South Carolina fans: What are your expectations for 2015? Reasons for optimism?

There's a lot of question marks at this point, on both sides of the ball.

On offense we do get back the combination of Wilds and Williams, and they should have a productive year. Wilds has been around a long time it feels like, and he'll get his shot at being the #1 back this year. Wilds ran well against UGA last year. Connor Mitch at QB was a talented 4 star QB out of high school, but he hasn't had many snaps in real game action, so he's an unknown. OL could be solid with 3 starters coming back, and it would be big if Mike Matulis could recover from injury and play LT for us- he was a freshman All-American a few years ago but has been dealing with shoulder and knee injuries ever since. At WR everyone knows about Cooper, but Deebo Samuel could be one to look out for. A lot of young, unknown talent there.

On defense we got some JUCOs and transfers who will have to help immediately if we want to have a good season. Lewis and Sawyer at DE, Johnson at Safety (from Kansas) will be especially important. Hoke will hopefully improve the defensive play calling and put the players in the best position to win. The LBs and Secondary are solid, but the D-line has to improve. They were absolutely horrible last year and the rest of the defense suffered.

As far as the season goes, it's very hard to predict. The floor is probably winning around 4 games. Ceiling? Hard to tell. Probably 9 wins, maybe 10 if we get lucky.

We'll know quickly how this team will do this year with the UNC and UK game. If we are 2-0, we might be okay. 1-1 or 0-2 and we'll be fighting to win 6.

quote:

---

2014cock

---

Thanks

Good write up.

I think SC will likely be very improved on D and have a slightly worse offense.

BUT, I think with the schedule that it still will leave y'all in the 6-8 total win range.

Everything needs to be ready early because UNC should be much better this year and the road trip to UGA looms early as well.

Then LSU, @Mizz, @A&M, @TN, UF and Clemson all left.

Brutal!

I'm perfectly content to be flying under the radar this year.

I think the defense will rebound in a big way, due to both the influx of talent and the improved coaching due to Hoke.

The offense won't be as prolific as it was last year, but it likely won't have to be. USC scored points in bunches last year, but the defense was such dogshit that it couldn't put away teams in the fourth.

I'd be happy with a 9-3 season. But I wouldn't be completely surprised if they win the East, either.

Between 8-4 and 6-6.

The defense will be greatly improved since we will actually have legit DEs that can get to the QB this year and our secondary will not be so green (but I kept saying last year it doesn't matter who is in the secondary if the QB has 7 seconds to make a pass)

The uncertainty is gonna be on the offensive side of the ball. We lost two great players on the left side of the OL and need to find a QB. Lots of people have confidence in Connor Mitch but after hearing a leader on the football team say that Mitch "doesn't care about football" I seriously doubt he will end the year as the starter. Look for incoming freshman Lorenzo Nunez to get some snaps early if Mitch struggles. Nunez is also more mobile than Mitch so if the OL struggles to pass protect he can use his feet to get away.

On the OL we need Mike Matulis and Cody Waldrop to stay healthy as they are very talented and our best options to start but both are injury prone. Matulis would play LT and Waldrop RG.

There are also a lot of questions at WR outside of Pharoh Cooper. We need at least one of our 3 redshirt freshmen (Shaq Davidson, Deebo Samuel, Terry Googer) to step up and become a reliable target to take pressure off of Cooper. I don't have any confidence in the upperclassmen WRs outside of Cooper.

We'll be fine at RB with Brandon Wilds, David Williams and Shon Caron all probably getting significant snaps

USC's defense improves drastically IMO in overall experience and depth of talent and athleticism across the board. A lot of players got their first-time starting if not playing experience at the college level last season, and the inexperience showed. A primary issue was the DL and creating consistent pressure against opposing QBs, as well as stopping the run. The primary break-down on USC's defense last season started at the line of scrimmage, but the Gamecocks have added some great talent in that area that should provide immediate production. They will be inexperienced in their own right, but they will also be backed up by what was USC's entire 2-deep at DE last season (minus 1 player) in Dixon, English, Washington, and Cooper, so at least we'll have some grounding presence at the position.

At LB and in the secondary USC will be in great shape with talent, athleticism and experience throughout the 2-deeps. Just need for some leadership to develop. But I'm expecting big things from LBs Moore and Walton, SS Gurley, and CB McWilliams in particular. Moore, Gurley, and Walton were USC's top 3 tacklers last season, and McWilliams really settled in and became a solid corner for USC. These guys were all first-time full-year starters last season.

On offense, the biggest question will of course be at QB. I can't really predict what we'll have there until at least the fall camp begins, but while we did lose some key talent on the OL we have some experienced backups to step in and take their place, so I don't expect a major fall there. IMO we have some great talent at WR, RB, and TE so Mitch will have some weapons to throw the ball to and utilize.

I expect the offense to perhaps fall off slightly from last season while expecting the defense to improve substantially. USC starts off playing UNC and then UK and those teams had defenses as bad if not worse than USC had last season if that was at all possible, so perhaps they will be welcome relief for our inexperienced QB to get his feet wet running the offense against them...

quote:

---

GeauxToBed

---

Before I dig into the thread and forget (attention span of a gnat), I just wanted to tell you this is a fantastic question/thread. Well done.

The silence for SC has been odd. Thanks for the intel!