The South Carolina football team lost 17-10 at home against Missouri Saturday night.
“We know we’re judged on wins and loses, but I want to say one thing: I’m proud of that team out there tonight; I’m proud of those players; I’m proud of those coaches,” interim head coach Mike Bobo said. “There was no quit.”
South Carolina got the ball to start the game but immediately was faced with offensive errors when a shovel pass by graduate quarterback Collin Hill resulted in a loss of yards.
"They slanted to the field and dropped off the end, and then Collin tried to pitch the shovel underneath, and it just, it bounced back to him," Bobo said.
Senior wide receiver Shi Smith went to the locker room early with an injury after his first catch of the night.
In the first quarter, the Gamecocks only put up 28 yards of total offense. Hill contributed for 21 of those yards after going 4-7.
Defensively, the Gamecocks gave up a 20-yard touchdown pass by Missouri quarterback Connor Bazelak to wide receiver Tauskie Dove.
The first turnover on the night came from an interception by Gamecock redshirt freshman defensive back Cam Smith with under five minutes left in the second quarter.
The Gamecocks couldn't get into field goal range with 68 yards of offense in the first half, while the Tigers put up 17 points and 212 yards of offense.
In the start of the second half, the Gamecocks saw positive plays from freshman quarterback Luke Doty.
Doty rushed for 19 yards and threw for nine on the first drive of the second half for South Carolina. The drive resulted in a 47-yard field goal, putting South Carolina on the board.
On the defensive side of the ball, South Carolina kept Missouri from scoring and continued to force punts. A sack for a seven yard loss by junior Kingsley Enagbare for South Carolina forced the Tigers to punt for the second time on their first two drives of the third quarter.
Doty found success on his feet after he escaped pressure twice on the same drive, running for a combined 21 yards. The drive resulted in a one-yard touchdown run by redshirt sophomore running back Deshaun Fenwick, putting the Gamecocks within one score from a tie with under five minutes left in the game.
"I thought as the game continued to go on, there started to be some belief that, hey, we can't do this," Bobo said. "We got to get to the point there's just belief, when you walk on the field, that you're going to find a way to get through adversity."
With two and a half minutes remaining in the game, the Gamecocks started their drive on the one-yard line with one timeout left. The Gamecocks were moving downfield, but with under a minute left in the game, Missouri sophomore linebacker Devin Nicholson intercepted a pass from Doty, allowing Missouri to run out the clock.
While South Carolina was unable to produce the points needed to win, defensively, they held Missouri to under 100 yards of offense, shutting them out in the second half.
The Gamecocks' next game is against Georgia Nov. 28. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m., and it will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
"Last opportunity for our seniors to play in Williams-Brice, and we're going to go to work and put ourselves in position to hopefully have a chance to win next weekend," Bobo said.