South Carolina football: Inexplicable loss puts season, bowl eligibility on the brink
If it was not coaching, it had to be a lack of motivation.
After a rash of injuries, particularly to wide receivers and tight ends, South Carolina sits at 4-6 with games at Texas A&M and Clemson remaining following Saturday’s shocking 20-15 loss to Appalachian State.
Second-leading receiver Shi Smith missed his second straight game with a hamstring injury, and tight end Nick Muse and receiver Josh Vann also suffered long-term injuries last week against Vanderbilt. Then receiver Bryan Edwards was injured with a knee sprain in the first half Saturday.
For a team that was promoted last summer as the deepest and most talented of any under coach Will Muschamp, a few week-to-week injuries have certainly derailed the season. There again has been a revolving door at running back, but on Saturday, it appeared the offensive line couldn’t get any push. South Carolina must now beat Texas A&M in College Station and Clemson to reach a bowl.
Losing out would leave the Gamecocks at 4-8 with what was supposed to be Muschamp’s best team. It would also restart the hot seat talk, if it ever really went away after the Georgia upset.
“We felt good about being able to run the ball. We didn’t do a good enough job of blocking up front,” Muschamp said. “We got stalemated on the line of scrimmage by a smaller defensive line.”
App State now has two Power 5 wins after it earlier beat North Carolina, which handed South Carolina one of its losses.
“We felt like we had a great plan of how to attack their run, and our guys played with great effort,” App State coach Eliah Drinkwitz said. “We tackled better than we’ve tackled all season. … It was a tough draw, especially after last week’s loss to have to come on the road to an SEC opponent, and nobody flinched.”

Bryan Edwards was a bright spot for South Carolina, setting a school record for career receiving yards. Photo by: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports
For the South Carolina passing game, it appeared to be a combination of quarterback Ryan Hilinski throwing the ball too hard and the receivers having a case of the drops.
The fourth-quarter comeback only made the game a microcosm of the season. Where was it all game? How do you reconcile the four wins being Charleston Southern, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Georgia? Talk about a wide spectrum of talent.
The loss again overshadowed a record-setting day from Edwards, which is a weekly event and an unfortunate reminder that he deserves more.
With a 23-yard touchdown reception in the fourth quarter, Edwards became the Gamecocks’ all-time leader in receiving yards. He finished the game with 3,045. He also extended his school-record streak with a catch to 48 games. Edwards has 71 receptions on the season, the fifth most for a Gamecock in a single season. He is one behind Sidney Rice, who had 72 in 2006.
Muschamp maintains that there is strong leadership in the locker room, and that the team will re-focus and not let this carry over into next week’s game. Texas A&M is another one of South Carolina’s annual opponents that has a winning streak against the Gamecocks. In this case, it’s five games.
“They’ll be fine,” Muschamp said. “They’re hurting right now. They knew they were a good football team coming in. We knew that coming in. We need to play better than we did, and we need to coach better than we did. Our guys will be fine. Our guys will fight. They’ve got a lot of resolve. … We’ll be fine.”
Why so many injuries? Butch Joneses teams at Tenn were same way. Muschamp is gonna get fired and probably won’t get another HC opportunity unless group of five. Great defensive coach and recruiter but can’t seem to run a program.
He needs to drop Dillman
Bill is 100 percent correct. UF had an inordinate amount of injuries when Dillman was the S&C coordinator.
BLPB, ya’ll gotta stop this death spin. It is making our October loss look REALLY bad!
BTW, I don’t understand the injuries. Same thing last year. I mean every team has em. We had a bunch of guys go down this week against Mizzou, but it seems ya’ll are snake bitten.
Heck borrow some money from FSU and pay the buyout, but then who do you get?
Tennessee played lights out against us and App State was playing as if it were a bowl game. Their fans took over WB last night as well. No excuses but going forward we need to drop Dillman for sure, no excuse for this many injuries two seasons in a row.
That’s just it, unpopular opinion but I don’t pull the plug yet on Muschamp this season unless you can get someone like Fleck, who if he’s smart will stay and compete in a weakened Big Ten. At least with Muschamp we are competing with recruiting. Those in charge may need to start planning if next season is a dud.
We were just like this last year at the end of the season. We have a serious strength and conditioning problem with Chump.
Has Dillman been anywhere else besides Fla and SC?
I want to say he was an assistant S&C coordinator at LSU before UF and again at Bama after UF.
He came here from Bama but has stints at LSU, App State
Muschamp is one of the nicest coaches to ever coach at South Carolina, but we all know how nice finishes. It is time for him to go. Hopefully it won’t take as long to fire him as it did to hire him. If they are looking at the HC, they should also be looking at the AD, who is Muschamp’s strongest supporter. With the university’s track record, if they fire the coach right now, this week, they would probably hire the new coach by next August or September…what a mess.
Sorry but Will is not a head coach. He has had his chances at two different schools and now needs to go. SC fans deserve better. We have officially regressed back to the Sparky and Brad days.
Who would be your first choice to replace him?
Brfore the Muscamp hire I would of loved to see them get Coach Leach but I think he maybe getting a little on the elder side but still would ba an improvement. The other devil that comes to mind is Mr Kiffen and hope he has learned something from his other ventures. Needs to be an offensive minded guy that makes good hires and good decisions.
Would South Carolina hire him after the comments he made 10 years ago while coaching UT? I can’t remember the exact quote, but he told alshon Jeffrey that he’d end up pumping gas if he went to South Carolina instead of Tennessee. He’d definitely make things interesting in the east, though.
Will Healy . He’s going to be the next dabo
Brad “Twink” Scott… I just threw up in my mouth.
Fat Brad I’m ill now….
Agreed. Liked Muschamp as a recruiter and as a defensive coordinator. Good person too. Hope he lands on his feet.
Our soccer teams are good! So there!!
“Coach better”? I think that’s programmed into his post game speeches. He’s coaching as good as he can. I don’t see where all of a sudden he’s going to flip a switch and be able to “coach better”. Please, let’s move on with this!
If it really is the case that the UofSC is unable or unwilling to eat the buyout, & thus y’all & Muschamp are stuck with each other, well that’s just not a good situation to be in.
What you might want to consider is offering him a 1- or 2-year extension in exchange for a much reduced buyout. That way you don’t lose your recruiting class, & then a year from now if you have to can him, it won’t cost nearly as much money. If Muschamp really believes his program is on track & success is right around the corner, he ought to be inclined to agree to this in some form. And it would also buy you some time to retire Ray Tanner with dignity & hire a professional AD who could be better trusted to make tough decisions & good coaching hires.