I was contacted by Matt from Bowl Season, which is putting together information about each of this season's bowls, to talk about the Chick-fil-A Bowl matchup between USC and Florida St. Check out his site, which should be publishing our conversation in the coming days. Here's a quick preview:
BS: This is a monumental 9-4 season for the Gamecocks as they got to the SEC Championship Game. How important is it for South Carolina to win this game to avoid "just another 5 loss season" and get that elusive 10 win season?
On the one hand, the idea that a loss would mean that 2010 would be "just another 5 loss season" isn't exactly accurate. Let's say we lose. Will any reasonable South Carolina fan really look back and say that this season was no different than 2008 and 2009? I couldn't do that with a straight face. We might have five losses, but we'd also have nine wins and would have had to play in an extra game to get to five losses. Moreover, we'll always be able to look back at 2010 as a season where we handled many of the better teams we played. This hasn't been another season where we won our games against the OOC cupcakes, a couple of SEC bottom feeders, and maybe staged one nice upset. This year we did all of that plus a few more big wins. We also won a championship. Even with a loss in the bowl, I'll look back at this season as a milestone for Carolina football. A loss would be disappointing, certainly. In a season of milestones, it would be nice to add another couple of firsts by finally coming to play in the post-season and getting that tenth win. But a loss isn't going to make me seriously question this season's accomplishments.