South Carolina football has a long history. The Gamecocks have been playing for 130 years, and they have played continuously since 1909, making the University of South Carolina football program one of the oldest programs in America. Things haven’t always been pretty for the Gamecocks on the field, but the Carolina fanbase has been witness to some special seasons in Columbia. Which season was the best season for the garnet and black?
Honorable Mention
1903: The Gamecocks went 8-2 in 1903, and that sounds impressive. However, when one realizes that three of the victories came against Guilford College, Welch Neck High School, and the Columbia YMCA, that sort of puts a damper on things. Lopsided shutouts against Georgia, Tennessee, and Georgia Tech proved this team was good, but 5-2 against teams that count isn’t a massively successful campaign.
1925: 1925 was successful for the Gamecocks as new head coach Branch Bocock led the Gamecocks to a good season in the premier conference of the day, the Southern Conference. Carolina went 7-3 with close losses to Virginia Tech (called Virginia Polytechnic Institute at the time), North Carolina, and Furman but beat Clemson 33-0 and allowed under 3 points per game on defense for the third-best mark in the nation.
1953: A top-15 finish for the Gamecocks was the reward for going 7-3 in 1953. Coach Rex Enright led the Gamecocks to a combined 32-7 score in wins over rivals Clemson and North Carolina but lost three games in an absolutely loaded ACC. Jacobs Blocking Trophy winner Bill Wohrman was the lead blocker (at fullback) for a backfield that was among the best rushing attacks in the ACC.
1958: The Gamecocks’ 1958 season also finished with a top-15 ranking, and coach Warren Giese had his second 7-3 season in his third year in Columbia. The four-headed monster in the backfield of Bobby Bunch, Alex Hawkins, King Dixon, and John Saunders carried the load for South Carolina, and Hawkins brought home ACC Player of the Year honors and made an All-American team running behind the Jacobs Blocking Trophy winner Saunders.
1973: After Carolina broke out of a bad 1960s with an ACC title in ’69, the 1970s were an extremely average decade. One of the highlights was the 1973 season when the Gamecocks won 7 games. That year, the Gamecocks had one of the program’s most impressive wins (a 52-12 thrashing of Florida State in Tallahassee), but they also suffered four losses to four top-16 teams, keeping the Gamecocks out of a bowl despite 7 wins.
1975: 1975 was an up-and-down campaign that should have finished better for the Gamecocks. Carolina thumped Clemson 56-20 in one of the biggest blowouts in the series’ history, but they also lost at home to App State and to one of the worst LSU teams in history. If either of these results was reversed, third-year starting quarterback Jeff Grantz and the Gamecocks would have gone to an even bigger bowl than the Tangerine Bowl, a trip that saw them lose to an excellent Miami (OH) team.
1979: Everyone knows about George Rogers’ 1980 Heisman season, however, he was almost as good in 1979. As the catalyst of the entire offense, Rogers put up over 1800 yards from scrimmage and led Jim Carlen’s Carolina team to the Hall of Fame Classic Bowl where they fell to Missouri. All four Gamecock losses were to top-15 teams.
1988: 1988 was the final leg of the second-ever back-to-back 8-win stretches for the South Carolina football program. After a 6-0 start, however, an inexplicable loss to a bad Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket team derailed things as the Gamecocks only won 2 of their last six games, including a lopsided loss to an inferior Indiana team in the Liberty Bowl in Joe Morrison’s last game before his death. The losing stretch coincided with the publishing of a Sports Illustrated article about alleged (later proven) steroid use in the program.
1994: The high point of a bad decade of Gamecock football, 1994 saw the Gamecocks win the program’s very first bowl game, a Carquest Bowl victory over West Virginia. ’94 was the only year in the ’90s in which the Gamecocks won more than 6 games (7) and the only season they went to a bowl game. Steve Taneyhill had a good season at quarterback, and the combination of Brandon Bennett and Stanley Pritchett in the backfield was an excellent 1-2 punch for the offense. If the ‘Cocks had a more consistent defense that season, Carolina could have made waves in the SEC.
