For now, win No. 6 means everything
If the Will Muschamp era goes as planned, there will be a time when six wins and a bowl berth is almost assumed. When win No. 6 is expected around midseason and not in the final home game of the year. And when a sixth win is just a small goal, a stepping stone that's celebrated but expected.
But until then, in Year 1 of this rebuilding project that Muschamp has taken over, six wins isn't anything to take for granted.
ALSO SEE: The Insider Report - What's the latest on decommitment Javon Kinlaw? | Snap count - How many snaps did each Carolina player take? | Philly guard commits to Gamecocks
With a win in Saturday's home finale against Western Carolina, the Gamecocks will improve their record to 6-5 and become bowl eligible.
Here's a look at several reasons that's important:
Sign of progress - I said prior to the season that six wins was an attainable goal, but one that wouldn't be easy to achieve. South Carolina obviously won three games last season and then lost its two best players from that team, Pharoh Cooper and Skai Moore. With a win over Western Carolina on Saturday, Carolina will double its win total from last season and then have two shots at getting to seven wins. After the falloff the program experienced last year, any Carolina fan would have signed for that prior to this season. The Carolina coaches have preached to prospects that they can come in and play early and be a part of building a program. But prospects also want to see progress on the field and the perception that a program is on the rise can become the reality in the minds of prospects. Six wins and a bowl keeps the fan base and the prospects happy.
Extra practice - With bowl eligibility will also come extra practices, essentially another spring practice for one of the youngest teams in the country. That's invaluable. As Muschamp pointed out in his press conference this week, football is a development game and it's one that's hard to practice as an individual. To truly get better, players have to go practice and then go play. Getting to a bowl offers an opportunity for players to go practice about 15 more times and go play "in the arena," as Muschamp calls it, one more time. This might be the most valuable reason on this list.
Seniors go out on a positive note - There aren't many scholarship seniors on South Carolina's roster, but the ones who are left will have an opportunity to go out on a good note and erase some negative memories. When most of this class joined the program (other than former junior college standout Marquavius Lewis), the Gamecocks were operating in the height of the Steve Spurrier era in Columbia. There have surely been some dark times for a senior class that no doubt arrived with visions of more double digit-win seasons and has stuck it out through the lows as most of the class has moved on. Those players can finish on a positive note and help to lay the foundation for future Carolina teams as the upperclassmen have completely bought into what the new staff has been preaching and that no doubt trickles down to the younger players.
Setting a standard - For a program that struggled for so long to win its first bowl game, Carolina has been remarkably consistent in getting bowl eligible since the turn of the century. In that 16-year span, South Carolina has had only three seasons -- 2002, 2003 and 2015 -- that it wasn't bowl eligible (Carolina didn't go to a bowl in 2004 or 2007 either but it was eligible). If anything, the Gamecocks missing out on a bowl last season was an anomaly in the modern day trend of the program as it had simply become assumed that they would play an extra game. A bowl trip this season, regardless of where that bowl may be, is another sign that the three-win campaign was a minor blip on the radar and that the future standard for South Carolina is at least to go to a bowl --and articles like this one won't be applicable.
Never miss a moment with the GamecockCentral app: App Store - Google Play