Goals for the 2018 Carolina Gamecocks

As spring ball approaches, the South Carolina Gamecocks prepare for the season. A second-ever SEC East title sits squarely in their sights. Both inside and outside of the program, expectations haven’t been higher since the 2014 preseason.

As much as I hate to be the one to pump the brakes and say, “Whoa, Nelly,” it has to be done. Hear me well, I would love to see the Carolina Gamecocks bring home that division title. Even so, three prerequisites stand in the way before we can begin discussing any sort of championships. Let us begin with three goals for the team to accomplish. Check off two or three of these, and then we can begin discussing titles.

1. Break the Losing Skids to the Aggies and Wildcats

USC may not be the most storied or historically relevant program in the SEC. However, they are higher on the totem pole than Kentucky and as high as TAMU. Not many SEC East teams win the division and lose to Kentucky the same season (yes, I know Carolina lost to them in 2010, when USC won its only division title.) A four year losing streak to a team the Gamecocks have traditionally owned cannot be tolerated. As for the Aggies, Carolina should at least be 2-2 against a middle of the road SEC West team. USC must break free from these two mediocre programs’ stranglehold.

2. Knock off Georgia

Nothing like upsetting last season’s national champ-runner up and conference champion to scream, “We’re back!” Both the Gamecocks and Bulldogs begin their season’s with cupcakes before the first “real” game of the year. Get ready for a 90F early September game, possibly with a lightning delay, probably with inebriated, heat exhaustion-maddened fratboys from both schools brawling in the parking lot. Barring a crazy unforeseen upset week one, UGA rolls into town a heavy favorite. To pull off the upset would turn the SEC East on its ear and set the conference, if not the country, on notice.

3. Win the Palmetto Bowl

Yeah, I know, I know. Defeating the team by the lake has no effect on division standings. However, how can the South Carolina Gamecocks reasonably expect to win in Atlanta if they can’t win their state championship? The Gamecocks need to come up with a creed here: “Today the state, tomorrow, the SEC!” Try imagining Todd Ellis saying it. Trust me, he’ll say it more ominously than you or I.