South Carolina Crystal Ball: Predicting every game for the Gamecocks in 2025

Outside of those in the building at South Carolina, nobody saw that coming.

By “that,” I mean South Carolina being a team that went into Selection Sunday with a legitimate argument for why it should make the first 12-team Playoff. Beating eventual-ACC champ Clemson in Death Valley was the exclamation point on a résumé that aged incredibly well. “That” was LaNorris Sellers going from the bottom of preseason SEC quarterback rankings to the top of the national quarterback rankings by season’s end. “That” was also watching Kyle Kennard win the Nagurski Award as the best defensive player in America while Dylan Stewart was a freshman All-American for a defense that had 5 players selected in the NFL Draft.

“That” was easily the best season of the post-Steve Spurrier era. It just didn’t end quite as South Carolina hoped.

South Carolina earned national respect for “that.” But now, it’s fair to wonder what’s in store for “this” South Carolina team, which will start off with its first preseason ranking (No. 13) in the AP Poll in 11 years. Shane Beamer is trying to earn his 3rd finish in the AP Top 25, which is something that only Spurrier has done at South Carolina. Better yet, Beamer is trying to not leave it in the hands of the Playoff Selection Committee this year.

Can he and the Gamecocks do that? Let’s look into the Crystal Ball.

For those who need a refresher of what the Crystal Ball Series is, here’s a rundown. Every day, we’ll go through the preseason outlook of 1 SEC team (in alphabetical order). I’ll predict how every game will play out with a final record prediction.

So far, here are the Crystal Balls we’ve done:

• Alabama
• Arkansas
• Auburn
• Florida
• Georgia
• Kentucky
• LSU
• Mississippi State
• Mizzou
• Oklahoma
• Ole Miss

Let’s continue with South Carolina:

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LaNorris Sellers is South Carolina’s best returning QB since … ever

Apologies if you’ve heard me reference this dozens of times throughout the offseason, but I’m gonna repeat it one more time. South Carolina has never had a quarterback earn All-SEC honors at season’s end. If you recall, Sellers earned preseason first-team All-SEC honors. In other words, he’s expected to make some history. To be fair, he should’ve made history last year, and it’s a bit baffling to think that Sellers didn’t earn that honor when Quinn Ewers did. Both quarterbacks were hurt during the year, but Sellers was the better player.

That’s ancient history. So, too, is South Carolina’s last quarterback who came into the season with preseason Heisman Trophy buzz. Sellers earned that type of consideration entering 2025, not because he put up gaudy numbers, but because of how he made plays. He learned how to deliver on-target throws downfield (he had an SEC-best 56.4% adjusted completion percentage on throws 20 yards downfield), he developed a 6th sense for the pass rush and became an impossible runner to stop for certain defenses, most notably Clemson.

Spend any time watching Sellers and you’ll see why his game is so intoxicating. Not only does he extend plays, but he’s proven he’s capable of keeping his eyes downfield and delivering an accurate throw on the move. He couldn’t stay healthy in the first part of the season, yet he still racked up 674 rushing yards and 7 scores with his legs (it was actually 852 rushing yards without the sack yardage subtracted).

The mistakes have to come down — PFF charted him for 19 turnover-worthy plays — and it would help if he got more production at receiver in the form of a breakout season from all-world athlete Nyck Harbor and some added consistency from Mazeo Bennett would be a welcome sight. There’s also the element of new offensive coordinator Mike Shula, and whether he can be the right person to fine-tune Sellers’ game and turn him into a legitimate Heisman candidate down the stretch. Time will tell.

But even if all of those boxes aren’t checked, 2024 showed why Sellers is the real deal with sometimes underwhelming surroundings. How he builds on that will have a large say in how far South Carolina will go in 2025.

Clayton White has his work cut out for him, but starting over with Dylan Stewart is ideal

Have I mentioned yet that South Carolina lost 5 players to the NFL Draft? Yeah? It’s worth repeating. Have I mentioned yet that South Carolina had as many defensive players at the NFL Scouting Combine (8) as Ohio State? As in, the national champions who had the No. 1 defense in America?

I bring that up because we need to acknowledge that South Carolina lost a ton of production. Plenty of those guys were already in White’s system, and Lord knows that they weren’t getting talked about as massive pieces for a Playoff hopeful team at this time last year. That’s a fair pushback to the question about what the Gamecocks lost to the NFL. There were also guys like Demetrius Knight, Kennard and Stewart were the 2025 revelations. Knight and Kennard are gone, but Stewart is back.

