Photo: South Carolina Athletics
Over the last few days I have reflected a lot on South Carolina’s loss this past Saturday to LSU. On the game itself as well as the reaction of some Gamecock fans after the game.
It is often very easy to tell by reading someones post how old they are or how long they have actually been a Gamecock fan. Saw a lot of posts along the lines of “this is the worst lost ever,” “Worst loss in school history,” and many things of that nature. My very own brother Brett, who I can verify has been a Gamecock from birth, said, “This is the most disappointed I’ve ever been.”
Most of the time when a Gamecock fan makes a statement like this they are either very young, or haven’t been a fan very long. Any tried and true Carolina fan knows there have been much worse losses and that disappointment is just par for the course when it comes to Carolina Football.
I can make a long list of bigger losses that were devastating to this fan base and to the program. First one that comes to mind happened the year before I was born 1984 the loss the Navy when the Gamecocks were 9-0 and ranked #2 in the country. For another I go back to 2007, The Gamecocks were ranked #6 in the BCS rankings that had just come out the previous week when the lost 17-6 to Vandy in Columbia, a loss that sent the Gamecocks into a downward spiral and they didn’t win another game that season. 2006 at Florida was a hard pill to swallow when the Gators blocked a field goal as time expired. I could go on and on but over the years there have been much worse and deflating losses than this past Saturday.
But yes, this loss did suck. Any time you lose a game at home leading 17-0 the way the Gamecocks lost it sucks, and you have every right to be disappointed. It was a defeat that was snatched from the jaws of victory, which seems to happen a lot. However, as we are now a few days removed lets put the disappointment aside and look at it with fresh eyes.
What I take away from this game is that the Gamecocks are really better than we thought they would be at this point. While I understand LSU is not 2019 LSU, they are still a quality football team that should be much better than where South Carolina is right now. South Carolina has a lot of youth and inexperience especially on the offensive side of the football. Some of that youth and inexperience is one of the reasons South Carolina lost on Saturday.
South Carolina lost to LSU because of some bad plays, bad turnovers, and some bad officiating, and an injured QB. A combination of all four of these things led to the Gamecocks defeat.
Bad Plays: Sellers interception in first half took three points off the board, back to back sacks on Ashford at the end of first half likely took three more points off the board. The decision to level the QB on the interception return which to me did seem like unnecessary roughness, and it was a dead giveaway that the offender thought he may have done something wrong my raising his hands immediately, as if to say, “I didn’t do it.”
Bad turnovers: Again the interception. And then fumbling deep in LSU territory.
Bad Officiating: Those refs had a rough day. They couldn’t get number right when announcing penalties. Several times they announced penalties on players who weren’t even on the field. I know a lot of Gamecock fans are mad about the two penalties that brought back the pick-6’s but to me the worse calls were the phantom pass interference call, and the no call on the late hit out of bounds on the Gamecock sideline on Rocket Sanders on the same drive that would have given the Gamecocks 15 yards and an automatic first down. Both of those calls, or one call and a no call, were game altering calls that both benefited LSU.
QB injury: Sellers goes down in the first half and the Gamecock offense isn’t the same without him. LSU look as if they didn’t care if Ashford wanted to try to run and they sure didn’t care if he tried to throw it. Beamer says he had confidence in Ashford to win games if put in that position, he’s probably the only one in the stadium that had that confidence Saturday. LSU sure didn’t have the same level of confidence in him. That being said I would sit Sellers this week vs Akron. That injury changed the outcome of the game.
Still with all four of those things combined most people feel like the Gamecocks still should have one. If one of those four things doesn’t happen Carolina wins that ballgame. To me that shows you how close they are to being a good football team. Good football teams overcome obstacles to win games. The Gamecocks on Saturday overcame three but a fourth was just too much.
While I understand the frustration with the loss, and I am not a moral victories kind of guy, I think the Gamecocks are trending in the right direction. They have certainly come a long why since the first game against Old Dominion. I know what most of you were thinking after that game. This one hurt and hopefully the team can find their way again after such a deflating loss. Fortunately this week they have Akron.
This team has a lot of work to do but we have seen some positives. The defensive lined LaNorris Sellers is going to be great just to name a couple.
