Gamecocks Football Wins Everywhere But The Scoreboard

When you really look at Saturday night you would see South Carolina Gamecocks football wins everywhere but the scoreboard. Of course that’s what ultimately matters, but I think that’s what makes this loss so hard. It’s one thing for another team to come in and just control the game and beat you. But it’s gut-wrenching when you feel like you’ve won in so many ways, but end up losing. So imagine for a second, you didn’t know what happened and just follow the scenario of events listed below:

Dylan Thompson was 20-for-32 with 347 yards passing and 2 TD throws
Brandon Wilds rushed 8 times for 143 yards, including a breakaway 70 yard TD run late in the 4th to put the Gamecocks up by 14.
Pharoh Cooper may have had the greatest game in the history of South Carolina – 3 rushes for 23 yards and 1 TD, 1-2 passing for 30 yards and 1 TD, 11 receptions for 233 yards (a school record) and 2 TDs, and recovered an onside kick attempt which seemed like it would seal the game
The Gamecocks stopped the Volunteers on 3rd and 4th down from the 1 yard line, a huge moral victory for the defense
After going into halftime down 21-14, the Gamecocks came out and dominate the third quarter 14-0 to go up 28-21
The Gamecocks finished with more 600 yards in total offense for the night
After putting together a 60 yard drive, Brison Williams came up with an interception at the 4 yard line to stop the drive
With the Gamecocks facing a tough 3rd and 11 from their own 15, Dylan Thompson hit Pharoh Cooper with a perfect throw on an inside slant that Cooper took 85 yards for a touchdown to put them up 35-21

And they lost.

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Yes, lost after being up by 2 TDs on two different occasions in the fourth quarter. Lost after recovering an onside kick at the Tennessee 43 with only 1:50 left in the game and up by a touchdown. Lost after only giving up a field goal in overtime, but not being able to move the ball suddenly on offense. They lost.

No ones knows how to explain what happened, and no one wants to. Coach Steve Spurrier refused to take questions in his press conference, saying “you saw what happened”. Defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward simply tried to avoid probing questions by saying “it can’t get any worse”. But accountability is a part of any business, so someone is going to have to answer for it.

The Gamecocks should have won this game. I know that, you know that, the players know that. But they did lose. Somehow with all those wins throughout the game, they found a way to lose. And it hurts. It hurts because now we really can’t even celebrate all those wins along the way in this game, because when the team loses, the individual performances no longer matter, regardless of how good they might have been.

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