In the months leading up to the 2015 college football season, Steve Spurrier insisted South Carolina's 7-6 record last year was an aberration and that the Gamecocks would better resemble the three preceding teams that produced 11-win seasons.
Spurrier, of course, never saw that through, abruptly resigning after a 2-4 start.
SEC logoSEC schedule
SaturdayNoon: Florida Atlantic at Florida, SEC NetworkNoon: The Citadel at S. Carolina, SEC Network Alt.3:30: LSU at Ole Miss, CBS4: Charleston Sou. at Alabama, SEC Network4: Idaho at Auburn, SEC Network Alt.7: Mississippi State at Arkansas, ESPN7: Ga. Southern at Georgia, ESPNU7:15: Tennessee at Missouri, ESPN27:30: Texas A&M at Vanderbilt, SEC Network7:30: Charlotte at Kentucky, SEC Network Alt.
The Gamecocks have gone on to lose three of four games under interim coach Shawn Elliott and are now 3-7, assuring the program of its first losing season since Lou Holtz had consecutive 5-7 records in 2002 and 2003. Was the outspoken Spurrier taking a break from reality this summer?
"We lost some pretty good players a year ago, and we weren't very good defensively," Elliott said in a news conference following Saturday's 24-14 loss to Florida. "We brought in a couple of defensive players, but to sit there in August and say we're going to make a run at the SEC championship - realistically, I don't think we had the horses to make that kind of run.
"We've got good players, but we've got to get better players, and we've got to do a better job of coaching to get back to those 10- and 11-win seasons."
The Gamecocks opened this year with a 17-13 triumph over North Carolina in Charlotte, which now looks like the biggest win for any SEC team over a nonconference foe.
South Carolina should get a fourth victory this weekend against The Citadel, an in-state program having an excellent season in the Championship Subdivision. Then it's the season finale against Clemson, the No. 1-ranked team in the country.
The Gamecocks had been bowl-eligible for 11 straight seasons, but now it's the old adage of playing for pride.
"I feel like we'll respond well," junior receiver Pharoh Cooper said. "In these last three or four games, we've come out and played with a lot of energy and fire. It seems to come down to the last play or the last quarter, and we can't finish."
Said junior linebacker Skai Moore: "You've got to keep playing for your brother. That's what we've got now. You've got to play for the name on your back and play for your brother and just keep fighting."
South Carolina's first game with Elliott in charge was a 19-10 victory over Vanderbilt on Oct. 17. The Gamecocks then had their lone open date of the season before suffering close losses to Texas A&M (35-28), Tennessee (27-24) and Florida.
The Gators led the Gamecocks 17-0 through three quarters this past weekend, holding South Carolina to 44 yards, but Cooper threw and caught fourth-quarter touchdowns to make it 17-14 with just under five minutes to play.
South Carolina has been more competitive this season since Elliott took over - the Gamecocks lost at Georgia 52-20 in September and suffered double-digit setbacks to Missouri and LSU last month - but the program's 1-7 league mark is the worst since Holtz's first team went 0-8 in 1999.
"I don't know if you set out to put a particular stamp on the program, but you like for your team to take on your personality, so to speak," Elliott said. "My personality is a physical, fun type of guy that goes out there and lays it on the line no matter what the situation is. I want a team that loves one another and fights for one another, and I think in our games that you can see the fight and the love we have for one another.
"If you can call that the stamp I'm putting on it, then go ahead, but that's what we're trying to do."
South Carolina's biggest issue hasn't been finishing games but rather starting them. In their six games against SEC East foes, the Gamecocks scored just 19 points in the first quarters and 20 in the second quarters.
"When you're missing assignments and not running the right play that's called, that tends to eliminate the points being put up on the board," Elliott said.
Elliott's hopes of removing the interim tag from his title likely have come and gone. The last coach from a major conference to earn a head-coaching job after being handed the reins midway through the year was Clemson's Dabo Swinney in 2008.
Defeating Swinney and the Tigers on Nov. 28 would erase a lot of frustrating memories that this season has produced for the Gamecocks, but that is a sizable task.
"These guys want to make this season, with everything that's gone on, as memorable as they can," Elliott said. "They are strong-willed individuals."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.