At the end of every SEC Media Days, the projected order of finish for the conference's upcoming season is released, sending football fans into a frenzy. Let's take a breath for a second.
I'm writing this to you, Gamecock Nation. By now, you have seen the projection that your beloved Gamecocks will finish at the bottom of a weak SEC East division in Will Muschamp's first season. Realistically, a seventh-place finish is more likely than a division crown, but this projection is not a death sentence.
Let me take you all the way back to 2015, when South Carolina was projected to finish fourth in the East, ahead of division champion Florida, who earned the right to lose to Alabama in Atlanta. I don't need to remind you how inaccurate that projection was.
While we're on the subject, let's stay in 2015, when Auburn was predicted to finish second in the SEC West. Remember when Jeremy Johnson was supposed to be a Heisman dark horse? As much as we in sports media like to think we know what's going to happen, reading articles from this time last year about SEC football show that we can be just as clueless as the casual fan.
And to prove that teams can also be better than the media expects, look no further than the 2015 Ole Miss Rebels. Hugh Freeze's team finished second in the West last season and topped Oklahoma State in the Sugar Bowl. They were projected to finish fifth in the division at SEC Media Days.
You get the idea.
This is not to say that South Carolina is going to win the SEC East this season (as two members of the media predicted for some reason beyond my imagination) or really even come that close. But a last place finish? There's plenty of reason to believe the Gamecocks can make that as laughable as some of the aforementioned 2015 projections.
Outside of the top three, the division is a crapshoot. Missouri is in a similar position to South Carolina, as the Tigers are replacing a long-time head coach and coming off an awful season. Let's not forget about the fact that the Tigers went three straight games without scoring an offensive touchdown last October. The offense is still a work in progress.
While Kentucky is one of few SEC teams without a quarterback competition, there is still uncertainty under center, as expected starter Drew Barker has made just two collegiate starts. Vanderbilt is the one SEC team the Gamecocks actually beat last season, and it's reasonable to think that's possible again in 2016.
If I haven't convinced you enough that all hope is not lost, allow me to close with the words of Coach Boom, spoken Thursday regarding what would obviously be a poor projection for his first season in Columbia.
"You guys are wrong every year," he told reporters.
Muschamp doesn't care about these projections, and you shouldn't either.