Some pundits didn’t rank South Carolina in Top 25. Shane Beamer noticed
South Carolina football on Monday earned a preseason Associated Press Top 25 ranking for the first time in over a decade.
Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks were slotted at No. 13 in the poll, marking the program’s first appearance in there in the preseason since they were ranked No. 9 in 2014.
USC is coming off its best season under Beamer as head coach after finishing with a 9-4 record in 2024.
When talking with the media on Tuesday, Beamer said his message to the team is not to listen to the outside noise too intently. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t aware of that narrative surrounding his program.
“We didn’t really listen to it when everybody was telling us how terrible we were — maybe a little bit — but we don’t need to be listening to it now when everybody’s telling us how great we are,” Beamer said. “You say, ‘All right, we’re ranked 13th,’ and we are.
“But I also know there’s some prominent media members that put out their own little polls that we’re not in their top 25, so we’ve still got a lot to prove. Our players understand that and feel that, too.”
South Carolina was ranked as high as No. 10 on four separate ballots but was also left off eight voters’ ballots, according to CollegePollTracker.com.
Of those eight are two notable national names in On3’s Brett McMurphy and ESPN’s Rece Davis.
South Carolina was one of three ranked teams to not make McMurphy’s and Davis’ respective ballots. McMurphy also left Iowa State (No. 22) and Boise State (No. 25) off his ballot, while Davis did not rank Ole Miss (No. 21) and Tennessee (No. 24) as well.
While he didn’t mention anyone by name, Beamer’s not-so-veiled comments Tuesday were likely addressing McMurphy and former Alabama quarterback-turned-ESPN analyst Greg McElroy.
McElroy does not have an AP poll vote but left South Carolina off his own preseason Top 25 that he released on Monday. After the AP Top 25 was released, he took to ESPN to say he believed South Carolina was ranked too high.
“This one is too high for me,” McElroy said. “I love LaNorris Sellers. I think, offensively, they’re going to be great. I think they’re going to run the football really well. I think the receivers have a chance to be much better. But there are so many new faces on defense. There are so many new pieces.
“Yes, Dylan Stewart is still there, the great All-American defensive end. He will take over games. There’s no doubt about that. But the other pieces that were lost along the defensive line, how are they going to adequately replace those guys? Thirteen to me for South Carolina is really high, and I think that that team, there’s too many question marks right now on defense to feel great about them going into the season.”
It makes sense that South Carolina is not only ranked, but ranked high, in the AP preseason poll. The Gamecocks are coming off their best season in, arguably, the last decade and bring back a Heisman candidate at quarterback in LaNorris Sellers.
Beamer believes his team deserves to be in this spot, but emphasized he’s told his team “every year is different” and just because you’re ranked in the preseason doesn’t mean you’ll be ranked at the end of the year.
“I’d rather be ranked high and have those expectations than not,” Beamer said. “As a coach, when you’re not ranked high, like we were last year, it’s great because you can use that as fuel and motivation. But we want to be a team that’s consistently ranked high, in the top 10, top 15, going into every single season. Because it means we did some good stuff the year before, and we’re expected to do stuff again. The best teams in the country year in year out, they’re in those preseason rankings every year.”
