Uninspiring

South Carolina needed a touchdown with less than two minutes remaining in the game to put away pesky Division I-AA Wofford 23-13 Saturday night in Columbia, another underwhelming outing for the Shamecocks that was dominated by inconsistent quarterback play, multiple turnovers and ultra-conservative play calling.

Seriously, how bad does a team have to get before the Southeastern Conference decides to pull the plug?

South Carolina has lost two years in a row to Vanderbilt and struggled two out of the last three years to beat Wofford, hardly the level of achievement Gamecock fans expected in the fourth year of head coach Steve Spurrier’s tenure.

Oh well, at least there were a lot of first downs to celebrate.

Gamecock starter Chris Smelley completed 23 of 32 passes for 202 yards and a touchdown against the Terriers, but he also threw two interceptions and fumbled once. South Carolina (2-2, 0-2 SEC) had a decent ground game for a change with three different backs picking up 50 yards, but that’s only impressive until you remember we were playing friggin’ Wofford.

For their part, the undersized and out-manned Terriers showed a lot of “moxie,” which in the event you went to a public school in South Carolina means “energy,” or “pep.”

Wofford put together several impressive scoring drives led by quarterback Ben Widmyer, who darted through the Gamecock defense for a fifty-yard touchdown scamper in the first half that gave the Terriers an early 7-3 lead.

Widmyer finished the night with 100 yards passing and 59 yards on the ground running Wofford’s misdirection rushing attack.

Basically, this game was supposed to serve as a confidence booster for Carolina after consecutive SEC losses, but the Gamecocks certainly didn’t exude much in the way of confidence.

They get the University of Alabama-Birmingham next week before entering a grueling six-game SEC stretch that includes games against LSU and Florida.

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