Life could be worse.

Stewart was getting through triple teams in his first career SEC game. He put up sack numbers (6.5 sacks) that trailed only Jadeveon Clowney (8 sacks) among South Carolina true freshmen. That’s elite company. He was 3rd among SEC edge rushers with 34 hurries, and he was 4th with 10 quarterback hits. That’s also elite company. You’re not supposed to step into the SEC and do those things. Surely it helped that the former 5-star recruit was freakishly talented, but it also helped that he had plenty of talented players around him on that defensive line.

With a bunch of new starters around him, can Stewart replicate or improve on his 2024 season? We don’t know yet. We do know that Stewart already showed that he can handle triple teams, and even if he’s held in check in a given game, he’ll have impacted it with the attention he commands.

That’s exactly what could prevent South Carolina from suffering a major defensive regression.

South Carolina Over/Under Win Total

Odds (via BetMGM)

• Over 7.5 wins: +150
• Under 7.5 wins: -185

Game-by-game predictions

Here’s how I see the 2025 regular season playing out for the Gamecocks:

Week 1: vs. Virginia Tech in Atlanta (W)

The Beamer Bowl has me wondering if Frank Beamer will be wearing Virginia Tech gear or if he’ll have to actively root against the program he built. My guess is that his son will have all the support, and a Virginia Tech team that struggled mightily in close games last year — it’s hard to go 0-6 in games decided by 10 points or less — will come up short again to start 2025. Sellers shakes off a rough early start but the defense does its part early to fuel the Gamecocks to a 24-20 win.

Week 2: vs. South Carolina State (W)

This will be a good time to get a look at Ohio State transfer Air Noland, who is considered to be more of a project than a guy who’s ready to become a household name as a redshirt freshman. Eh, who are we kidding? “Air Noland” should be a household name even if his first reps in a South Carolina uniform are unremarkable in a blowout win.

Week 3: vs. Vanderbilt (W)

This was the worst game of the year for Vanderbilt‘s offense. Granted, it was a much different South Carolina defense than the one that held Diego Pavia to 1 score. It was also a banged up version of Pavia after Deone Walker fell on his leg at Kentucky. But this time even as a healthier version of himself, Pavia struggles with the different looks that White throws at him. A rare multi-turnover game for Pavia gives Sellers and the developing South Carolina offense a favorable edge to cruise in Columbia.

Week 4: at Mizzou (W)

For the second consecutive week, South Carolina capitalizes on a 1-dimensional offense that can’t move the chains through the air. Mizzou’s new-look offense struggles in its first real test of the season while Sellers shows up ready from the jump. Harbor hauls in the first 50-yard catch of his career and Sellers has South Carolina’s offense rolling early. That puts Mizzou in too many obvious throwing situations late, which lifts South Carolina to consecutive wins against the Tigers for the first time since 2017-18.

Week 5: vs. Kentucky (W)

Once upon a time, this was the game in which Mark Stoops would silence some early-season South Carolina momentum, and he’d cackle his way back to Lexington. No longer is that the case. Whatever “climate vs. culture” discussions that are being had favor Beamer. For the 4th time in as many years, South Carolina dominates Kentucky’s offense. It takes a slow start for the Gamecocks to wake up at home, but the second half is all Sellers. He fuels a 20-14 win to keep the Gamecocks unbeaten heading into the bye.

Week 6: Bye

A 5-0 start heading into the bye week would set up a massive showdown against LSU … again.

Week 7: at LSU (L)

Unlike last year when a controversial few plays defined the outcome, this won’t come down to that. For the first time all year, South Carolina runs into both an offense that can pick it apart in ways that neutralize Stewart and that pass rush, as well as a defense that forces Sellers into turnover-prone spots. That combination is bad news for the visiting Gamecocks, who turn a bunch of buildup into a depressing dose of reality by game’s end.

Week 8: vs. Oklahoma (W)

There’s going to be a ton of excitement over a matchup that was over by the end of the first quarter last year. But the major changes to those 2 key areas — Oklahoma’s offense and South Carolina’s defense — will have some wondering if that means a different result is in store. Nope. It’s not as decisive because Oklahoma makes life difficult on Sellers to stay on the field, but perhaps his most impressive attribute in 2025 is learning how to manage a game late. Sellers does that well enough to fend off Oklahoma and keep Playoff hopes alive.

