Athlon predicts another subpar season for Gamecocks

South Carolina is not getting much love in the preseason college football predictions for 2015.

Athlon Sports ranks the Gamecocks No. 37 in the nation and projects USC to finish No. 5 in the SEC East, ahead of Kentucky and Vanderbilt.

“South Carolina opened spring practice with a sense of urgency that may have been lacking last season,” Athlon wrote in its assessment of the team. “The Gamecocks will be breaking in a new quarterback and rebuilding a defense that lost its morale along with a lot of games last year, so the time had better be well spent.”

Also, offshore sportsbook 5Dimes this week released projected win totals for all FBS teams. The book set the over-under for the Gamecocks’ win total in 2015 at seven.

Athlon writers didn’t take the over or the under for USC, predicting seven to be the win total with such comments as “South Carolina should be better on defense but is lacking in star power” and “there’s uncertainty at quarterback, two key starters gone from the offensive line and a lack of proven receivers outside of Pharoh Cooper.”

USC was a preseason favorite to win the SEC in 2014 before going 7-6 overall and finishing fifth in the conference with a 3-5 SEC record.

Lindy’s Sports earlier this month ranked USC No. 49 in the country and projected the Gamecocks to finish 12th overall in the SEC.

This story was originally published May 29, 2015 at 11:21 AM with the headline "Athlon predicts another subpar season for Gamecocks."