Let's talk about Saturday's football game.
It was the worst loss for the Gamecocks since the 2010 SEC Championship game, when Cam Newton secured his Heisman Trophy in a dominating performance. The game has many on our staff down on the Gamecocks season and the team in general.
The team has no stars or central leaders. There are stirrings of public conflict between players and ball coach Steve Spurrier, whose legendary brilliance may be slightly dulled by time.
This resulted in an unnervingly close win and an unexpected loss before the debacle in Athens. The dominance of teams past seems to be gone, for now. Welcome to the new normal.
To be fair to the team, this will almost assuredly get better in future seasons. The team is young and inexperienced, and time will partially rectify this. But in the meantime, students will need to adjust to the new reality.
It's perfectly reasonable to get upset by losses — it shows you care about the team. But excessively dwelling on them does no one any good, and may even compound the trust and leadership problems on the team itself if enough of the student body gets negative.
Instead, the fans will need to adjust to viewing victory as less than guaranteed. Losses will come, inevitably, but keeping a positive attitude is essential. Focus on the games we can still win, not the bitter losses, and if we keep losing? Keep celebrating our team anyway.
Gamecocks will need to support their team, because school spirit means more than a SEC championship. At the end of the day, they’re still our team, and they deserve a positive, enthusiastic student section — even if we've fallen from greatness.