CarolinaGuy

It's like where are where we always at, in football purgatory. I've been a lifelong Gamecock fan, now 32 years old. I don't have a memory of the 80s runs, but my freshman year was Spurrier's first. Sat through Woods, Scott and Holtz with 1-21. I used to enjoy going to Carolina games, but the rising costs just aren't worth it. The ROI (/ROW - Return on Wins) is terrible. There are at least 40-50% of the football games in a season where you will come home completely unsatisfied with the level of play. I don't buy the recruiting excuses. Right now it's Clemson and UGA. Before it was almost always UGA and UT. UF is only two states over. SC produces a ton of football talent. App State has it, and we've all read the stories over the years of this kid going to that school outside of SC. We whipped Clemson 5 years straight, and they built a national title dynasty in a lackluster conference and have now whipped us five times. Good to great teams are always going to be right nearby. At the end of the day, Muschamp wasn't even the first choice. I think he likely was the 4th or 5th choice, yet look at the buyout we assigned to a guy this far down the list. Just not wise. I know this is an SEC site, but I think every strategy of the University needs to be looked at, including conference. We are a basement dweller in the SEC east with limited success. This division will never have less than two good (top 15) football teams. And heck, even the bottom teams are capable of going out and giving good schools all they can handle. If we cannot overcome that, I'd be willing to look at a lesser conference. I don't expect national titles, I would just like to compete for the occasional division title or conference championship. I'd be content with seasons at 7-5, 8-4, and 9-3 with some bowl wins. Those type seasons aren't going to happen in the SEC when you can't even handle App State and UNC. We lost "bigly" to two mid-level SEC teams (Mizzou and UT), one with a struggling start. This with a roster that includes probably the all-time greatest WR (definitively top 3 guy in a program with some pretty good ones), pretty deep QB talent, a stable of RBs, and overall a roster that should compete. I agree with what others have said - it's not even a case of wait 'til next year at this point. It's wait 3-4 years when we start from scratch all over again. This program right now is no better than when Spurrier left it in shambles. It recruits much better on paper, but the result is pretty much the same. We may very well finish with a 3 game losing streak if we lost the last two. We were unable to capitalize on Spurrier's success because of a botched exit, and now we've botched the hire after him by going after a guy who did the exact same thing at his previous tenure. We've got to get outside of this dang box, but we are literally stuck due to terrible financial decisions to secure a guy no one else wanted in the HC role. This program is 3-4 years minimum from doing much of anything, should the hire be a homerun. Arguably 4-5. What a terrible place to be in. Absolute purgatory!