When Steve Spurrier accepted the head coaching job at South Carolina shortly after the conclusion of the 2004 season, he was already established as a Hall of Fame caliber coach based on his unprecedented success at Florida in the 1990s.

Almost eight years later, Spurrier's legendary status has only been enhanced by his accomplishments with the Gamecocks, compiling a 55-35 record in seven seasons, putting him nine victories short of Rex Enright's school record of 64 for most career coaching wins.

So, if USC reaches double-digit wins for the second consecutive time by the end of the 2012 campaign, Spurrier would stand alone as the most successful coach in school history.

His recent success (20-7 record in past two years; SEC East title in 2010) at USC has attracted praise from national college analysts such as Ivan Maisel of ESPN.com, although reaching the upper echelon of the SEC required a lot of patience, pain, persistence and perseverance in Spurrier's initial years in Columbia.

"I was surprised it took him as long as it did to get to a consistently winning level to where the Gamecocks are now," Maisel told 107.5 FM The Game during SEC Media Days last week. "Yet, it's a tribute to him that he built it because it's not like Gainesville and you don't have the same resources. You just don't have the volume of players in the state of South Carolina that you have in Florida.

"The fact he has stuck with it and gotten to this level is a tribute to him. He didn't need any verification as to how good of a coach he is, but the fact he's done it at South Carolina is tremendous."

Some analysts point to the fall of Florida and Tennessee as a principal reason for USC's leap up the conference ladder. Maisel, though, isn't so sure.

"It's sort of a chicken-and-egg thing," Maisel said. "I don't think South Carolina got as good as they are now because Florida and Tennessee are not as good. South Carolina got better and took advantage of the fact that those other teams are not as good. Spurrier has been able to crack the code in Columbia, which is something everybody wondered could be done.

"With all the resources that are there, the passionate fan support and their proven ability to show up no matter what, Spurrier took those resources and he's really developed them."

Spurrier has also altered his offensive philosophy to squarely fit the talents of the Gamecocks. Even though he has a reputation as a pass-happy offensive mind, Spurrier has relied mainly on a solid running game and a stout defense to win football games over the past two seasons.

"The defense has been great fun to watch," Maisel said. "It's a tribute to the guys he's had running the defense. The bottom line is how do we win? It doesn't matter how, as long as we win."

ESPN analyst Matt Stinchcomb, a former Georgia offensive lineman, predicts USC will again achieve the 10-win plateau, and could zip through the regular season unscathed except for a single loss.

"LSU is probably the one you would circle," Stinchcomb said. "They have a difficult schedule to be sure. They have to play three teams in 15 days and they just happen to be Georgia, LSU and Florida. And the last two games are on the road. That can be a real daunting task."

However, Stinchcomb paints a rosy picture for the Gamecocks based on the potential of the hard-hitting USC defense to match the performance of last year's unit that finished third nationally in total defense behind Alabama and LSU.

"If the defense continues to be what it was under Ellis Johnson and Coach (Lorenzo) Ward finds a way in a year when the secondary lost some tremendous talent like Stephon Gilmore, a lot of their fortunes will hinge on that," Stinchcomb said. "A lot has been said of (Marcus) Lattimore's knee, but I understand he will be fine. They also have Brandon Wilds and Kenny Miles. Granted, they're not Marcus Lattimore. But he wasn't available for the last six games, yet somehow or another they got it done."

Stinchcomb credits Spurrier with deftly guiding USC through the adversity of Lattimore's injury towards setting a school record for wins in a single season.

"In my opinion, this was Spurrier's finest coaching job, maybe ever," Stinchcomb said. "Were it not for some misfortune in scheduling and not being able to get off the field on third down against Auburn on a couple of occasions, they would have probably represented the East (in the SEC title game). The prospects of South Carolina duplicating last season's success are pretty good."

By remaining productive running the football after Lattimore's injury, Stinchcomb agrees the USC offense might have jumped over a significant psychological hurdle that appeared to shackle the Gamecocks in 2010.

"When you look at elite football teams, they're not dependent on a singular player," Stinchcomb said. "South Carolina proved they could win football games without Marcus Lattimore. Look at last year. Alshon Jeffery had a fraction of his production from the year before, Marcus Lattimore was on the sidelines with an ACL and the starting quarterback wasn't there. How were they going to move the football?

"We saw what the coaching staff was able to do. They plugged in Connor Shaw, some other running backs and still they were able to win 11 football games and finish in the top 10 for the first time in school history. That's remarkable. They became something they had to and it still worked. It's not often you can do that, even over the course of an offseason, much less during the season."

Stinchcomb, who played five years in the NFL, battled John Abraham when the former USC defensive end great was a freshman in 1996. He sees many of the same exceptional qualities in sophomore defensive end Jadeveon Clowney that he saw 16 years ago with Abraham.

"I gave up two sacks inside of four or five plays late in the game (to Abraham) and I remember thinking this game isn't over and this freshman whom I had never heard of was embarrassing the crap out of me," Stinchcomb said. "With Clowney, you don't know what he's capable of doing. He had eight sacks last year. He probably played half the snaps he could have or should have had he lined up right all the time.

"When he finally understands what he's supposed to be doing in the defense, what's he going to look like? A lot of times last season it looked like he was freelancing a little bit. It didn't play into the scheme, yet he was able to make a play. It was sort of like the Lawrence Taylor Effect. With a year under his belt, with the talent he has and with Devin Taylor on the other side, all that does is play to his strength and allow one or both of them to have an unbelievable year."