2006: Steve Spurrier’s most unlucky team in Columbia, the 2006 squad faced six different ranked opponents, including three top-10 foes. Two of the unranked opponents were some of the best Kentucky and Houston teams in recent years. Despite rotating quarterbacks, the Gamecocks finished the year on a three-game winning streak (including a win over Clemson and over Houston in the Liberty Bowl), but they were two blocked Ryan Succop kicks away against Florida from also upsetting the eventual national champs in Gainesville.
2014: One of the best offenses in school history, the 2014 version of the Gamecocks was let down by its abysmal defense. On four separate occasions, the Carolina defense blew two-score leads in the second half, losing three times. The offense scored enough for Carolina to win seven games despite never giving up less than 20 points against Power-5 competition.
2017: In contrast with many South Carolina football seasons, 2017 was an extremely fortunate year in Columbia. The Gamecocks led the nation in fumble recoveries, a stat that is usually relatively random from season to season. The schedule was also one of the softest in recent Carolina history as the Gamecocks only played two ranked opponents (they lost both games). The 9 victories are tied for fifth in program history.
2022: The second year of the Shane Beamer era in Columbia saw the Gamecocks improve for the second straight year after Will Muschamp’s tenure ended in a 2-10 disaster. South Carolina did something it had never done before at the end of the year as the Gamecocks beat two top-10 opponents in back-to-back weeks when Carolina upset the Tennessee Volunteers and Clemson Tigers to end the regular season. The 8-win season was a success, despite the team fielding a terrible offense for over half the season.
South Carolina Football’s No. 10 Greatest Season of All-Time:
1980 (8-4)
The season of George Rogers was a special one in Columbia. Rogers put up over 1800 yards from scrimmage for the second season in a row, almost exclusively as a rusher as he caught just 23 yards worth of passes. Big George was the clear Heisman winner, even over the best freshman season in college football history from Herschel Walker, as he scored one-third of the Gamecocks’ touchdowns on the season and rushed for the 7th-most yards in college football history up to that point.
Carolina rode on the back of Rogers all the way to 8 victories despite having some big holes on the roster outside of the running back position. 1980 ended with disappointment as Carolina lost in a bowl game (this time the Gator Bowl) for the second year in a row, but it will always be one of the greatest and most memorable seasons in South Carolina football history.
South Carolina Football’s No. 9 Greatest Season of All-Time:
2000 (8-4)
The greatest single-season turnaround in college football history belonged to the Gamecocks from 1999 (0-11) to 2000 (8-4). That record has since been broken, but it takes nothing away from the magic of the 2000 season in Columbia. Starting the season with two goalpost-destroying victories at Williams-Brice Stadium (including a not-that-close 21-10 beatdown of top-10 Georgia), Carolina began the year 7-1 before losing all three legs of the “Orange Crush” when Tennessee, Florida, and Clemson all beat the Gamecocks.
The final chapter of the turnaround season that saw South Carolina return to relevancy was the Outback Bowl. Ohio State was not ready for the Gamecocks that day, and Ohio native Ryan Brewer had a day to remember as he scored three touchdowns and logged over 200 yards of offense as his new team dismantled his childhood team by a score of 24-7. The uber-talented Gamecock defensive unit had a great season that began a back-to-back run of allowing more than 17 points just three times in both 2000 and 2001.
South Carolina Football’s No. 8 Greatest Season of All-Time:
1987 (8-4)
1987 Gamecock football had one of the most talented rosters to ever play in Columbia. Five All-Americans started for the ’87 squad (Todd Ellis, Sterling Sharpe, Roy Hart, Brad Edwards, and Greg Philpot), including three members of the “Black Death” defense. If not for a never-ending string of turnovers from the offense (particularly the 24 interceptions from quarterback Todd Ellis), the Gamecocks would have finished with one of the best records in South Carolina football history.
