South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp said he expects the 2019 Gamecocks to be his best team yet in Columbia.
The S&P+ projections, a system devised by SBNation’s Bill Connolly, seem to agree.
The metric, which weighs recent success, returning production and recruiting, has USC projected as the No. 18 team owing to strong recruiting (19th) and a high level of recruiting production (20th, although that might not account for Ty’Son Williams leaving). The system was bearish on Muschamp’s first two teams, which overachieved, and was less high than most on the 2018 squad that fell short of expectations.