COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Arkansas (No. 18 BCS, No. 17 AP) showed South Carolina what a Southeastern Conference title contender should look like.

Ryan Mallett threw for 303 yards, Knile Davis tied a career high with three touchdowns and the Razorbacks (7-2, 4-2 SEC) handed South Carolina (No. 19 BCS, No. 18 AP) its worst home loss in five years, 41-20, on Saturday night.

Despite the hammering, the Gamecocks (6-3, 4-3 SEC) get a shot at the Eastern Division and their first spot in the league title game against Florida at The Swamp next Saturday night.

The surging Razorbacks? They're two games behind undefeated Auburn and needing a miracle to reach the top of the SEC West.

"Can't do nothing about it, we're from Arkansas, man," Mallett said. "If we played in the East, it'd be a different story I guess."

The SEC West is 15-2 against the East this season.

The Razorbacks scored on four of their five first-half possessions to lead 24-10 at the break, held Gamecocks star runner Marcus Lattimore to 30 yards and gained 140 yards rushing on the SEC's top defense against the run.

"We were just clicking on all cylinders," said Davis, who had 110 yards, including scoring runs of 2, 21 and 1 yard.

The Gamecocks hadn't been beaten this badly at Williams-Brice Stadium since a 37-14 win by Alabama in coach Steve Spurrier's debut season of 2005.

"We didn't have much tonight," Spurrier said. "The way we played, you wonder how we won six games already this year."

To make it seven, South Carolina will have to win at Florida where it's 0-12.

"The only thing we can do now is regroup, and try to improve and give ourselves a chance to win next week," Spurrier said.

Arkansas brought the country's second-best air attack and the league's top passer in Mallett into Williams-Brice. The Razorbacks were missing injured receiver Greg Childs, out for the season with a knee injury, but it didn't slow down Mallett. He got things started with a 4-yard TD pass to Cobi Hamilton, who moved into Childs' spot and caught seven passes for 111 yards.