As it stands, the 8-3 regular season record was still a rousing success compared to most Gamecock seasons. An ugly loss against LSU in the Gator Bowl (and a big brawl in a loss at Miami in the regular season finale) tarnished an otherwise great season that included blowout victories over Virginia Tech, Virginia, Wake Forest, NC State, and Clemson. The games against NC State and Wake Forest are the only back-to-back shutouts in the modern history of Gamecock football.
South Carolina Football’s No. 7 Greatest Season of All-Time:
2001 (9-3)
Most fans thought the 2000 season could only be followed by a letdown, but then 2001 happened. The Gamecocks returned most of their starters and were a better team, top to bottom from the previous season. An unfortunate loss on the road in Arkansas came on a blocked field goal, but only two more losses followed, against top-10 Tennessee and top-5 Florida. The Gamecock defense continued its strong play from 2000 and might have been even better.
The regular season ended with a rivalry win over the Clemson Tigers, the first one since 1996. A rematch against Ohio State in the Outback Bowl was much closer than the one the previous season, but the Gamecocks prevailed again, this time 31-28. For the first time in school history, from preseason poll to postseason poll and every week in between, the Gamecocks were ranked in the top-25 for the entire season, finishing 13th.
South Carolina Football’s No. 6 Greatest Season of All-Time:
2010 (8-5; SEC East Champions)
2009 saw hints at what was coming for the South Carolina football program, and the Head Ball Coach-led Gamecocks put together their best-ever four-year run from 2010-2013. 2010 started the success as the 9-3 Gamecocks earned a spot in the SEC Championship Game. They would lose to eventual National Champion Auburn and fall in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl to Florida State, but those losses don’t keep 2010 from being a special season in Columbia.
One of Steve Spurrier’s top offensive units was led by Alshon Jeffery (who put together one of the best college football receiver seasons of all-time) and true freshman Marcus Lattimore. These two studs, along with Stephen Garcia and a talented Carolina defense, kicked #1 Alabama’s teeth in during a dominant performance in Williams-Brice Stadium, showing the college football world that South Carolina football was here to stay for a while.
South Carolina Football’s No. 5 Greatest Season of All-Time:
1969 (7-4; ACC Champions)
In what is the only conference championship in South Carolina football history, the 1969 Gamecocks won the Atlantic Coast Conference. Quarterback Tommy Suggs and top receiver Fred Zeigler were the top pitch-and-catch duo in the conference, and running back Warren Muir was an All-American. Statistically, this was not among the best Carolina teams ever, but Paul Dietzel’s team knew how to win when it mattered.
The Gamecocks went undefeated in a deep ACC but dropped three road games against ranked out-of-conference opponents to bring down their overall record. As ACC champs, the Gamecocks were still invited to the Peach Bowl, but they ran into the buzzsaw that was the 10-1 West Virginia defense, one of the best units in the country. Carolina couldn’t score as they lost 14-3, but as the only Gamecock football conference champions, a top-5 spot on this list makes sense.
South Carolina Football’s No. 4 Greatest Season of All-Time:
2013 (11-2)
The 2013 Gamecocks might have been the closest to a championship of the three 11-win Carolina teams. The best team in the SEC, USC didn’t represent the SEC East in the Championship Game after they inexplicably lost to Tennessee in Knoxville when Marquez North caught a pass with his helmet to set up the winning field goal. The loss was one of two for the ‘Cocks that year, and if either loss didn’t happen, Carolina would have played (and likely beaten) Auburn in the SEC Championship Game and been granted a berth in the National Title Game against Florida State.
The Gamecocks beat Clemson for the fifth-straight season in 2013 and finished the year ranked 4th in the final AP poll after a 10-point win over Wisconsin in the Capital One Bowl (Citrus Bowl), but the most impressive win came over #5 Missouri in the other Columbia when an injured Shaw came off the bench in the second half to lead the Gamecocks back from a 17-0 deficit to win in overtime. For just the third time, Carolina was ranked for the entire season.
