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by WILL FOLKS
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It’s a make or break moment for the University of South Carolina football program and its embattled head coach, Shane Beamer. And while there’s plenty of preseason hype emanating from perennial sunshine pumping factories in the Palmetto State, pigskin prognosticators at the conference level aren’t buying the buzz.
The Gamecocks may indeed shock the world this fall, but expectations point to them being middling at best… which probably won’t be enough to save Beamer’s job.
Touted as a potential conference championship contender heading into last season, Beamer’s 2026 team is projected to finish 11th in the 16-team SEC – boasting just two players on this year’s preseason All-SEC squad (defensive end Dylan Stewart, a junior, was named to the first team All-SEC defense while senior wide receiver Nyck Harbor was named to the third-team All-SEC offense).
South Carolina’s redshirt junior quarterback LaNorris Sellers, who received significant Heisman hype a year ago, did not earn preseason All-SEC accolades this year.
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Given the Gamecocks’ spectacular collapse last season – and Sellers’ regression at quarterback – that’s not surprising. South Carolina entered the 2025 campaign fresh off of a 9-4 campaign – Beamer’s best season in Columbia, S.C. by a mile. Ranked No. 13 in preseason polling, the team climbed as high as No. 10 nationally before being badly exposed by Vanderbilt at home in their SEC opener.
The wheels fell off from there… leading to a calamitous 4-8 campaign that frankly should have ended the Beamer experiment once and for all. Hope springs eternal in Columbia, though, a city where consistent success is rarely insisted upon… and thus seldom achieved.
Year six of the Beamer era kicks off on September 5, 2026 against Kent State – a significant scheduling downgrade after a planned home-and-home series with College Football Playoff runner-up Miami was mutually canceled last fall.
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Battle Ready. pic.twitter.com/vJkkqwiy0a
— South Carolina Football (@GamecockFB) July 23, 2026
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Kent State is one of only five upcoming opponents South Carolina is currently favored to defeat, according to ESPN’s matchup predictor. Most of those ‘W’s’ are expected to come in September, too, with the Gamecocks presently projected to win their first three games at home against the Golden Flashes (98.1%) on September 5, FCS opponent Towson (99%) on September 12 and Mississippi State (77.3%) on September 19.
The following weekend, though, South Carolina hits the road for the first time against perennial national championship contender Alabama (which could be a confusing situation for visiting Gamecock fans given the crimson color snafu accompanying its new Nike apparel).
South Carolina has just a 21.1% chance to win the September 26 tilt at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa – the first of seven games on its 2026 slate it is currently forecast to lose, per the matchup predictor’s crystal ball.
After a game at home against Kentucky on October 3 that it is expected to win (74.5%), projected losses loom in each of South Carolina’s next four contests – in the Swamp against Florida (37.9%) on October 10, at home against Tennessee (49.4%) on October 24, on the road against Oklahoma (24.9%) on Halloween and then back at home against Texas A&M (30.5%) on November 7 .
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RELATED | CRIMSON AND BLACK?
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The Gamecocks are projected to beat Arkansas (64.1%) on the road on November 14, but the final two contests of the campaign – at home against Georgia (20%) and in Death Valley against arch-rival Clemson (38.9%) currently project as losses.
Obviously, matchup predictions can change for the better… or the worse. But as of this writing, the odds point to Beamer’s team finishing the season 5-7.
Beamer has brought in multiple new coaches to revive South Carolina’s moribund offense, and early reports on that side of the ball are encouraging. On defense, though, significant talent departed from last year’s unit – including safety Brandon Cisse, defensive backs Jalon Kilgore and DQ Smith, defensive tackles Monkell Goodwine and Nick Barrett and defensive end Bryan Thomas Jr.
Cisse, Kilgnore, Barrett and Thomas Jr. are all currently on NFL rosters – and their absence from the Gamecock roster is being felt acutely.
Fall camp opens on August 7, 2026. Keep it tuned to FITSNews for updates…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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SOUND OFF…
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