The probability of South Carolina winning 1 or both of its final 2 regular-season games is pretty low.

If you look at the Massey rating, South Carolina has a 29 percent chance of beating Tennessee at home Saturday, and it has a 27 percent chance of winning at Clemson the following Saturday.

Should the odds stay true, the Gamecocks would finish their regular season with a 6-6 mark and await a bowl competitor.

Would a 7-6 season show that head coach Shane Beamer has made progress to lift this team to the next level?

Or would it mean the team is still a year or 2 away from the next tier?

Looking at the big picture on both sides of the ball, questions abound, and there will be some once the season ends. Somewhere, there is a pool on what day offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield will be let go or resigns.

The calls for Satterfield to be the scapegoat — though Beamer denies it — have toned down, but their volume could be raised depending on the outcome of the final 2 games. The same type of heat could be turned up on defensive coordinator Clayton White.

Two specific issues that have emerged after South Carolina’s loss in Gainesville on Saturday are about running the ball and defending the rush.

Without running back MarShawn Lloyd, the Gamecocks haven’t been able to produce an effective running game in the past 2 weeks. He has a thigh bruise and could return this week.

The Gamecocks hope he’ll return — they haven’t been able to fill the void. Lloyd had developed into a 2-tier weapon for them.

Lloyd ranks 3rd in the SEC in rushing touchdowns (9) and 8th in yards rushing per game (69.5). He has 556 rushing yards for the year, and he has caught 17 passes for 173 yards with a pair of scores.

There was the clamoring for tight end/running back Jaheim Bell to carry the ball more after he showed flashes of being a change of pace in the backfield early in the year. Bell carried the bulk of the load in South Carolina’s win over Vanderbilt with 56 yards on 16 carries, but he was bottled up for 30 yards on 12 tries against Florida.

Christian Beal-Smith has been plagued by a foot injury all season, and he has primarily been the red-zone back with 5 touchdowns. Juju McDowell appeared to be a scatback option at the beginning of the season, but his sporadic play can be questioned. Beal-Smith has 146 yards rushing, and McDowell has 195 yards.

If Lloyd returns Saturday, the running game can reset itself. But it’s obvious that the Gamecocks need to develop another solid option. They are 11th in the conference in rushing, averaging 3.98 yards per carry and 127.40 per game.

On the other side of the ball, USC’s rush defense was virtually nonexistent against Florida.

The Gators ended their night with 372 yards on the ground and 6.9 yards per carry. Montrell Johnson Jr. grinded out 161 yards on 24 carries, and Trevor Etienne had 100 on 8 carries. Quarterback Anthony Richardson nearly reached the century mark with 96 yards on 15 carries.

Granted, Etienne had 85 of those yards on a burst down the sideline when he was arguably untouched.

That was embarrassing. Unfortunately, it has been part of a trend. With Satterfield being on the rotisserie most of the season, could there be room for White there as well? In White’s defense, his unit has battled through injuries all season. Yet the run defense has been an issue since Week 1.

Opponents have rushed for more than 200 yards in 4 of South Carolina’s 7 conference games, and Georgia State ran for 200 yards on 40 carries in the season opener. In fact, the Gamecocks gave up 200 yards or more in their first 3 games, with Arkansas accruing 295 and Georgia netting 208.

The Gamecocks are next to last in the SEC in rushing defense with 192 yards per game, ahead of only Texas A&M (220).They have allowed just 2 more yards passing per game. They have 16 sacks and 49 tackles for loss out of 206 total.

Tennessee will come into Columbia on Saturday night as the top offense in the conference, generating 543.7 yards per contest. They average 195.5 yards running the ball. Defensively, they have allowed 104.5 yards rushing per game.

After Saturday, the Gamecocks could find some solutions to 1 or both problems, or have more people looking over their shoulder with unanswered questions.