ECU to be a barometer of Gamecocks' strength

ECU will make its opponent earn it. 

ECU was barometer in Gamecocks' bad ol' days; Spurrier has changed that. Or has he? 

Remember when a win over East Carolina was significant for South Carolina.

But in the last two meetings SC has handled the Pirates. East Carolina is coming of of a 10-3 year an Spurrier calls the Pirates a “solid” team. Could losing today show that we;re back to those dark days of the Brad Scott era? No The gamecocks are far from that level of mediocrity.

The Pirates have been an opportunistic team in the past, and hungry to bully would-be power houses.

And South Carolina has had some poor coaching staff, that have been taken down by ECU.

On a heavy rain night in 1992, Spraky Wood's Gamecocks lost to ECU after Marty Simpson missed a late-game FG. The Gamecocks caught fire later that year after an almost-team revolt against Spraky. Gamecocks won five of the last six.

In 1994, the infamous Brad Scott's first year, the Pirates routed SC, 56-42. The Gamecocks later won its first bowl game with Steve Tanneyhill, versus WVU. East Carolina also beat Brad in 1996, beating him 23-7. You can also lay the Gamecocks' 21-3, 1999 loss to ECU on Brad, because he left USC decimated, and in disarray, before bolting to Clemson after 1998.

In 2011 and 2012 USC beat the Pirates rather easily, but the game in Charlotte, Conner Shaw's first start, looked about as bad as the Gamecocks' versus Texas A&M last Thursday.

Expect Spurrier to show how far USC has come. If he doesn't, something is wrong.