JD PicKell: South Carolina will go over projected win total

Vegas has set South Carolina‘s win total over/under at 6.5 for the 2023 college football season. On3’s JD PicKell believes that number is easily attainable given the talent on Shane Beamer’s squad this year.

According to PicKell, the games against North Carolina, Furman and Mississippi State are must-wins. They can afford losses to Georgia and Tennessee because the Gamecocks should ease past Vanderbilt and Jacksonville State. Two road games — at Missouri and at Texas A&M — could make-or-break the over/under totals for South Carolina this season.

“Here’s the deal with the Gamecocks, y’all — we’re home all November, baby!” PicKell said during a recent edition of The Hard Count. “A team that gets to play at home for the entire last month of the season, to get their strength back after the tough front part of their schedule — I am loving South Carolina.

“Spencer Rattler is going to be dealing. Juice Wells is bringing the juice. The defense, I think, will be improved. Beamer ball in full force, lock it in, we love the over on 6.5 wins for South Carolina. You can lock that one in.”

Rattler blossomed for South Carolina throughout the 2022 season. He started all 13 games for South Carolina last season and saw him complete over 66 percent of his passes while throwing for 3,012 yards. He tossed 18 touchdowns with 12 interceptions. Wells arrived in Columbia as an FCS transfer from James Madison last season where he caught 68 passes for 928 yards and 5 touchdowns. He’s expected to have an even greater role in 2023.

With Rattler at the helm, he helped lead Carolina to a pair of top-10 wins against Tennessee and Clemson to close the regular season. Rattler had arguably his best performances in those games, going a combined 55-of-76 passing for 798 yards, eight touchdowns and two interceptions.

Add in the portal additions of Trey Knox, Josh Simon and Eddie Lewis — three players that Shane Beamer has named specifically throughout the spring — and South Carolina’s offense could be one of the more lethal in the SEC East this season.

We will have to wait until September too see the offense in action, but on paper, PicKell is picking the Gamecocks to be a dark horse in their division. A bowl game berth is the minimum for Beamer and company in 2023, but everyone in that program will tell you their goals are set much higher than that.