The 2019 South Carolina Gamecocks football team (variously South Carolina, USC, SC, or The Gamecocks) represented the University of South Carolina in the

2019 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2019 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the highest level of college football competition in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 2019. The regular season began on August 24, 2019, and ende ...

. This season marked the

Gamecocks A cockfight is a blood sport, held in a ring called a cockpit. The history of raising fowl for fighting goes back 6,000 years. The first documented use of the ''word'' gamecock, denoting use of the cock as to a "game", a sport, pastime or ente ...

126th overall season,

28th 28 (twenty-eight) is the natural number following 27 and preceding 29. In mathematics It is a composite number, its proper divisors being 1, 2, 4, 7, and 14. Twenty-eight is the second perfect number - it is the sum of its proper diviso ...

as a member of the SEC East Division. The Gamecocks played their home games at

Williams–Brice Stadium Williams–Brice Stadium is the home football stadium for the South Carolina Gamecocks, the college football team representing the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina. It is currently the 16th largest on-campus college footb ...

Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is List of municipalities in South Carolina, the second-largest ...

, and were led by fourth-year head coach

Will Muschamp William Lawrence Muschamp (born August 3, 1971) is an American football coach and former player. He is the co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach at the University of Georgia. He served as head football coach at the University of Florida fr ...

Preseason

2019 recruiting class

South Carolina jumped out to a fast start for recruiting the 2019 class with early commitments from 4 star Defensive Lineman Rodricus Fitten, and 3 star Offensive tackle Jaylen Nichols. In January 2018 the Gamecocks received commitments from 4 star OT Mark Fox out of Miami, and 3 star JUCO DE Devontae Davis from

Georgia Military College Georgia Military College (GMC) is a public military junior college in Milledgeville, Georgia. It is divided into the junior college, a military junior college program, high school, middle school, and elementary school. It was originally known as M ...

. USC also picked up 3 star center, Vincent Murphy from St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Florida. On April 4, 2018, 4 star QB

Ryan Hilinski Ryan J. Hilinski (born October 24, 2000) is an American football quarterback for the Northwestern Wildcats. He previously played for the South Carolina Gamecocks, where he started 11 games in 2019. Early years Hilinski attended the Lutheran Hig ...

out of

Orange Lutheran High School Lutheran High School of Orange County (commonly known as Orange Lutheran High School or OLu) is a private Lutheran high school in Orange, California, in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area, founded in 1973. The school offers on-campus, online, and b ...

Orange, California Orange is a city located in North Orange County, California. It is approximately north of the county seat, Santa Ana. Orange is unusual in this region because many of the homes in its Old Town District were built before 1920. While many other ...

committed to South Carolina. Ryan is the brother of the former Washington State QB

Tyler Hilinski Tyler Scott Haun Hilinski (May 26, 1996 – January 16, 2018) was an American football quarterback who played college football at Washington State University. He died by suicide following his junior year. An autopsy revealed that he had stage o ...

. Also in April, 4 star TE Traevon Kenion committed to the Gamecocks. On May 25, 5 star

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formations over the years have substantially changed how the position is ...

Zacch Pickens committed to South Carolina.

SEC media poll

The 2019 SEC Media Days were held July 15–18 in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

. In the preseason media poll, South Carolina was projected to finish in fourth in the East Division.

Preseason All-SEC teams

The Gamecocks had two players selected to the preseason all-SEC teams. Offense ''3rd team'' Bryan Edwards – WR Defense ''2nd team''

Javon Kinlaw Javon Kinlaw (born 3 October 1997) is a Trinidadian professional American football defensive tackle for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at South Carolina, and was drafted by the 49ers in t ...

– DL

Schedule

South Carolina announced its 2019 football schedule on September 18, 2018. The 2019 schedule consists of 7 home and 4 away games along with one neutral site game in the regular season. The Gamecocks hosted SEC foes;

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,765 ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, and Vanderbilt. They traveled to face;

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, and

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

. South Carolina's nonconference schedule features teams from the

ACC ACC most often refers to: * Atlantic Coast Conference, an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference located in the US *American College of Cardiology, A US-based nonprofit medical association that bestows credentials upon cardiovascular spec ...

Big South The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non-football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Th ...

, and Sun Belt. They faced

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

in neutral site game in Charlotte, NC, and hosted Charleston Southern (Big South), Appalachian State (Sun Belt), and Clemson (ACC). According to

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

and other outlets, South Carolina had the toughest schedule in the country. ESPN analyst

Paul Finebaum Paul Finebaum is an American sports author, former columnist, and television-radio personality. His primary focus is sports, particularly those in the Southeast. After many years as a reporter, columnist, and sports-talk radio host in the Birmin ...

described the toughness of the Gamecocks schedule. “I don’t think anyone could argue against the following statement that South Carolina has the hardest schedule in the country, it is absolutely brutal. There is just no getting around it. So knowing that you have Alabama, knowing that you have Georgia and Clemson. By almost everyone’s projections, those are the No. 1, 2 and 3 schools in the country.

Personnel

Coaching staff

Roster

Depth chart

Game summaries

vs. North Carolina

Charleston Southern

Alabama

at Missouri

Kentucky

at Georgia

Florida

at Tennessee

Vanderbilt

Appalachian State

at Texas A&M

Clemson

:Schedule Source:

Rankings

Players drafted into the NFL

References

{{South Carolina Gamecocks football navbox

South Carolina )'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

South Carolina Gamecocks football seasons South Carolina Gamecocks football