Ugly win over Vanderbilt could have set stage for poor game management against Missouri
Head coach Steve Spurrier deserves a lot of blame for Saturday's 21-20 loss to Missouri.
There's no reason why South Carolina shouldn't have attempted a two-point conversion after sophomore wide receiver Pharoh Cooper caught the touchdown that put the Gamecocks up 19-7 halfway through the fourth quarter.
This isn't me personally attacking the head ball coach or calling for his job, like some of the more irrational South Carolina fans have started doing.
This is me offering one explanation for what might have transpired, or not transpired, immediately following that score.
Traditionally, it's the head coach's responsibility to make major, game-altering decisions like a two-point conversion. It would be one thing if Spurrier had consciously decided to kick the extra point over the alternative.
But, by his own admission, going for two didn't even cross his mind.
"I messed up on the two-point conversion, should've gone for it," Spurrier said. "I wasn't even thinking about it until I looked up and saw it was 20-7."
There is a very real debate to be had about which scenario would be a worse look for Spurrier: had he weighed the pros and cons of going for two and decided against it, or his total lack of awareness that there was even a decision to be made.
That's a hypothetical discussion for another time. Might I suggest the offseason?
Regardless, there's a more pressing and extremely confusing detail of that point in the game that could affect the way the game is managed for South Carolina going forward this season.
Why didn't anyone on the sideline say something?
Of the 15 other coaches listed on the roster, none threw his hands up and posed the question, "Why on earth are we about to kick this extra point?"
Well, with the field goal unit belonging under the special teams umbrella, the first place I would think to point my finger is special teams coordinator Joe Robinson.
The coordinator of the same special teams unit that allowed two kick-off return touchdowns against Vanderbilt a week before, partially fueling Spurrier's now-infamous post-game tirade in Nashville.
"I'm taking over kick-off coverage. I told coach Joe Rob, I'm not going to watch them anymore," Spurrier said following the win over the Commodores. "It was sad. We just kept running right by the kick-off return guy and he just split us just about every time."
After already having been relieved of one of his duties, if I were Joe Robinson I wouldn't feel safe speaking up on that sideline a week later either.
None of this is to say that Saturday's loss is all Spurrier's fault or certainly all Robinson's fault. But there has to be an explanation for the coaching staff's complete lack of awareness in that specific situation while any number of fans on Twitter recognized, in real time, what should have been done.
This also, however, follows a pattern of poor game management from Spurrier.
In one of South Carolina's two losses last season, the head ball coach received the same backlash he's facing this week when he burned two unnecessary timeouts in the fourth quarter at Tennessee.
In that 23-21 loss to the Volunteers, Spurrier refused to consistently run the ball, even in obvious clock-burning situations when South Carolina had the lead.
The head-scratching tactics reached their zenith during a fourth down in which Spurrier looked inclined to go for it. He proceeded to use two of the Gamecocks' three timeouts before ultimately deciding to punt.
Tennessee marched down the field and scored, South Carolina powerless to stop the clock and leave itself time for a game-winning drive, and the Gamecocks lost.
Sorry to make everyone relive that.
But Spurrier pulled the same stunt again Saturday during Missouri's comeback, calling two timeouts with the Tigers on the goal line.
He won't get much flack for that, though, because Dylan Thompson couldn't orchestrate a completion — let alone a game-winning drive — when the Gamecocks got one last shot.
Despite South Carolina's ejection from the top-25 for the first time in 69 weeks, the Gamecocks' season is not over.
They have yet to surpass their loss total for each of the last three seasons, so the team could technically notch their fourth-straight 11-win season if everything is sunshine and daisies from here on out.
But that would take a minor miracle.
Trips to Auburn, Florida and Clemson still remain on the schedule.
So you have my permission to press the panic button all you want. Far be it from me to suggest anything better than at least one more loss this season.
But if you're a glass-half-full kind of person, I'll say this: the Gamecocks have had points like this in each of the last three seasons, in which all hope seemed to be lost. But in each of the last three seasons, South Carolina somehow finished 11-2.
So I'm telling you there's a chance.