Gavin Casas on preseason rankings: 'It's for entertainment purposes'
Gavin Casas smiled for a moment then let out a big sigh. It wasn’t the first time this question came his way.
With Opening Day a few days away, all of the preseason rankings are now out. One of the last to come out was the SEC preseason poll, where all the coaches get together and decide who will finish where this season.
South Carolina was picked to finish fourth in the SEC East, receiving 50 votes. Ahead of the Gamecocks were Florida, Tennessee and Vanderbilt.
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In passing, fans and others have asked Casas what it looks like in the locker room when the team sees these rankings. And his answer was pretty simple.
“Basically, these rankings really don’t mean much,” Casas told GamecockCentral’s Jack Veltri in a Garnet Trust exclusive interview. “A group of people get into a room together and they decide that these teams are better than these teams, this team is better than that team, whatever whatever.”
In Casas’ opinion, these preseason polls and rankings are nothing more than chatter.
“Ultimately, it’s for social media, it’s for people to talk about, it’s for entertainment purposes,” Casas said. “We’re performers, we try to go on the field everyday and we try to put on a show for our fans. So the rankings from a players perspective mean nothing.”
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To put it into perspective, South Carolina was in a similar spot last year. The Gamecocks were picked to finish fourth in the SEC East behind the same three teams. However, they had a great year and finished third in the division and ended up making it to the Super Regionals.
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As the new season gets going, Casas knows this year’s team has the potential to do the same, if not better.
“Ultimately, the 56 (games) that we’ll play here are going to determine where we’re at. And right now, I think everybody is 0-0,” he said.
South Carolina will open the season on Friday, Feb. 16 against Miami (Ohio) for a three-game weekend series. First pitch is at 4 p.m. on Opening Day. The game will be available to watch on SEC Network Plus.
