2005 South Carolina Gamecocks football team

2005 South Carolina Gamecocks football
2005 South Carolina Gamecocks football
Independence Bowl, L 31–38 vs. Missouri
Conference	Southeastern Conference
	Eastern Division
Record	7–5 (5–3 SEC)
Head coach	Steve Spurrier (1st season);
Defensive coordinator	Tyrone Nix (1st season)
Home stadium	Williams-Brice Stadium
	Seasons ← 2004 2006 →

2005 Southeastern Conference football standings
v t e
Team	W		L	W		L
Eastern Division
No. 10 Georgia x$	6	–	2	10	–	3
South Carolina	5	–	3	7	–	5
No. 12 Florida	5	–	3	9	–	3
Vanderbilt	3	–	5	5	–	6
Tennessee	3	–	5	5	–	6
Kentucky	2	–	6	3	–	8
Western Division
No. 5 LSU xy	7	–	1	11	–	2
No. 14 Auburn x	7	–	1	9	–	3
No. 8 Alabama	6	–	2	10	–	2
Arkansas	2	–	6	4	–	7
Mississippi State	1	–	7	3	–	8
Ole Miss	1	–	7	3	–	8
Championship: Georgia 34, LSU 14
$ – BCS representative as conference champion x – Division champion/co-champions y – Championship game participant Alabama had all victories vacated by the NCAA in 2010. As such, the official record for Alabama is 0–2 (0–2). Rankings from AP Poll

The 2005 South Carolina Gamecocks football team represented the University of South Carolina in the Southeastern Conference during the 2005 NCAA Division I-A football season. The Gamecocks were led by Steve Spurrier in his first season as USC head coach and played their home games in Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina. For leading the Gamecocks to a 5–3 conference record during his first year at South Carolina, Steve Spurrier was named SEC Coach of the Year.^[1]

Schedule

The September 1 game versus UCF played host to ESPN's College Gameday, the second year in a row that South Carolina had hosted the program. During the show, ESPN personality Lee Corso made disparaging remarks about the viability of the South Carolina football program which were met with derision by the Columbia crowd. In the 2005 season, the Gamecocks defeated Tennessee and Florida, two of the three teams Corso stated they could never beat.^[2]

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 1	7:30 pm	UCF*		Williams-Brice Stadium Columbia, South Carolina (College GameDay)	ESPN	W 24–15	82,753^[3]
September 10	5:30 pm	at No. 9 Georgia		Sanford Stadium Athens, Georgia (rivalry)	ESPN	L 15–17	92,476^[3]
September 17	3:30 pm	Alabama		Williams-Brice Stadium Columbia, South Carolina	CBS	L 14–37 ‡	82,968^[3]
September 24	7:00 pm	Troy*		Williams-Brice Stadium Columbia, South Carolina	PPV	W 45–20	79,125^[3]
October 1	7:00 pm	at Auburn		Jordan–Hare Stadium Auburn, Alabama	ESPN2	L 7–48	87,451^[3]
October 8	1:00 pm	Kentucky		Williams-Brice Stadium Columbia, South Carolina	PPV	W 44–16	71,009^[3]
October 22	3:30 pm	Vanderbilt		Williams-Brice Stadium Columbia, South Carolina	CSS	W 35–28	76,427^[3]
October 29	8:00 pm	at No. 23 Tennessee		Neyland Stadium Knoxville, Tennessee (rivalry)	ESPN2/CSS	W 16–15	107,716^[3]
November 5	12:30 pm	at Arkansas		Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium Fayetteville, Arkansas	JPS	W 14–10	65,837^[3]
November 12	12:30 pm	No. 12 Florida		Williams-Brice Stadium Columbia, South Carolina	JPS	W 30–22	83,421^[3]
November 19	7:00 pm	Clemson*	No. 19	Williams-Brice Stadium Columbia, South Carolina (Palmetto Bowl)	ESPN2	L 9–13	83,368^[3]
December 30	3:30 pm	vs. Missouri*		Independence Stadium Shreveport, Louisiana (Independence Bowl)	ESPN	L 31–38	41,332^[3]
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Eastern time

‡ As part of their penalty for NCAA violations, Alabama has retroactively vacated its 2005 victory over South Carolina. However, the penalty to vacate victories does not result in a loss (or forfeiture) of the affected game or award a victory to the opponent, therefore South Carolina still considers the game a loss in their official records.^[4]