What the Gamecocks said about trying to end losing streak to UK

The Gamecocks are entering Kentucky week, getting ready to play a SEC East that’s dominated the matchup against South Carolina for a half decade, so when Dawkins was asked a question about his memories of this series, all he could do was flash a little smile.

“Oh, man. Not good,” he said. “I don’t really like Kentucky. They’re a good team. Previously playing them, I don’t know. I don’t want to talk about that.”

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The Gamecocks are in the midst of their longest losing streak to the Wildcats, not having beaten them since 2013. Since then, they’ve lost five in a row, including two in Williams-Brice Stadium.

There have been the games South Carolina’s almost won—three games have been decided by seven points or less—and two games, like last year’s, where Kentucky’s dominated and won by two scores.

As the years have gone on, this game has quickly turned into an annual measuring stick game for South Carolina.

“It’s become a big game,” Donell Stanley said. “We want to beat them so bad. They’ve had our number the last few years but its’ a new year for us, a new year for them so we’ll see.”

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No player on the Gamecock roster has ever been on a team that’s beaten Kentucky, although Stanley came in the year after the streak started.

Heading into Saturday’s game—while the players know it’s a big game—there hasn’t been much talk of the streak, if any.

Like Dawkins, a lot of the players don’t want to talk about losing five in a row to Kentucky, and Jaycee Horn reiterated it’s not about the previous four years, it’s about the 2019 versions of each team.

But, while they’re not technically focused on ending a streak, the Gamecocks do come into Saturday’s game in desperate need of a win for other reasons.

They’re reeling right now after two losses and need something to go right heading into a bye week before facing two top 10 teams after it.

“I’m not worried about it; we’re not worried about it,” Ernest Jones said of the streak. “We have to win ourselves. This is a must-win game for us. We’re sitting at 1-3; this is not where we want to be. We just have to win this game that’s all it is. What happened in the previous times doesn’t come to my mind. I’m focused on getting this game this week, going into the bye and handling business with Georgia.”

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If the Gamecocks lose Saturday, it wouldn’t just make it six straight losses to Kentucky, a team that beat South Carolina seven times total between 1937-2013 but it’d put the Gamecocks at 1-4 with seven games to play.

That means the Gamecocks would nee to go 5-2 down the stretch to make a bowl game and would need to beat a team like Georgia, Clemson or Florida to do it.

So while they want to end the streak, they need to win the game for more big-picture reasons.

“They have beaten us, what four or five times in the past?” Jones said. “You don’t want to make that six…This has got to be our game.”