Coming out of the Will Muschamp era, the South Carolina program may not be in the best shape it’s ever been in. But there are still people holding out hope for the future, including some former Gamecocks players.

That includes former quarterback Stephen Garcia, who played at South Carolina from 2008-11. During an appearance on the JB and Goldwater radio show on Friday, Garcia provided optimism for Gamecocks fans as they enter a new phase of the program’s history.

“Just hold your breath, folks, and just pray. Hopefully there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, I think there will be,” Garcia said on the show. “It sucks reading all the stuff from these former players that are telling you how bad Gamecocks fans are and this other stuff. Just kind of hold on, because there is still hope, there are still guys like myself and [former quarterback/interim quarterbacks coach] Connor [Shaw] and these other guys that still believe that we have a chance to get to that national powerhouse again that we were a couple years ago. So it’s not the end of the world right now.”

Garcia was a member of some successful South Carolina teams. He was the starting quarterback as a junior in 2010 when the Gamecocks went 9-5 and won the SEC East. He was dismissed from the program the following year, so he wasn’t with the team for all of the 2011 season, in which it went 11-2.

This year, South Carolina has started 2-5, which led to Muschamp’s firing. Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo is currently the interim head coach, and it’s unclear who will be guiding the Gamecocks into the future. But if Garcia is right, there could be better days ahead for the program.

South Carolina will play its first game with Bobo at the helm on Saturday when it hosts Missouri at 7:30 p.m. ET on SEC Network Alternate.