South Carolina did what it should against Wofford, but opportunity looms next week

For South Carolina football, Saturday was about should and next week will be about could.

The Gamecocks knocked off Wofford 31-10, not a particularly artful win, but one as comfortable as needed and better than it looked considering the pace. They’ll draw a Clemson team next week gunning for a third consecutive playoff trip.

The Wofford win was important for one key reason: eight wins.

That’s a mark that only 13 South Carolina teams have hit. Only six have won more.

It matters because it’s a benchmark of a rebuild. An eight-win team is a solid team, and solid is what USC had not been for three years.

Solid two years removed from 3-9 is why Will Muschamp talked about progress a week prior. Taking care of the FCS game without too much trouble is part of that, a chance to tone down some of the volatility that’s been a part of this program for a while.

By any measure, South Carolina should have won Saturday, and it did.

By any measure, the Gamecocks could win next week, and that’s the kind of game that boasts a different sort of weight.

Before Saturday, several projections had USC as something like an 11-point underdog against the Tigers. That’s a gap wide enough it’s not really considered a tossup, but close enough South Carolina could make it quite interesting.

To do that, it would need to benefit from Clemson’s passing struggles and find a way to solve a lockdown defense.

But a win would be a signature moment. It would put a big dent in the Tigers’ playoff hopes. It would provide, easily, the program’s biggest win since the end of 2013. It would be a small measure of vengeance for the 56-7 embarrassment suffered last season. It would mean nine wins and a bigger bowl.

After the game, players brushed off thoughts of the game ahead, saying that’s for Tuesday and beyond.

They’d just finished up doing what a team like theirs should.

They’ll have two chances to get to nine wins, and could still notably overachieve with a bowl win. But next week they’ll be an underdog within striking distance, with the possibility of what they could do very much in reach.

This story was originally published November 18, 2017 at 9:05 PM.