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In this feature, columnist Scott Davis, who has followed USC sports for more than 30 years, provides readers with a humorous view of being a Gamecocks fan.

We should have known the apocalypse was coming.

Snow on the ground? In Columbia, South Carolina? In November? Like, the day after Halloween? Seriously?

Seriously.

That can't happen, can it? Not in real life. Well, it did happen. And that's why we should have all known that the impossible was indeed possible. At the sign of the first snowflake, we should have known that doom was approaching.

Winter is coming for Gamecock football.

Yet here it was: Full-blown football weather in Columbia, with 25-mph winds, icy temperatures and heaters on the sidelines. As I watched from home, wrapped in flannel pajamas and a blanket and hugging my Golden Retriever for warmth, I saw fans of all ages wearing hoodie sweatshirts, scarves, gloves and other types of clothing more typically associated with Green Bay Packer games. Was this really my stadium and my fans?

Apparently it was. The world was turned upside down on Saturday night, and so was our season.

Against all odds, the Gamecocks managed to lose a football game at home in which they led by two touchdowns with less than two minutes remaining. This loss was so farfetched that even a Hollywood scriptwriter would have rejected it as ridiculous. It would never happen. It COULD not happen. But somehow, it did.

And it featured all the same beats we've come to know and hate this season: A phenomenal offensive performance by the Gamecocks, squandered by a defense that couldn't tackle Paula Deen right now. Inexplicable offensive futility at the end of the game, when a mere first down would have closed out the opponent for good. A head-scratching interception at exactly the wrong time. Visor-throwing. Missed field goals even though we never miss field goals. An offensive line touted all season long as the strength of the team suddenly looking like matadors waving a cape to try to stop charging bulls. Fans leaving early because they thought the game was a wrap, only to get to the car just in time to hear the heartbreak on the radio.

Yep, this one had it all. South Carolina Football: Where Miracles Happen!* (*Disclaimer: Please be advised those miracles involve your team losing in seemingly impossible ways. Side effects may include heart failure, night sweats, sudden fits of sobbing, loss of the will to live, and the eating of entire bags of Doritos at 4 a.m.).

Watching the carnage unfold on television amidst a backdrop of swirling winds and frostbitten fans, I couldn't help but be reminded of the Disney movie "Frozen."

Every parent with children younger than 10 already knows this story by heart. Princess sisters Elsa and Anna are estranged due to Elsa's inability to control her magical powers that produce ice and snow. Eventually, Elsa inadvertently casts the entire kingdom into an eternal winter, and only an act of true love can break the spell. (By the way, if you're a middle-aged guy like me, please don't act like you're not familiar with "Frozen." You know you are. If you even know someone who knows someone who has kids, you know this story).

Let there be no doubt: We're in eternal winter right now. The question is whether or not our fans can deliver an act of true love to help this team finish out the season.

And if I'm being honest, I'll admit I'm not feeling a whole lot of true love for Gamecock football right this second. I don't mind saying it: Barring an unexpected win on the road at Florida or Clemson, this will go down as the most disappointing South Carolina football season of my lifetime.

"Whaaaaaat?," you're probably gasping. More disappointing than that winless season under Lou Holtz? What about that 1-10 campaign with Brad Scott? Are you forgetting the 5-6 year that came just after the glorious Black Magic season in the '80s?

Yeah, I remember all of those. This one's worse.

Here's why: Those teams had virtually zero expectations attached to them. They weren't coming off three consecutive 11-win seasons. They weren't picked to win the SEC East, as these Gamecocks were by the press at SEC Media Days in July. They weren't ranked ninth in the country by the preseason polls (NINTH! We were ranked ninth at one point this year! This actually happened in the United States of America!).

You may have forgotten this (and I almost did myself), but just over two months ago, pretty much everyone in America expected this South Carolina team to compete for a conference title and possibly even work its way into the playoff mix by year's end. You just couldn't find an ESPN analyst or sportswriter who wasn't in love with the 2014 Gamecocks before the team actually got on the field and tried to play football.

I can still picture the guys on the SEC Network yukking it up around a table before our game against Texas A&M, talking about how it was just about an impossible task for the Aggies to come into "this incredible atmosphere" and win a game against a South Carolina team that had the nation's longest home winning streak. Just in case you didn't remember, A&M beat us by more than three touchdowns that night, hasn't won too many times since, and almost lost at home to Louisiana-Monroe this weekend.

It's one thing to go 1-10 with Brad Scott as your head coach. Heck, you could even argue that finishing 1-10 under Scott was an overachievement. But to be staring down the barrel of a losing season and no bowl game under Steve Freaking Spurrier, in his 10th year heading the program? That's a problem.

And it's not just that we're 4-5 and a whisker away from being bowl ineligible. It's that we're actually inventing new and previously unheard of ways to lose football games.

I thought the Missouri loss was gut-wrenching. Then the Kentucky game happened, and I realized I didn't even know the meaning of the term "gut-wrenching." Then we frittered away a lead on the road against one of the best teams in America in Auburn.

After week upon week of despair, I thought I'd seen it all in 2014.

