" ... He's not perfect but he deserves the chance to right the ship after 1 subpar year,"
That's the nexus of the angst some people (fans?) have been expressing ... "subpar" by what standard? By his own 'standard' that's what standard.
SOS took over 10-years ago and promptly won 84 games during the decade. In the three seasons immediately prior to Spurrier's arrival our Gamecocks won 5, 5 and 6 games, culminating with a butt-whipping by Clemson and a 15-minute brawl (which, it could be argued - we also lost). '98's 1-10 and '99's 0-11 were (thankfully) becoming just bad memories - but the heady days of Top 25 rankings in 2000 and 2001 were just memories, too.
We were in bad, Bad, BAD shape.
What happened?
We won TWO, then THREE then FOUR!!! SEC games in a row ... not just 'games' but CONFERENCE games!
We beat Florida, then Tennessee (in KNOXVILLE!) ... INCREDIBLE!
We won NINE, THEN TEN, THEN ELEVEN!!! games in ONE SEASON! We did it THREE YEARS IN A ROW!
We beat Clemson FIVE YEARS IN A ROW!
We became 'winners'.
We didn't (and DON'T) fear anyone anymore.
THAT is ALL 'Spurrier".
In the 20-years immediately preceding his arrival we beat Clemson a total of FIVE times! In TWENTY years. In the decade since SOS became the HBC we've won SIX!
Good Lord, I don't get it how anyone can question Spurrier's performance at South Carolina. If you ask any other SEC coach what they 'think' they'll tell you it's been a dang miracle.
I've been around long enough to know this ... it's been a heckava' lot more comforting having him on OUR sideline than bringing one of his old 'Gator squads into Wille-B to lay 50+ on us.