Where the ‘pressure’ to win is coming from for Gamecocks football

The tone around South Carolina football, it’s not the best right now. The Gamecocks haven’t won a Power 5 game in the past six tries. They’re coming off a tough loss on the road and set to face a Kentucky team that has won five in a row in the series.

As happens, commentary comes from all corners. Buyouts get discussed. The chorus of calls for firings are standard.

And USC coach Will Muschamp said that kind of pressure pales to another sort.

“We have pressure every single week, every single week,” Muschamp said. “There’s a lot of pressure, and you know what, there’s more pressure internally than there is externally. I can assure you of that.”

His team now faces a toss-up against the Wildcats. The Gamecocks are favored, but they’ve lost as a favorite at least once already this season. Early this week, he faced a question of if this one is must-win, and his answer was to the point.

“They’re all must-win games,” Muschamp said. “Every single game. You know what next week is going to be? We’re open. But you know what the next week is going to be? A must-win game.”

He made clear, they aim to kick around the open week as well.

Wide receiver Chavis Dawkins admitted the game might mean a little more. The recent history of the series had left a bad taste. But then again, the recent weeks fall into the same category.

“We’re still desperate,” center Donell Stanley said. “We want to win and we gotta bounce back. So everybody’s looking ahead for this game. And we got to prepare well.”

Each of those Kentucky losses has come with some certain quirks. Good offenses have suddenly slipped. Season momentum has suddenly been halted in these games across the year.

Ending the streak would be big because it’s gone, and because it stacks another win in a season where any of those will be hard earned. But don’t expect Muschamp or the Gamecocks to treat any of these as more must-win than the next or last.

“Kentucky is just like another opponent, we gotta go out there like any other SEC opponent,” wide receiver Bryan Edwards said. “They’re gonna be good. They’re gonna play physical. You gotta go out there and match it. It’s not who we’re playing, how many times we lost, whatever that is. I mean, not trying to make the game too much.”