days that the league’s media would likely pick the Gamecocks towards the bottom of their pre-season projections, his team ended up 13hth in the conference-wide preseason voting.

This is the first year media members have ranked the teams top-to-bottom in the conference as opposed to by division, and South Carolina only came in ahead of Arkansas, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt.

In terms of individual accolades, the Gamecocks earned a little bit more love particularly on the defensive side of the ball.

Debo Williams was a second-team linebacker, and both Tonka Hemingway and Nick Emmanwori earned third-team spots on the list.

Two other South Carolina players earned nods on second-team honors. Transfer running back Rocket Sanders made the cut, and long snapper Hunter Rogers did as well.

“We worry about what we can control,” Beamer said. “I’m not going to go into the first team meeting this year and put up y’alls projections. We know what kind of team we have. I came here in 2021 and there was a national columnist that said the ceiling of this team in 2021 was two wins, and we tripled that.”

South Carolina will open the regular season on Aug. 31 at home against Old Dominion.

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