JD PicKell: How South Carolina can avoid losing confidence after slow start

Few coaches in the country had their fanbases as fired up going into Year 2 of their tenures as South Carolina‘s Shane Beamer. But is South Carolina losing confidence after a slow start?

More importantly, if they haven’t already, can the Gamecocks avoid that going forward?

That was a question that On3 analyst JD PicKell openly pondered on the air on Wednesday on The Hard Count with JD PicKell.

“It would be very easy right now to sit here at 1-2 and just crumble, especially in the way that you lost some of these games,” PicKell said. “Georgia took it to you. Arkansas took it to you. It would be very easy to lose your confidence right now.

“And so the challenge for South Carolina is not to overreact in terms of what those losses mean and then also to just sort of maintain their composure.”

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The good news for the Gamecocks is Beamer should get ample time to right the ship and steady things over the next couple weeks. South Carolina is set to play host to Charlotte Saturday night before hosting South Carolina State the following week.

Rough start not a death sentence for Gamecocks

Though South Carolina is currently sub-.500 that shouldn’t last for long. The next two opponents should be relatively easy wins.

Then there’s a matchup that will tell fans a ton about just how focused on Beamer’s message the players are. Maybe even how likely he is to succeed over the long haul.

“Got a lot of football left,” PicKell said. “They play Charlotte next. They play South Carolina State the week after. Then they go to Kentucky.

“The game at Kroger Field, in my opinion, will be the game that tells us the most about this South Carolina team. Because they played two teams in the early going that really just dominate the line of scrimmage, a place where South Carolina has struggled, to say the least, in the early going. When they play Kentucky, I think that’s going to be the best litmus test for us in terms of how far along this program is and how they can bounce back from these losses.”

Cupcake blowouts could keep South Carolina from losing confidence

Nothing is soup for the college football soul quite like piling up huge numbers against inferior opponents. Quarterback Spencer Rattler simply has to get going for South Carolina, and the next two weeks are a good time to start.

Rattler has thrown five interceptions to just two touchdowns in his first three starts with the Gamecocks.

“You’ve got your two tune-up games now, or what should be tune-up games in Charlotte and South Carolina State,” PicKell said. “No disrespect. This should be the two-game stretch where you can catch your breath, hold your water, reassess, find what works, and then when you go to play Kentucky that’s when you’ve got to be firing on all cylinders.”

For now the Gamecocks haven’t given any sort of indication they might turn to backup quarterback Luke Doty, though he did play in relief of Rattler late in the Georgia blowout.

Bottom line: South Carolina has to get things together the next two weeks. Rattler included.

“By the Kentucky game, going into that bye week (after), there can’t be too much mixing and matching,” PicKell said. “It’s got to be, ‘We have this plan, we have this identity, we’re going to go forward.’ Obviously week to week gameplan is going to change, but I think the reassessing needs to happen in these next three weeks. Even two is a better timeline to give you.”