South Carolina: Did The Gamecocks Run In Place?

Everyone's gushing over the Marcus Lattimore signing but how close is South Carolina to turning the corner? A team that has never participated in the SEC Title game is coming up on a year where their three chief rivals are down for very different reasons. If the Gamecocks are going to make hay they've got to do so in recruiting and on the field.

 

 

South Carolina, the “other” USC and the “other” Carolina finished with a class ranked an average of 27.3 when all three services are combined. You can do the math yourself if you don’t believe me:

 

Rivals #25

ESPNU #23

Scout #34

 

For argument sake we’ll round that to 27 and given that there are 120 teams in Division-1 FBS football that is a pretty damn good class, better than 93 other teams or 78% of the nation. On the surface the folks in Columbiahave got plenty of things to be proud of; signing Marcus Lattimore, inking a top 22% class and the like.

Surely the Gamecocks are on their way to climbing from the 4^th spot in the SEC East and the 9^th spot in the league overall. Surely they will emerge from the 7-5 quagmire that is the middle of the SEC.

 

But alas all signs point to no, because while the Gamecocks are happy with their 27^th ranked class the fact is they’re in the same position that they started in before Wednesday. Every team that was ahead of the Gamecocks in the standings, on average, out-recruited them as well. In fact only Ole Miss and Georgia even ranked behind S. Carolina in any given ranking and both were on ESPNU’s numbers where S. Carolina finished 23.

 

 

For all the hype and the excitement that came with the class reality is South Carolinais simply running in place in the SEC arms race. They’re not losing ground but as it stands right now they’re not gaining ground either. Lattimore is a great pick up for the Gamecocks as were the offensive line signees who have a shot to contribute immediately. Unfortunately for the Garnett and Black; Florida, Tennessee, Auburn, Alabama, Ole Miss, LSU and Georgia did too.

 

 

With all that said, I'm sticking with my incredibly early pick of South Carolina seizing this season as their own, barring horrendous offseason injuries. While they may be hanging out in the bottom half of the SEC when it comes to recruiting this season they have a golden opportunity, with a ton of returning talent, to knock off weakened incumbent Florida as well as unseat Tennessee and Georgia; two programs going through a rough patch.