re: Pivotal games in your program's history and why?

There are a couple.

2010 @ UF. Secured our 1st SEC East title. Proved that we were no longer the Gamecocks of old

For the worse was our 56-20 beat down on Clemson in 1975.

I wasn't alive then but I've heard that the Clemson supporters had a "never again" attitude and really amped up their program and their resources to get ahead of us. And they succeeded going 22-7-1 vs us over the next 30 years. Only recently have we countered that under Spurrier and ADs Hyman / Tanner.