Who Is South Carolina, Really?

South Carolina confuses me. I really can’t get a read on them.

On one hand, they pulled off a thrilling upset over now ninth-ranked Georgia back in September. On the other hand, they were run out of their own stadium by Texas A&M two weeks before.

There have been two South Carolina teams this season: the SEC East contender and a middle-of-the-road SEC East program.

It’s been truly a tale of two teams with Steve Spurrier’s Gamecocks this season, and the only certainty that we’ve seen is that this team has not lived up to its potential and definitely not its hype.

South Carolina started the season ranked ninth. By week two, they had tumbled down to 21^st. In week four, they jumped back up to 14^th after the upset over Georgia.

But now, three losses in five weeks later, the Gamecocks find themselves 4-4 and outside of the rankings. They’ve completely lost any chance at winning an uncharacteristically weak SEC East.

Before the season started, they were one of the popular picks to compete for SEC title.

It turns out they weren’t anywhere near the team we thought they were then. But they might still be better than we think they are now.

The only blowout South Carolina has suffered came at the hands of Texas A&M. From start to finish, the Aggies were dominant over the Gamecocks, picking them apart in methodical fashion.

Other than that mishap and a blowout win over Furman, every other South Carolina game this season has been close. In fact, win or loss, none of their other six games have been decided by more than 14 points.

The average margin in those six games (again, win or loss) is seven points. So South Carolina is not a terrible team.

They beat Georgia, played step-by-step with Auburn down to the last play, and took down East Carolina (a win that is looking more and more impressive each week).

We’ve seen their potential hit its peak, particularly against Auburn last weekend, putting up over 500 yards of offense in a road game against a nationally ranked top-five team.

They have the ability to score with anybody, and it’s shown in quite a few of their games.

But they’ve also laid an egg in three too many games. There was the expected loss to Auburn; but outside of that, there was the infamous loss to Texas A&M, a loss to Missouri in which the Gamecocks gave up a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter, and a loss to Kentucky due to a blown 14-point fourth quarter lead.

South Carolina has failed to come up big in all of its games but two, and had some pretty inexcusable losses.

The problem is the defense. From game one, South Carolina’s defensive unit has been playing anti-championship football.

After this past weekend, the Gamecocks defense is currently second-to-last in the SEC in total defense (ahead of Vanderbilt), last in rushing defense, in the bottom four in passing defense (a stat only helped in the Auburn game due to the fact that the Tigers didn’t have to throw the ball), and tied for last in scoring defense with Vanderbilt.

A defense that bad will get you nowhere fast. And if your offense has a bad night along with zero resistance from your defense, it’ll be a long bus ride home.

The only reason South Carolina was able to hang with Auburn was a nearly perfect performance by its offense, especially the passing game.

Just as it has all season, South Carolina’s defense did it no favors.

This was supposed to be the year that Spurrier finally broke through at South Carolina. This team was thought to have the talent, experience, and coaching know-how to make a run of the SEC championship and the College Football Playoff.

But they have tripped themselves up at every major turn lately.

So who is this team?

It turns out tis is a team that has too many glaring weaknesses to be a real contender, although it has the talent to compete with anyone game-to-game.

But until they can turn in a complete performance on both sides of the ball, South Carolina will simply be stuck where it is.

South Carolina will remain who they’ve always been: South Carolina.