LaNorris Sellers is back, and that alone reframes South Carolina's season after a 4-8 finish that never matched the talent on the roster. Kendal Briles arrives from TCU to run the offense in place of Mike Shula, tasked with building around a quarterback who returns with real weapons — Nitro Tuggle joins from Purdue after a 24.2 PPA season, and DJ Black adds another proven target from UCF. The offense projects as above average, the defense grades as top-tier, and special teams round out an above-average profile across the board. But the roster isn't without questions: the offensive line is a moderate reset with just 38% continuity, and the defensive front is dealing with real attrition at edge and in coverage after losing pieces like Vandrevius Jacobs off last year's group. Losses like Brian Rowe Jr. to UCLA and Michael Smith to Syracuse sting on the margins, but none of them were the driving engine of this offense — that's Sellers, and he never left.

JP+ projects South Carolina at 6.6 wins, a number that reflects a genuinely talented team still working through trench uncertainty on both sides of the ball. The path includes road trips to Oklahoma and Florida and a home date with Georgia, while Kentucky, Kent State, and Towson all visit Columbia as more manageable outings. The gap between that projection and outside expectations comes down to the offensive line rebuild and edge-pressure sustainability — the kind of structural questions that don't show up in a quarterback's talent level but show up in whether he has time to use it. If the front seven holds up and the line gels quickly, Sellers and this offense can push well past 6.7 and make good on last year's promise. If the trench questions linger into October, another middling finish is very much on the table.