Where Clemson and South Carolina football rank in the USA Today preseason coaches poll

Chapel Fowler
·2 min read
9

The South Carolina football team is entering the 2023 season with plenty of momentum — but college coaches aren’t sold on the Gamecocks as a Top 25 team just yet.

USC wasn’t ranked in the first edition of the USA Today Sports AFCA Coaches Poll released Monday. The Gamecocks were second among teams receiving votes outside of the Top 25, though, unofficially positioning them as the No. 27 team in the country.

Rival Clemson came in at No. 9 in the coaches poll, which is one the two major preseason polls. The preseason AP Top 25 will be released next Monday at noon.

South Carolina finished 2022 ranked No. 23 in the final coaches poll after going 8-4 with big wins over top 10 Tennessee and Clemson teams in coach Shane Beamer’s second season.

The Gamecocks also crept up as high as No. 19 in the coaches poll heading into the Gator Bowl, which they lost 45-38 to Notre Dame.

But USC was still on the outside looking in the 2023 AFCA preseason poll, which is “conducted weekly throughout the regular season using a panel of 63 head coaches at (FBS) schools,” according to its website.

South Carolina hasn’t earned an AFCA preseason Top 25 ranking in nine years. USC last debuted at No. 9 in the 2014 preseason poll following a 2013 season in which a star-studded team led by coach Steve Spurrier went 11-2 and finished No. 4 in the final AFCA poll.

Earlier this summer at SEC Media Days, USC was picked to finish third in the SEC Eastern Division behind reigning back-to-back national champion Georgia and Tennessee

South Carolina also figures to be in contention for a preseason AP Top 25 ranking, something the team also hasn’t achieved since the 2014 preseason (No. 9).

Clemson was rewarded with the No. 9 spot in the preseason poll after going 11-3 in 2022 and winning its seventh ACC championship in the last eight years. The Tigers were voted as the ACC’s preseason champion above Florida State last month at ACC Kickoff.

Coach Dabo Swinney’s team has also been named a preseason AFCA top 10 team eight years in a row dating back to 2016.

South Carolina opens the season on Saturday Sept. 2 against North Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Classic at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte (7:30 p.m., ABC).

And Clemson opens at Duke on Monday Sept. 4 (8 p.m., ESPN), marking the second straight season the Tigers have kicked off their season on Labor Day.