WATCH: Dawn Staley Admits She Considered Retirement This Past Offseason.

When you lose the pieces from a championship-contending team, it’s easy to see how the road back to the top can be a significant challenge, but while chatting with the College Gameday crew ahead of South Carolina’s matchup against the Georgia Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon, Dawn Staley admitted something that was shocking, to say the least.

Dawn Staley Admits She Considered Retirement This Past Offseason - Sports Illustrated South Carolina Gamecocks News, Analysis and More

The 24-year coaching vet. has made it no secret that the Gamecocks were nowhere near where they needed to be back in the Summertime, and the team was so out of sorts to the point where Dawn legitimately considered if she was ready to walk away from the game for good.

“Considering what it looked like in June, [I thought about] early retirement. I was considering it. Seriously,” Staley lamented.

“[The players] really weren’t in a good place. We lacked leadership; we lacked conditioning; we lacked discipline.”

South Carolina's Dawn Staley coaches game in Eagles jersey | Yardbarker

Dawn Staley could undoubtedly walk away from the game today and would go down as one of the most influential figures ever in basketball history.

Still, the fact that South Carolina fans almost had to adjust to the post-Dawn era in Columbia this past Summer is a touch surprising from an outside perspective.

Luckily for Gamecock fans, the ride isn’t over yet, and if the winning continues, it likely won’t be over for a good while.