South Carolina football schedule 2020: Can Gamecocks exceed expectations?

The South Carolina football schedule is annually one of the toughest in college football and the unique 2020 season is no exception to that.

South Carolina football is in the middle-class of the SEC. They’re not quite ready to contend for a division title like Florida, Georgia in the East or Alabama or LSU in the West. But they’re not rebuilding or have low expectations like Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss or Mississippi State.

As a team good enough to make a bowl game just about every season, the South Carolina Gamecocks struggled mightily last year, finishing below .500. While the road win over the SEC East rival Georgia Bulldogs proved to be the most shocking upset of the 2019 college football season, head coach Will Muschamp has to be thanking his lucky stars Ray Tanner is his athletic director.

However, after looking at the South Carolina football schedule, is there a chance the Gamecocks are being underrated heading into what promises to be a memorable 2020 season?

The Gamecocks have their hands full as the South Carolina football schedule is one of the toughest in the SEC, especially road games with Florida and LSU on top of hosting Auburn, Georgia and Texas A&M

• South Carolina football home games: Auburn, Georgia, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas A&M
• South Carolina football road games: Florida, Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt

Right out of the gate, South Carolina drew a short straw by having to play the LSU Tigers in Death Valley out of the SEC West. Getting the cross-divisional foe Texas A&M Aggies gives the Gamecocks a shot at an upset. As for who South Carolina picked up out of the SEC West this year, the Gamecocks get Auburn at home and Ole Miss on the road, so that’s not too bad.

Looking at these 10 games comprising of South Carolina’s regular-season schedule, what is the floor, what are the Gamecocks expected to do and what is this team’s ceiling? If this team has a year from hell, the Gamecocks might win only one game. Pick one between the Missouri Tigers at home and the Vanderbilt Commodores at home and there you go. This doesn’t seem likely, though.

As for the best situation possible, 6-4 is about as good as South Carolina is going to do. I guess you can convince yourself they’ll go 3-2 at home with wins over Missouri, the Tennessee Volunteers and a shocking upset over Auburn, Georgia or Texas A&M. Given that the Gamecocks beat Georgia in Athens last year, they could presumably beat any of these three foes in Columbia.

On the road, the Gamecocks should beat Vanderbilt and could beat both the Kentucky Wildcats and the Ole Miss Rebels. A win over LSU in Baton Rouge is not happening and neither is a victory over the Florida Gators in The Swamp. If you want to get South Carolina to 7-3, then maybe they only lose one game between Auburn, Georgia and Texas A&M. Again, but don’t count on it.

As for what South Carolina is likely to do on the gridiron this fall, you’re looking at the team going somewhere around 2-8 and 4-6. The Gamecocks should beat Missouri and Vanderbilt, but there are no other gimme games on the schedule. However, they may have something in quarterback Ryan Hilinski. Maybe he can be a difference-maker in a few of these either-or SEC games?

So let’s say overachieving would be going 5-5 in a 10-game SEC-only season for South Carolina. What are the chances of that realistically happening? They’ll need three additional wins beyond home vs. Missouri and at Vanderbilt. For this to happen, they’ll have to beat Kentucky in Lexington and Ole Miss in Oxford. Those are gotta-have-it games if South Carolina wants to overachieve.

From there, the Gamecocks will need a home upset of presumably of Tennessee. If the Gamecocks drop that one to the Vols, they’ll need to win one of these three games: Auburn, Texas A&M and Georgia would be the order of the most likely home upset to happen to least likely. For this reason, going 5-5 would be quite the accomplishment for South Carolina football in 2020.

South Carolina can overachieve this year, but it will have to be because of Hilinski’s right arm.

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