Did South Carolina start turning its season around? What it takes to get it done
There’s no statistical measure for it, but perhaps what South Carolina did Saturday against Auburn can be summed up best this way: The Gamecocks got it done.
A team that had been struggling for force turnovers got them. The offense finished drives. Things came together in a way that hasn’t seemed to happen since maybe one point in the 2018 season, but more realistically the 2017 season that produced nine wins.
In the end, the Gamecocks beat Auburn 30-22.
Getting it done is a bedrock of Will Muschamp’s programs, but it’s also a hard way to win consistently. The Gamecocks coach has often spoken about his team’s ability to win one-score games while being on top of the little things. Statistical studies suggest controlling close wins is far easier said than done, and the outcomes in such contests trend toward .500. (The better teams tend to crush their opponents more often.)
In the long term, this kind of play tends to lead to programs that feel like they’re missing out on something. They might rise up for some upsets but drop some games they shouldn’t. In the long term, if the Gamecocks are to get close to the neighborhood where the fan base thinks they should be, they’ll have to start treating a few other conference opponents a bit more like they treat Vanderbilt.
But this year, playing to get it done and actually doing it just some of the time could be enough to keep USC afloat.
The SEC is a mess in a lot of spots. Texas A&M has been all over the place. Ole Miss went from being a fiery offense to getting smothered by Arkansas. Kentucky got thumped by the Auburn team South Carolina beat, and LSU lost to Missouri.
That last one is a sign the league’s bad teams are still feisty and the ones that were supposed to be better are plenty vulnerable.
A season ago, the challenge of getting it done seemed elusive for Muschamp’s squad. The Gamecocks had plenty of chances to pull out the opener against UNC, but it didn’t happen. After the win at No. 3 Georgia gave them a path for a bowl, they lost two of three in a row where they were favored, one after Tennessee blew open a tight game after halftime, the other when they could only score 15 at home against Appalachian State.
Had South Carolina lost on Saturday, they might have been in line for a season of games where they could compete, be in it to a degree and not be able to finish. But against the Tigers, they did just that. They finished.
The bigger challenge is doing it a few more times, enough to get to four or five wins, a number that looked like a tougher task after the season-opening loss to Tennessee.
The win against Auburn is the sort that could start the Gamecocks turning the season into something pretty respectable by year’s end, but so was the Georgia win last year. It’s just a matter of finishing the deal.
They have the opportunities ahead, they just have to get it done.
South Carolina 2020 football schedule
Sept. 26: Tennessee 31, South Carolina 27
Oct. 3: Florida 38, South Carolina 24
Oct. 10: South Carolina 41, Vanderbilt 7
Oct. 17: South Carolina 30, Auburn 22
Oct. 24: at LSU, 7 p.m. (ESPN)
Oct. 31: OPEN
Nov. 7: home vs. Texas A&M, 7:30 p.m., ESPN or SEC Network
Nov. 14: at Ole Miss
Nov. 21: home vs. Missouri
Nov. 28: home vs. Georgia
Dec. 5: at Kentucky
This story was originally published October 18, 2020 at 8:11 AM.
