What to make of South Carolina Gamecocks entering second bye week

After a huge road victory over the Oklahoma Sooners, the South Carolina Gamecocks will enter into their second bye week with a record of 4-3 (2-3 SEC) and a lot of winnable games left on the schedule.

Fresh off its 35-9 victory over Oklahoma, South Carolina will go into its second open week before the final five games of the season. That closing stretch includes matchups against Texas A&M, Missouri and Clemson, all ranked inside the top 20.

As previously mentioned, South Carolina has suffered two crushing losses against LSU (36-33) and Alabama (27-25). The game against LSU stings a bit more because the Gamecocks were leading 17-0 at one point. South Carolina feels like it is right on the doorstep of national relevancy because of these two showings against two of the SEC's best teams.

So, what exactly do we make of the Gamecocks? The true marquee wins so far this season were in Week 2 on the road against Kentucky and Saturday on the road against Oklahoma, but it feels that the college football world knows that this team is capable of beating anyone, and that is strictly because of the incredible South Carolina defense.

The uni ranks second in college football in sacks per game (4.0), 12th in yards per game allowed (298.3) and 10th in takeaways per game (2.3)

Against Oklahoma on Saturday, the South Carolina defense racked up nine sacks, making it the fourth time this season that the Gamecocks have collected four or more sacks in a game.