South Carolina Football’s GOAT Series: Top-10 greatest defenses of all-time
By Kevin Miller
South Carolina Football’s No. 3 Greatest Defense of All-Time:
2000
The 2000 Gamecocks are primarily known for the turnaround from 0 wins to 8, and with good reason: the single-season jump of 8 wins was, at the time, the biggest single-season jump in the history of college football. Some extremely popular players were on the South Carolina offense that season as names like Ryan Brewer, Andrew Pinnock, Phil Petty, and more played under offensive coordinator Skip Holtz.
However, the defense was the best unit during Lou Holtz’s second season in Columbia. In fact, that defense was one of the best in Gamecock history as defensive coordinator Charlie Strong’s group allowed just 15.1 points per game, good for 6th-best in the whole country. If you were to remove one bad game on the road against Florida (and future Gamecock headman Steve Spurrier), the Gamecocks surrendered an absurd 12 points per contest; they also gave up less than 10 points per contest at Williams-Brice. The D pulled down 19 interceptions on the way to a top-20 ranking.