From up here in the press box at Williams-Brice Stadium, looking down at a sodden turf and 78,360 fans who slowly watched a guaranteed party transform into a slow-motion heartbreak, you could feel the exact moment the air left the building.
It started with a sky that looked like bruised steel and an 80-minute lightning delay that pushed kickoff back, leaving everyone stewing in the humid Midlands heat. When the lights finally came up, South Carolina looked ready to blow the roof off the place. LaNorris Sellers was slinging it — finishing with 282 yards on 25-of-40 passing — and first-time kicker Malik Orson was dialing in distance, eventually booting four field goals, including a massive 52-yard bomb late in the fourth.
Before Mississippi State could even rub the sleep out of its eyes, the Gamecocks had staked themselves to a 16-0 lead.
Then Kamario Taylor woke up…