Kentucky football: 3 most overrated teams on 2023 schedule

2. South Carolina Gamecocks

This one isn’t going to be popular with our friends over at Garnet and Cocky, but I’ll say what I have to say.

Yet again, ESPN actually predicts a Kentucky win, but by a very small margin.

Yet again, South Carolina enters a season with high expectations, but recent seasons would predict otherwise.

Spencer Rattler played fairly close to as advertised in his first year in Columbia, but even more, will be on his shoulders in 2023. The top returning RB is Juju McDowell, who only rushed for 219 yards last season. Even more concerning, Athlon Sports says the Gamecocks only had two true scholarship RBs in spring practice. That’s a major issue, especially against a challenging Kentucky football defense.

Even more concerning is an offensive line that lost left tackle Jaylen Nichols to a “pretty significant” injury, to quote head coach Shane Beamer.

Defensively, South Carolina should be strong, especially in the secondary, which is usually where they thrive. That will be important against a UK team built to throw the ball, with so many returning options in the passing game.

This game will be played in South Carolina, which gives the Gamecocks some edge, but Rattler will be the key. His talent is out of the roof, and this game is in November, so some of SCar’s issues should be fixed by then. Still, the issues are closer to big gaps than small tweaks.

Let’s also not forget that South Carolina received more preseason votes in the AP Poll and Coaches Poll. While that doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, it’s interesting how much hype the Gamecocks are getting with so many question marks.