re: What went wrong with South Carolina this year?

Spurrier may have been resting a little on his laurels from the past few seasons where USCe had double digit wins. USCe also finished in the top five last season, ahead of Bama (at #7). That led to an inflated position in the preseason poll for the Cocks. Spurrier taking jabs about not working as hard as coaches like Saban are comments that, in hindsight, he probably wishes he could have back.

Just a classic case of preseason polls being a crapshoot, sometimes. That, and USCe imploded late in several games.