Bulldogs put half-a-hundred on Gamecocks

The 2014 football  season for the University of South Carolina was a disaster compared to the three consecutive 11-win seasons before. Three total collapses by the USC defense resulted in a 7-5 season, in 2014, and a return to a place in college football Gamecock fans did not want to re-visit.

As USC squandered double-digit leads, late in the fourth-quarter to Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee, it was obvious there were some major problems on defense.

Fans clamored for changes on the defensive coaching staff. Even Head Coach Steve Spurrier indicated that there could be changes in the defensive coaching staff. But with the end of the season, and a bowl win, the Gamecocks held pat. The whole defensive staff, that had fielded a very inept defense, was kept.

Spurrier put all of his eggs, and a lot cache as a winner, into the basket that adding Jon Hoke as a defensive coach would solve all the problems.

So far this season, with a home loss to Kentucky and being embarrassed by Georgia, 52-20 Saturday, on the road, Spurrier’s failure to make changes looks like a big mistake. The same problems are evident. The USC defense is just as bad, if not worse, than in 2014.

Spurrier has built a lot of credit for himself at USC, but unless the Gamecocks turn it around, much of the trust USC fans have in him could begin to evaporate.

Is a turnaround possible for this year? Of course it is. But if things don’t get any better, Spurrier could have his worst year as a college coach, ever.

And what many fans will be asking; could this disaster have been avoided, if Spurrier would have put the team before personal relationships?  Or is it a case of refusing to admit poor choices in hiring coaches?

Spurrier will be hailed as great – and rightly so- regardless of what happens the rest of his career at USC. But is a nosedive in 2015 something that should have been identified beforehand, and addressed in the off-season? And is it something that will cause a lot of anxiety that Spurrier could have avoided?