Carolina, meet late-season implosion

Stop us if you’ve heard this before: the South Carolina football team will start off the season well, even jumping into the rankings. Gamecock fans, a group of which share delusion on par with Chicago Cubs supporters, will start contemplating challenging the Brahmans of the SEC East. Then, pfft. The bottom falls out.

This year, everything looked rosy for Carolina as it took its 6-2 record to the shithole known as Knoxville on Halloween. Oops. Tennessee quarterback Jonathan Crompton played like he was actually competent and USC returned to Columbia with a loss. But, hey, Arkansas can’t play defense, right? This’ll go well. Eh, not so much. The Gamecock defense was last seen milling around in a parking lot off of Rosewood. Because it surely did not make it to Fayetteville.

Certainly, it looked good for awhile. The teams went into halftime tied at 10. Carolina came out in the second half and the spastically-inconsistent USC quarterback Stephen Garcia nailed receiver Alshon Jeffery for perhaps the best play the Gamecock offense has put together all season. After that, a missed PAT and the Hogs took over. Arkansas scored 23 unanswered points to send Carolina to 6-4 and an increasingly likely date in the Liberty Bowl.

Really, what happened to the Carolina pass defense? All year, it was obvious you could run on USC, but passing would be a little tougher. Somebody forgot to tell that to Razorback quarterback Ryan Mallett, who went 23-of-27 for 329 yards. That’s an 85 percent completion percentage. Why even put defensive backs out there? And it doesn’t get any easier for the Gamecocks, who welcome Florida to town, next. Then it’s Clemson, and we get to hear more about how Tiger running back C.J. Spiller should win the Heisman, because being the only offensive weapon on a shitty team means you’re TEH BESTS, obviously.

Regardless, USC has become quite acquainted with the late-season flameout, so this year’s version shouldn’t be all that surprising.