Gamecocks in the USA Today Coaches Poll

The final regular season Coaches’ Poll was released on Sunday, and South Carolina was ranked #20.  Unlike the other ballots of the season, the Coaches’ individual votes are made public. 

Let’s look at how they ranked the Gamecocks (click to read more):

#14

Larry Porter, Memphis

#15

Robb Akey, Idaho

Mark Richt, Georgia

#16

Jim Grobe, Wake Forest

Mike London, Virginia

Rich Rodriguez, Michigan

Greg Schiano, Rutgers

Rick Stockstill, Middle Tennessee

#17

Tim Beckman, Toledo

Todd Berry, Louisiana, Monroe

Brian Kelly, Notre Dame

Ron Zook, Illinois

#18

Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech

Dave Christensen, Wyoming

Dan Enos, Central Michigan

Doug Marrone, Syracuse

Urban Meyer, Florida

Tom O’Brien, NC State

Bob Toledo, Tulane

#19

Todd Dodge, North Texas

Ken Niumatalolo, Navy

Bo Pelini, Nebraska

Paul Rhoads, Iowa State

Paul Wulff, Washington State

#20

Larry Fedora, Southern Miss

Jimbo Fisher, Florida State

Bill Lynch, Indiana

Mike Macintyre, San Jose State

Chris Peterson, Boise State

Mike Riley, Oregon State

Nick Saban, Alabama

Steve Sarkisian, Washington

Steve Spurrier, South Carolina

#21

Mark Dantonio, Michigan State

Al Golden, Temple

Jim Harbaugh, Stanford

Butch Jones, Cincinnati

Bobby Petrino, Arkansas

Gary Pinkel, MIssouri

Mike Sherman, Texas A&M

#22

David Bailiff, Rice

Mike Haywood, Miami (OH)

Howard Schnellenberger, Florida Atlantic

Mike Stoops, Arizona

Jim Tressel, Ohio State

Kyle Whittingham, Utah

#23

Art Briles, Baylor

David Cutcliffe, Duke

Charlie Strong, Louisville

Tommy Tuberville, Texas Tech

#24

Steve Fairchild, Colorado State

Jerry Kill, Northern Illinois

Mike Locksley, New Mexico

Jeff Quinn, Buffalo

#25

Bret Bielema, Wisconsin

Unranked

Sonny Dykes, Louisiana Tech

Dan Mullen, Mississippi State

George O’Leary, Central Florida

Kevin Sumlin, Houston

Of those Coaches who ranked South Carolina, the average was 20.15.  The standard deviation was 3.03.  Obviously this is a little off because 4 coaches didn’t rank the Gamecocks at all.  I put in a value of 26th for those coaches.

Here’s how the votes broke down by conference:

Coaches of teams that played against South Carolina ranked them an average of 18.8.  Every coach of a team that played South Carolina voted the Gamecocks into the Top 25.  
Four other coaches didn’t rank USC.  Each of these Coaches had to choose some team(s) that didn’t make it into the final poll.  

Here’s who they chose in South Carolina’s place:

You can draw you own conclusions about whether those teams are more deserving than the SEC East champs.