With the Gamecocks not playing in the Gasparilla Bowl, the season is over and now it's time to take a deep breath and evaluate the good and the bad from the season.

GamecockCentral has handed out weekly report cards, and it's time now to hand out the end of the season report cards on the offensive and defensive side of the ball.

After doing the offense Thursday, next up is the defensive side of things.

Defensive line: C-

The line was very hit or miss, and was headlined by All-SEC defensive end JJ Enagbare, who was one of the pass rushers in the SEC this season with six sacks in eight games. Zacch Pickesn ended up fifth on the team in tackles, picking up 2.5 for loss, and Keir Thomas had a productive senior season as well.

As a unit, though, the Gamecocks struggled to stop the run with opponents averaging 4.9 yards per rush. As a unit it could have been much better but it wasn't all bad.

Linebackers: C+

Ernest Jones was incredibly productive, leading the team with 86 tackles and five for loss, but really struggled outside of that. Losing Sherrod Greene early, followed by Spencer Eason-Riddle and Brad Johnson didn't help, and thrusting Mohamed Kaba into the mix late as a freshman led to some growing pains that come with having to play freshmen early.

It's a group that, despite being down bodies, struggled and was middle of the road most of the season. Ernest Jones's performance is a big reason why the grade is so high.

With him leaving, this group is going to have to have a few returners step up and play better in 2021.

Secondary: D

What was a supposed strength of this group largely fell flat on its face in 2020. Jaycee Horn had a dominant day against Auburn with two picks in the upset and was good the remainder of the time he played, but things weren't good around him.

Jammie Robinson ended up with 74 tackles, second on the team, but the back end was one of the worst in the entire country in allowing big plays. They allowed 42 plays of 20-plus yards, ninth-highest in the entire country and second-worst in the league.

It's a group that, with two potential high-round picks in Horn and Israel Mukuamu, really struggled to live up to expectations in 2020.

Special teams: C+

Parker White ended his season 11-for-19 on field goals with different rough patches throughout the season, and Kai Kroeger started rough but ended up averaging 43.3 yards per punt and earned a spot on the SEC's all-freshman team.

The special teams unit did have a propensity for giving up big plays or making a few questionable decisions in terms of fielding punts or losing yards on returns. Mitch Jeter also had growing pains in his kickoff specialist role, kicking four out of bounds, but did kick over half of his 41 attempts (22) into the end zone.

Coaching: D

Will Muschamp and defensive coordinator Travaris Robinson had a reputation of a defensive guru and struggled to field a competent and consistent unit in year five of their tenures at South Carolina, and it was one of the more damning indictments of the regime.

Simply put, the defense should have been better at this point of the Muschamp era, and that's why the grade is so low.