Taking stock: What the rest of the road looks like for the 2020 Gamecocks
Ugly doesn’t really sum up South Carolina’s 52-24 loss to LSU.
Gruesome is probably more apt. Allowing 31 points in the first half and 45 points in the first 44 minutes is a problem if the offense isn’t just rolling. It wasn’t on Saturday.
The only silver lining for the Gamecocks is that no matter how bad a loss is, it still only counts as one loss in the standings. Any one game can be flushed, and South Carolina’s coming road offers some opportunities, even coming off an emotional lost chance of sorts.
“We’re going to go Tuesday, we’re going to practice against each other hard,” linebacker Ernest Jones said. “We’re going to go out there and compete with each other and learn form this one and try an keep it moving and get ready for A&M.”
Most cold-eyed realists at season’s start would have said that getting to the open week at 2-3 would’ve been a net positive. Auburn, LSU and Florida all appeared to be games when the Gamecocks would be underdogs by eight points or more, so extra weight was placed on that opener against Tennessee. After those first five, things were going to open up a bit.
South Carolina lost that opener, not because the Vols were better than expected, but USC did pull out the Auburn game (a team that is worse than expected) and seemed to have a chance against LSU before getting swept up in a hurricane of miscues and Tigers offensive firepower.
The road ahead actually doesn’t look all that daunting, but it is tricky, as every SEC team seem capable of good and bad in the same breath.
After the Gamecocks’ bye, what comes next:
Texas A&M, Nov. 7
Percentage chance to win, per ESPN FPI: 45.1%
It’s at home, which helps, and the Aggies have been all over the place in 2020. They struggled badly vs. Vanderbilt. They were smashed to pieces by Alabama. They pulled off one of the year’s big upsets against Florida and then came back to Earth with a mostly bland win at Mississippi State.
This isn’t South Carolina’s best chance to win down the stretch, but for seemingly the second-hardest game, things could be worse.
at Ole Miss, Nov. 14
Percentage chance to win, per ESPN FPI: 50.9%
Getting a read on the Rebels is tricky. They’ve shown offensive firepower in competitive games, but those are losses to Florida, Auburn and Alabama. The lone win came on a missed extra point. Being on the road doesn’t help, but this has the makings of a “who makes the last play” kind of game.
Missouri, Nov. 21
Percentage chance to win, per ESPN FPI: 60.5%
This has the look of a game going from likely win to a challenge, as coach Eli Drinkwitz leads the Tigers on a march to competence. A bad start made it look like a big rebuild, but wins against LSU and Kentucky, the latter in workmanlike fashion, have Mizzou looking solid at least. That likely means a game to beware of, even at home against a first-year coach.
Georgia, Nov. 28
Percentage chance to win, per ESPN FPI: 14.6%
This one is still going to be a tall task. The main hope for USC is to get into a mud fight like last year and wrestle out something. The Bulldog offense has been anything but special, but Stetson Bennett is solid and the run game can lean on folks (LSU’s sure did). The key will be South Carolina holding up and finding any way to score against a nasty defense.
Kentucky, Dec. 5
Percentage chance to win, per ESPN FPI: 42.2%
The Wildcats were setting up as a brilliant half team (all defense, no offense), then dropped the Missouri game with a ghastly 145 yards of total offense. This game might come down to the moods of the respective teams grinding out to the end of the season, but it should be a winnable handful for South Carolina.
In summary
That’s the path. Three, maybe four of the games should be within range of a slugfest, the kind of contests Will Muschamp’s teams often play. To get a few wins, the Gamecocks will have to make plays at the end, à la the Auburn game, and they’ll have to avoid spitting the bit with performances like the LSU game.
“I just told the guys we’re going to start back to work on Tuesday morning,” Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp said. “Give them a couple days to get ready for the stretch run. Come back Tuesday morning ready to work. They will.”