Connor Shaw had one of the most underrated quarterback seasons in college football history as he accounted for over 3000 yards, 32 touchdowns, and just 1 interception. Mike Davis had a very good season filling the shoes of Marcus Lattimore, and six different Gamecock pass catchers pulled down over 250 yards receiving.
South Carolina Football’s No. 3 Greatest Season of All-Time:
2011 (11-2)
Arguably the most talented roster of the three-straight 11-win seasons, the 2011 Gamecocks had 19 players on the roster taken in the NFL Draft, including three first-rounders. A mid-year quarterback transition from Stephen Garcia to Connor Shaw limited the offense at times, but Carolina still finished 11-2 after a Palmetto Bowl beatdown of Clemson and a Capital One Bowl (Citrus Bowl) thumping of Nebraska.
An early-season loss to a bad Auburn team ultimately excluded the Gamecocks from the SEC Championship Game against eventual national championship runner-up LSU, a game that would have featured two of the only teams in the nation that could have beaten Alabama that season.
The South Carolina defensive line had three eventual All-Americans (Melvin Ingram, Jadeveon Clowney, and Kelcy Quarles), and the secondary had two All-Americans (Stephon Gilmore and Antonio Allen) as well. The Gamecock defense displayed historic dominance at times, including during three SEC East victories in which they allowed just 3 points in each game.
South Carolina Football’s No. 2 Greatest Season of All-Time:
1984 (10-2)
The original great Gamecock team, 1984 Carolina football has been known across Gamecock Nation by one phrase: “Black Magic.” The name came from (in addition to the color black) the many seemingly magical moments on the field in 1984. Come-from-behind wins, backup quarterback heroics, and victories over historic programs were happening on an almost weekly basis. The Black Magic season was special for so many reasons, but it is also a bittersweet memory for many fans.
The Gamecocks rose as high as #2 in the polls after a 9-0 start. Heading into a cakewalk against Navy in Annapolis, #1-ranked Nebraska lost to Oklahoma, and the Gamecocks rose to #1 in the nation…or, they would have had they not been upset by the Midshipmen in the most improbable loss in school history. Carolina never recovered from the loss as they barely beat an average Clemson team the following week and were knocked off by Oklahoma State in the Gator Bowl.
A two-quarterback system of Allen Mitchell and Mike Hold led the charge, and running back Thomas Dendy was the offense’s top performer. The Gamecock defense, known as the “Fire Ant Defense,” was a very good unit that kept the team in every ballgame.
South Carolina Football’s Greatest Season of All-Time:
2012 (11-2)
The 2012 South Carolina football team is the best overall team in the history of the Gamecock program. Just like in 2011 and 2013, the Gamecocks were the SEC East’s best squad but missed out on playing in the SEC Championship Game. If one loss changed, South Carolina would have been in the game, would have likely won the game, and would have earned a national championship game opportunity.
All-American (and eventual #1-overall NFL Draft pick) Jadeveon Clowney had the best defensive line season in Gamecock history when he tallied 13 sacks in 12 games, including 4.5 against Clemson in the rivalry victory. Marcus Lattimore got off to a tremendous start before a devastating knee injury ended his football career. Lattimore received significant Heisman Trophy buzz before his injury, and Clowney finished fifth in the voting for the prestigious award despite being a defensive player. Clowney’s season ended with “The Hit” against Michigan.
Connor Shaw came into his own as the starting quarterback in 2012, and Dylan Thompson performed well while Shaw was hurt, but a ridiculous stretch of schedule that included three straight top-10 matchups (including the second and third on the road) led to two Carolina losses. The Gamecocks won every other game on the schedule. A blowout of top-5 Georgia, a classic Clemson win known as “The Dylan Thompson Game,” and a barnburner against Michigan in the Outback Bowl were the biggest highlights of what was the greatest season in Gamecock history.