By BJ Bennett
SouthernPigskin.com

Follow us at Twitter.com/SouthernPigskin.  Become a fan at the SouthernPigskin.com Facebook Page

Albeit without the hype and national attention of a traditional divisional title bout, the stage is now set. An SEC Championship Game play-in contest awaits in Gainesville.

Saturday’s clash at Florida for South Carolina will the type of game, opportunity rather, where hours can overshadow years. The objective is a simple one; beat the Gators and the Gamecocks will advance to the SEC Championship Game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. A victory would make the Gamecocks the first of the non-big three programs to advance to the title bout. Since the game’s inception in 1992, only Florida, Georgia and Tennessee have made it from the SEC East. For years South Carolina has tried to break that mold. To do it, they will have to beat the team with the coach who helped set it.

South Carolina can change the heirarchy of one of college football’s proudest divisions, along with the national perception of their historically downtrodden program, with a bid.

It’s already been a banner year for the Gamecocks. In week two, they defeated divisional rival Georgia behind a record 37 rushing attempts from true freshman tailback Marcus Lattimore. Three games later, history was made as South Carolina beat a top-ranked team for the first time in school history. With defending national champion Alabama in Columbia, quarterback Stephen Garcia threw three touchdown passes as USC celebrated a milestone 35-21 triumph.

“I think that this game was meant to be,” head coach Steve Spurrier said, perhaps hinting at the fact that this could be a special season for his Gamecocks.

With Florida rebulding, Georgia implementing major structural changes and Tennessee reeling after the brief Lane Kiffin era, August optimism was at an all-time high for South Carolina. A 4-1 start proved to be on-field justification for the excitement. After the Alabama win, fans and media started to wonder; could this team win the vaunted SEC East and make their first-ever SEC Championship Game?

In a classic trap game on the road at Kentucky, the answer didn’t seem quite as obvious. The Gamecocks fumbled a considerable halftime lead to lose 31-28 and seemingly surrender much of the momentum gained from toppling the Crimson Tide. Consecutive division wins over Vanderbilt and Tennessee advanced South Carolina to 6-2, however, and, combined with a mid-season slide by Florida, pointed to a potential date in December that Carolina fans had long dreamed about.

A disappointing home thumping at the hands of Arkansas has taken some of the national appeal off of Saturday’s game with 22nd ranked Florida. In that game, USC allowed 41 points and struggled to slow a Razorback rushing back that normally is nothing more than an offensive compliment to Ryan Mallett. The Gamecocks were beaten up and banged up at the line of scrimmage, getting down early in perhaps their worst performance of the season.

For fans, it was a frustrating showing against a good opponent. For critics, it was a sign South Carolina was starting to crack, fade during the stretch run as many predicted they would weeks ago.

“The only thing we can do now is regroup, and try to improve and give ourselves a chance to win next week,” Spurrier concluded.

The wide-ranging signficance is not lost on the current players, none of whom have experienced the low points that for so long defined this football program. Underclassmen like Lattimore, receiver Alshon Jeffery and cornerback Stephon Gilmore came to USC to contend in the SEC.

“It’s going to be real fun, this is what I came here for, to play on the big stage in front of crazy fans,” Lattimore, the team’s freshman sensation at tailback, explained. “It’s going to be real fun and a great experience.”

For Spurrier, this is a chance to further his legacy, to accomplish a feat many wondered if he ever could when he came to Columbia. He won six SEC Championships as head football coach at UF and has begun a grandscale transformation of the South Carolina program. Two years before he arrived, the Gamecocks were coming off consecutive losing seasons. Three years before that, they went 0-11.

Saturday, USC fans hope, is a chance to make those years distant memories, an opportunity to celebrate a new era in this program’s history.

“Obviously it’s a big game coming up for us and for Florida. At the beginning of the season one of our goals was to win the eastern division. I’m sure Florida had the same goal. We feel fortunate to be in the final game. We haven’t played extremely well lately, but our record is the same as Florida. The winner will be the champion and go to Atlanta to represent the East and have a shot at the SEC,” Spurrier stated. “We’re excited in this position. We haven’t been in this position until this year. We’ll see what we can do”.

Albeit without the hype and national attention of a traditional divisional title bout, the stage is now set. An SEC Championship Game play-in contest awaits in Gainesville. More than erasing the memory of last week’s letdown, a win would make decades worth of struggles seem like the starting point in the development of a rising program, not the unfortunate norm of one of college football’s sleeping giants.