South Carolina will be playing its 30th game under head coach Will Muschamp on Saturday.
It has won 17 of the first 29. This one is the most important of them all. That may seem like hyperbole, but college football is a hyperbolic sport. What happened last week trumps what happened last year, etc., etc., and the next hill the Gamecocks must climb under Muschamp is against the Wildcats.
Kentucky has beaten South Carolina four times in a row, but that’s only part of the reason this is such a benchmark game. The bigger reason has to do with the progress or perceived progress of Muschamp’s program.