Week 9: vs. Alabama (L)

This is where the gauntlet catches up to South Carolina. A 3-week stretch of Sellers seeing Blake Baker, Brent Venables and Kane Wommack proves to be challenging. Despite all the flashbacks to the 2010 South Carolina upset of Alabama, it’s the Gamecocks who are on the wrong end of a 3-week stretch. They don’t come out with the Williams-Brice energy that’s been at the foundation of Beamer era upsets. Instead, Ty Simpson and Alabama quiet the capacity crowd with a quick-hitting passing game that looks unstoppable. South Carolina plays from behind and Sellers tries to do too much in a crushing loss.

Week 10: at Ole Miss (L)

Woof. The 4-week stretch that’ll define South Carolina’s season ends with defensive frustration in Oxford. There’s nothing that White and Co. can do to rattle the emerging Austin Simmons, who targets Cayden Lee all game long. The Gamecocks don’t look quite as helpless as they did in this matchup last year because of Sellers, but they look like the team that was overmatched at LSU. That’s a challenging thing to overcome against a quality foe on the road. South Carolina’s Playoff hopes are on life support after a 35-24 loss.

Week 11: Bye

Is there still Playoff hope in the home stretch?

Week 12: at Texas A&M (L)

Playing in its first home game in over a month, Texas A&M comes out firing. In a demoralizing trend on the road, South Carolina lacks juice. Before the Gamecocks can even catch their breath, A&M is up 14-0 with a confident ground game. That gets a capacity Kyle Field crowd fired up knowing that if the Aggies pull out a win, they’ll be a lock to have Playoff hopes on the line for the Texas showdown. Marcel Reed gives the Gamecocks problems and KC Concepcion knifes through the secondary for a pair of second half touchdowns to put away a 31-10 ballgame.

Week 13: vs. Coastal Carolina (W)

Don’t discount the idea of a bummed South Carolina team sleepwalking against Coastal Carolina knowing that a bowl berth has already been clinched and a Playoff berth is out of reach. But also don’t pretend that this is 2020 and think that type of an upset could be in play.

Week 14: vs. Clemson (L)

For whatever reason, Dabo Swinney always shows up to Williams-Brice with some bad intentions. In that building in the Playoff era, he’s got a 5-0 mark vs. 3 different South Carolina coaches, and 4 of those wins came by multiple scores. That’s pretty decisive. This isn’t a pushover game, but Clemson has a better defensive game plan for Sellers. The addition of Tom Allen pays dividends and instead of watching Sellers storm back for a late victory, the Tigers cruise into the Playoff on the heels of a 28-20 win.

2025 projection: 7-5 (4-4), 8th in SEC

A promising start leads to a tough finish with a gauntlet late in the season.

12-team Playoff berth? No

It’s extremely tempting to look at Sellers and Stewart coming back and talk yourself into another 9-3 season. It is. If you were picking 1 way to start an offense, it would be with a game-breaking quarterback like Sellers, and if you were picking 1 way to start a defense, it would be with a game-wrecking edge rusher like Stewart.

But go back to 2022 Alabama. It was an overwhelming preseason No. 1 in large part because Bryce Young was coming off a Heisman Trophy season, and Will Anderson was arguably the best returning player in the sport. What did Alabama do that year? It went 10-2 and lost to the 2 best teams it faced in the regular season. It had some obvious weaknesses by season’s end, and it didn’t matter that it had 2 mega stars at arguably the 2 most important positions on the field.

I can’t help but feel that there’ll be some of that with the 2025 version of South Carolina. Whether that’s the passing game options, a ground game that lacks consistency outside of Sellers or a defense with too many big holes to replace, there are a bunch of potential issues with this team that could get exposed against an unforgiving schedule in the latter half of the season.

There’s a chance that Beamer takes all of that in stride and he does what he does every year. That is, get his team to play much better in November than in September. Lord knows that schedule last year was supposed to prevent South Carolina from sniffing late-season relevance, and that didn’t prove to be the case. Perhaps history will repeat itself and the Gamecocks will find themselves in the thick of all of those Playoff arguments heading into Selection Sunday.

But I get the feeling that a team that looks like it picked up where it left off will have a difficult time sustaining that for 3 months.