CHRONICLE SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

South Carolina is limping into Saturday’s contest at College Station, Texas after suffering arguably the worst loss of the Will Muschamp era, 20-15 to Appalachian State.

The Gamecocks’ offense has little to no life without wide receiver Bryan Edwards on the field. Even with him, they seem unable to do anything to stretch the field with big plays.

The loss to Appalachian State itself should be upsetting to Gamecock supporters. Even more painful was the realization South Carolina at no point looked like the better team.

The season winds down to the last 2 weeks, which are anything but a cake walk. South Carolina travels first to take on a team in the Texas A&M Aggies it has never beaten.

The Gamecocks opened as a double digit underdog. If they are a “1-pitch team”, as Muschamp described after the game Saturday, fans are in danger of enduring another painful loss.

Running the ball is paramount to the success of this offense. However, an offensive line that has seen 9 different starters and multiple running backs injured has impeded the running game. This has forced quarterback Ryan Hilinski to throw the football upwards of 50 times per game the last 3 weeks.

Defensively, the Gamecocks will see quarterback Kellen Mond who has rounded into a better down-field passer. This secondary, which got burned at Tennessee, can’t afford to give up the deep shots.

South Carolina will need to turn this into a defensive slugfest to get the upset. If the Gamecocks lose, they will miss the postseason for the 1st time since 2015. The game will air at 7:30 pm Saturday on the SEC Network and can be heard on radio at WNKT (107.5 FM) or the TuneIN Radio phone app.