But those were mere appetizers for the full-on seven-course tasting menu of torture that this game provided. Even though we were 4-4 coming into the game, and even though we weren't battling for a conference championship or even a New Year's Day bowl berth, and even though there were really no stakes involved, this loss hurt my feelings more than just about any I can remember since Clemson hung 63 points on the Williams-Brice scoreboard in 2003.

I was mildly angry after the Mizzou, Kentucky and Auburn games. But I wasn't angry after this one. I was sad. It felt like the end of something.

What was particularly upsetting was that I could feel it happening. I knew it was coming, even though it may have seemed to the untrained eye that we'd officially put the game out of reach (after all, most teams who have a two-touchdown lead with less than two minutes left go on to win the game approximately 1,000,000% of the time).

You knew it was coming, every time they kept flashing that "Tennessee: Hasn't Won in Columbia Since 2006" graphic. Or when they flashed that "South Carolina: Lost Two OT Games in History, Both to Tennessee" graphic. Or when they flashed the graphic that showed we had over 600 yards of total offense and still had fewer total yards than the Vols. Look, it was a rough night for graphics all the way around.

And now, eternal winter is here, friends. It is here and it is all around us. Do we still have enough true love to break the spell?

I'm not sure, and since it's hard to feel the love right now, let's just hand out our Game Balls of the Week, which I'm officially renaming the Pharoh Cooper Large Pepperoni Pizza With Extra Cheese Game Balls of the Week, since Cooper inevitably ends up getting a Game Ball from me every week and his play has become as satisfying as a large pepperoni pizza with extra cheese. Without further ado, the Pharoh Cooper Large Pepperoni Pizza With Extra Cheese Game Balls of the Week go to the following:

Pharoh Cooper - Cooooooooooooop. A transcendent, all-SEC performance from the best player on the Gamecock roster. I hate to say it, but when the game ended, I almost felt like the players and coaches should be forced to write a hand-written apology to Cooper for spectacularly wasting his efforts. What a tour de force, even if he unfortunately doesn't play defense. Also, I'll totally accept paid sponsorships from any pizza restaurant that wants to officially back the Pharoh Cooper Large Pepperoni Pizza With Extra Cheese Game Balls of the Week for the rest of the season.

Interceptions That Seem to Exist in a Realm of Magic and Fantasy - Listen, our quarterback play is not the reason we're 4-5. Not even close. That's a fact, and anyone arguing otherwise is not operating with sanity. But still. It was hard not to feel nauseous when for the second consecutive week, we tossed an interception that seemed to defy the laws of physics as we know them. It was another one of those "Wow, unless somebody ran the wrong route, and by the wrong route, I mean the receiver ran off the field and started charging up the stadium steps, then I have no idea who we might have even thought we were throwing to there" kinds of interceptions, and like last week, it totally blunted momentum. It was so absolutely inconceivable that it deserves a Game Ball just for the sheer degree of difficulty.

The Belk Bowl - As the game ended and I sat in stunned silence, my friend Jay texted me to say, "Well, I guess we're playing for the Belk Bowl now." My response? The Belk Bowl? Are you serious? If we could even dream of making the Belk Bowl at this point, we should crawl on our knees to Charlotte and hug the ankles of everyone involved with picking the teams for that game. I would absolutely love to make the Belk Bowl right now. I crave the Belk Bowl. I'd shop at Belk for 12 months straight to make the Belk Bowl. I'll give everyone in my family Belk gift certificates for Christmas if we make it there after starting 4-5. Plus, Miranda Lambert is opening that game with a concert. I LOVE MIRANDA LAMBERT! Please, sign me up for the Belk Bowl today, no questions asked.

Special Uniforms Keeping Their Winless Streak Intact - My math may be a little off here, but I think we're something like 0-742 when we wear special uniforms for a game or encourage fans to wear a particular color. We trotted out all-black uniforms Saturday night for the first time in years to try to light a fire under the team, and believe it or not, it didn't work. If only the color black could tackle opposing offenses, we would have been totally set.

Florida AD Jeremy Foley For Doing Everything Short of Crowd-Surfing on the Sidelines as the Gators Closed Out Georgia, Even Though He'll Fire His Head Coach in a Few Weeks Anyway - If you were at the game and didn't get a chance to watch the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party on TV, you probably missed a performance for the ages from Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley, who bro-hugged, high-fived and chest-bumped just about every person on the Gator sideline in the closing seconds of Florida's 38-20 win over Georgia. This was coming from a guy who was rumored to be firing his head coach, Will Muschamp, as soon as this week if the Gators had lost to Georgia as they were expected to do. Hey, winning cures all ills, baby! All it took was a single W against the Dawgs to get Foley storming on to the field and acting like a 19-year-old on ecstasy at a rave. Will Muschamp? Hey, he loves Will Muschamp! I've got to believe Foley's still sore today from that effort.

As for us: Eternal winter is here. The wind is cold, my people. Let's hug our Golden Retrievers and wrap up in flannel pajamas and just try to hide under a blanket until the sun comes out again.

Oh, and someone get Elsa and Anna on the phone. We're gonna need them if we have any chance of thawing out.