If you’re a South Carolina football fan, how should you feel?
Your team is coming off an abysmal season. Things got so bad that Steve Spurrier, the winningest coach in program history, accepted blame for his team’s disappointment and retired — mind you — midway through the season.
The Gamecocks failed to find a consistent replacement for Dylan Thompson and started three different quarterbacks — Connor Mitch, Lorenzo Nunez and Perry Orth — and different points during their last place 3-9 (1-7 SEC) season.
Also, Pharoh Cooper, the only true standout performer on offense, is gone after three seasons of carrying the load as a Swiss Army knife, do-everything wide receiver/running back/part-time quarterback. Cooper accounted for 973 of South Carolina’s 2,490 receiving yards and eight receiving touchdowns of its 17. The Gamecocks’ leading returning wideout is Deebo Samuel, who recorded 161 yards and one touchdown as a freshman and still managed to rank third on the team.
South Carolina’s defense was, once again, underwhelming in 2015. The Gamecocks allowed 27.5 points per game and 429.8 yards, both ranking last among SEC teams. Fittingly, the Gamecocks were the only defense worse than Auburn, which must have been the deciding factor in their coaching search.
South Carolina hired Will Muschamp this offseason after a disappointing single season as Auburn’s defensive coordinator. Muschamp, who had just been fired by Florida, was made the highest paid assistant in college football by Auburn before guiding the Tigers to a No. 71 overall FBS ranking in total defense. Granted, this was the first Muschamp-coached team to rank outside of the top-10 since 2009, but that makes his failure at Auburn even more notable.
Somehow, the coach that one SEC program deemed unsuitable to be a head coach managed to join the conference’s worst team. So is there anything to be optimistic about?
For starters, Mitch, the Gamecocks’ assumed starting quarterback, had a strong performance in South Carolina’s spring game. The redshirt junior threw for 141 yards and a touchdown on 9-of-16 passing. Freshman Brandon McIlwain also looked sharp with 169 yards and two touchdowns.
Walk-on redshirt freshman Devin Dingle also enjoyed a standout performance with 77 yards on two receptions, while four-star early enrollee Bryan Edwards caught two touchdown passes.
South Carolina also had several big performances on defense during its Garnet & Black game. Sherrod Pittman recorded a team-high seven tackles and safety Toure Boyd had six. Boosie Whitlow finished with two sacks while Javion Duncan, T.J. Holloman and Ulric Jones each had one.
Also worth noting, Samuel was named the Steve Spurrier Offensive Player of the Spring and Marquavius Lewis was the Rex Enright Defensive Player of the Spring, which should make Gamecocks fans even more optimistic. Both players will play vital roles in the success of their respective units with many expecting Samuel to be the team’s primary receiving option in Cooper’s absence and Lewis to step up as a senior leader.
South Carolina is coming off being the worst team in the SEC and arguably has the conference’s worst coach, so there isn’t much for Gamecocks fans to be excited about. However, with such a tumultuous season carrying over into the offseason — capped off by the most head-scratching coaching hire in college football — at least South Carolina fans can feel optimistic that several key players made the most of spring practice.
Obviously, spring game results need to be taken with a grain of salt. Let’s not forget that the Gamecocks were playing against themselves, not an opposing SEC team, in a glorified scrimmage.
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