South Carolina, SEC and order of finish
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This year, they’re gonna have to kind of bring their own juice, because everyone’s telling them how great they are.”
Which quarterbacks who represented their teams at SEC Media Days will be a bummer in 2025? And which absent QBs will shine?
It has never been done before, but impossibilities rarely enter Shane Beamer's vocabulary. Whatever coach-speak directions South Carolina's head coach planned for SEC Media Days went out the window Monday when Paul Finebaum interrupted a pre-podium discussion and asked if winning a conference championship was "doable" with the Gamecocks.
Per ESPN’s 2025 College Football Power Index (FPI), the Gamecocks’ strength of schedule (SoS) ranks 13th in the nation — which sounds daunting until you realize that same strength of schedule is No. 12 in the SEC.
LaNorris Sellers burst onto the scene during his first year as starting quarterback for South Carolina last season. He earned SEC Freshman of the Year and All-SEC third-team honors after tallying over 3,200 total yards and 25 total touchdowns, all while leading his home-state Gamecocks to a 9-4 record.
South Carolina surged in 2024, and with legit star power, the Gamecocks are a threat to storm into the College Football Playoff in 2025.
The matchup against South Carolina was Arnold’s second appearance in an SEC game. He appeared in four games during his freshman season when Oklahoma was a member of the Big 12 and had appeared in just one SEC game during 2024, a game against Tennessee in which he was ultimately benched.
Auburn quarterback Jackson Arnold said facing South Carolina's defensive line was his 'welcome to the SEC' moment.
Landon Duckworth gave South Carolina’s 2026 recruiting class a big boost of momentum with his Friday night commitment. According to the 247Sports’ Composite rating, a metric that factors in all network rankings, Duckworth is one of the top high school quarterbacks to choose the Gamecocks in recent memory.
Christy Waddil, a 67-year-old Democratic voter who waited to shake Beshear’s hand Thursday night, said she was “excited” to meet all these potential contenders. But it’s a lot of responsibility to be the first state in the presidential primary calendar, she said: “We have our work cut out for us now.”