Here’s a collection of Steve Spurrier’s best postgame soundbites this season. You may notice the decay really begins after South Carolina’s less-than-satisfying win in Nashville on Sept. 20:

Texas A&M 52, South Carolina 28; Aug. 28

A bitter pill to swallow for the heavily-favored Gamecocks on opening night, Texas A&M and sophomore quarterback Kenny Hill snapped the nation’s longest home winning streak in blowout fashion against an inexperienced defense. Kevin Sumlin and the Aggies haven’t beaten a ranked team since.

It’s obvious the oddsmakers didn’t know what the heck they were talking about. That team was so much better than us it wasn’t funny. Out-coached us, out-played us, better prepared and they knew what they were doing. They only rolled up 680 yards.

South Carolina 33, East Carolina 23; Sept. 6

A four-quarter struggle against a non-Power 5, the Gamecocks iced it late with a clock-eating drive courtesy of a Brandon Wilds and Mike Davis-led power run game. Little did we know at the time that the win over East Carolina would be South Carolina’s second-best victory of the season.

That was a good win, a tough one. I knew it was going to be a down to the wire type thing. We’re not quite as talented as some of our teams in the past. That’s obvious, but the kids hung in there and played there hearts out.

South Carolina 38, Georgia 35; Sept. 13

The Gamecocks’ fourth win over the Bulldogs in five years pushed South Carolina back into the East race after the season-opening loss to Texas A&M and bolstered a preseason Top 10 ranking. Mike Bobo’s questionable decisions in the red zone and Dylan Thompson’s 4th-and-1 sneak at midfield in the final two minutes were talking points after the game.

Some wins are better than others. I think this was better than most others. What a ball game. Dylan had an excellent game, especially the first half. When we had to stop them, somehow or another, we stopped them. We were meant to win this game and Georgia was not. Our guys played hard, had a few stupid plays that could’ve come back to haunt us.

South Carolina 48, Vanderbilt 34; Sept. 20

‘The Vandy Game’ is often a challenge for South Carolina, none more evident than this season’s wacky win on the road. The Commodores limped in with one of the nation’s worst offense but still managed more than 300 yards. It was two kickoff returns for touchdowns from Darrius Sims that really angered the Head Ball Coach.

That was a game I didn’t like a bit. The way we play is embarrassing and I’m the head coach of this embarrassing group of guys. It’s embarrassing, but we are who we are and we’re 3-1 somehow. And we’ve got all the voters fooled thinking we’re pretty good because we beat Georgia. We coached our butts off and they run the opening kickoff back. I told coach Joe (Robinson) I’m taking over kickoff coverage. It was sad. We kept running right by the kickoff return guy. Vanderbilt has not been an offensive juggernaut in the SEC. It’s one of the worst wins I’ve ever had, no question.

Mizzou 21, South Carolina 20; Sept. 27

The first of three late-game SEC giveaways, Spurrier was visibly disappointed in his team’s performance with College GameDay in town, South Carolina’s first loss to Mizzou since the Tigers joined the SEC.

It was a tough night for us. Protection wasn’t very good, Dylan (Thompson) has had better games. Give Missouri credit, they didn’t play very well either, but they hung in there. We’ll go back to the drawing board.

Kentucky 45, South Carolina 38; Oct. 4

Chastised after the game for his faulty playcalling, Spurrier deflected criticism and didn’t acknowledge his own ineptitude after the Gamecocks blew a two-touchdown lead in the fourth quarter. Dylan Thompson’s pick six with 2:29 remaining was the decisive blow.

I’m not going to yell and scream, everybody saw what happened. Overall as a team we got beat, simple as that. Obviously we can’t stop (the Wildcat). Y’all watched it, we’re not a great. I told the guys we’re going to try to have a winning season somehow.

South Carolina 41, Furman 10; Oct. 18

Coming off their first bye week of the season, the Gamecocks snapped a two-game losing skid against an in-state FCS opponent. It was satisfying during a season of up-and-down play.

When you haven’t won in about a month, it feels good to win a ballgame. They made a few yards on us, but I thought our defense played pretty well. We had a lot of good plays and a lot of sorry plays.

Auburn 42, South Carolina 35; Oct. 25

Somewhat upbeat after his team nearly posted a big-time upset over the heavily-favored Tigers, Spurrier took several veiled shots at his defensive staff and his team’s lack of aggressiveness on that side of the ball throughout his 5-minute speech. He ultimately placed blame on his unit on offense for red zone failures, knowing the Gamecocks needed to generate as many points as possible with a struggling defense.

We knew we had to play close to perfect offense and we didn’t do it, so we got beat. A lot of guys played super. We had a lot of the same guys that struggle. We weren’t good enough as a team to win the game. We knew we had to try to stay on the field and we almost did it.

Tennessee 45, South Carolina 42 OT; Nov. 1

This overtime loss was gut-wrenching for the HBC, so much so that he walked away from the podium after a brief opening statement.

We couldn’t hold the lead, just not good enough. I’ve done a lousy job of maximizing what we think we’ve got here. We can score a few points, but we find a way to lose. I don’t need to take any questions. You guys watched it and I just need to get out of here.