How South Carolina's Comeback Win vs. Florida Impacts Will Muschamp's Job Status

Coming into Saturday's showdown with South Carolina, Florida hadn't had a three-game winning streak since it beat Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas in late September and early October 2013. 

Florida had the chance to change that Saturday, but special teams blunders and an unlucky bounce brought back the angst, animosity and frustration that has been building in Gainesville for nearly two seasons.

The Gators fell to the South Carolina Gamecocks 23-20 in overtime Saturday afternoon in The Swamp, dropping them to 5-4 (4-4 SEC) on the season and eliminating any outside chance they had at winning the SEC East via a three-team tiebreaker.

The loss once again fires up head coach Will Muschamp's hot seat, which had cooled off a bit in recent weeks after back-to-back wins. And Muschamp knows it, according to Edgar Thompson of the Orlando Sentinel.

It wasn't pretty.

Using a one-dimensional offense that featured 49 rushing attempts and only 11 pass plays, Florida was on the brink of extending its lead to make it a two-score game with 3:31 to go. But a 32-yard field goal from Francisco Velez was blocked by Brison Williams to give South Carolina a chance. 

The Gamecocks didn't capitalize. 

Florida stopped South Carolina on 4th-and-10 and got the ball back with a chance to drain the clock. But after a drive went nowhere, Kyle Christy's punt was blocked with 39 seconds left to give the Gamecocks another opportunity.

South Carolina punched it in on a speed option that featured a bad snap and a fumbled pitch to force overtime, before quarterback Dylan Thompson strolled into the end zone during the bottom of the first overtime to finish off the Gators.

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Just how bad was it for Muschamp?

Even South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier—who came into the game with four straight conference losses himself—felt bad for him, via Josh Kendall of The State:

Not only did Spurrier finish off the Gators, he likely finished off Muschamp's Florida career—as the SEC Network's Paul Finebaum notes:

Muschamp needed to beat South Carolina and get help to win the SEC East, but now that's as probable as it is that Muschamp is Florida's head coach next year.

As in 0 percent.

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Sure, the defense held the Gamecocks to just 301 total yards, but defense has never been the issue in Gainesville. Even last year, as the Gators were sputtering to a 4-8 record, they finished second in the SEC in total defense (314.3 yards per game).

After another year of a stagnant offense, Muschamp inserted quarterback Treon Harris into the lineup hoping that he could provide a spark. He hasn't been an interception machine, which is a marked improvement from his predecessor Jeff Driskel. But it's clear that the coaches don't trust him to stretch the field, and being one-dimensional in the SEC is a recipe for disaster. 

That's exactly what happened Saturday afternoon.

Florida's issues weren't fixed in the Gators' two previous victories, they were just masked in the Georgia and Vanderbilt games. 

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The coaching staff is forced to coach not to lose when up late since the team isn't equipped to do anything else. Because of that, even South Carolina—which came in as the worst defense in the SEC—could load the box and shut down the run when it needed to. 

The margin for error was so small coming into the season, and the way Florida won and lost in 2014 was probably more important to athletics director Jeremy Foley than the win-loss record. Unfortunately for Muschamp, the hurry-up, no-huddle system of new offensive coordinator Kurt Roper hasn't done anything to kick-start the offense

As a result, the Gators are still left searching for answers—and possibly a new head coach.

After all, their current one is most known for coaching players who block each other.

Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a co-host of the CFB Hangover on Bleacher Report Radio (Sundays, 9-11 a.m. ET) on Sirius 93, XM 208.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats are courtesy of CFBStats.com, and all recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.