Note: “Tusings” = Tuesday Musings. I just made that up, and you’re welcome. (Even though I posted this on Wednesday, I thought of it on Tuesday, smart guy.)
So, I was doing my daily lunchtime web surfing over a turkey sandwich today and came across this curious article on collegefootballnews.com called “CFN SEC Bloggers: 5 Thoughts on USC’s Spring”. CFN has come quite a ways in the last couple of years, and while no bastion of cutting-edge sports journalism, there is occasionally an interesting article or two.
Today’s was not one of them. Let me begin with the work of Brian Harbach, who writes:
“The media in the state of South Carolina could be described as the proverbial ostrich with their heads buried in the sand. They ignore facts and do their best not to ruffle the feathers of the Head Gamecock when discussing the obvious uncertainty at quarterback.”
Um…run that by me again? What did I miss? Seriously, and I’m not kidding here, have the South Carolina beat writers and opinionators sucked up to the OBC and I’ve missed it? I’ve been out of the state for thirteen years, and out of Columbia for more than twenty, but all I’ve ever heard is how much the media HATES the University of South Carolina and wishes it would die.
Now sure, you get the group of reporters gathered around Spurrier with their tiny recorders after practice giggling with glee at every word SOS speaks. But don’t you get that at about every major university with coaches and reporters?
Name some names Bri, I’m curious. Otherwise, grab yourself a plane ticket and come on down and ask the man the tough questions yourself. You apparently owe it to us.
Later on a guy named Russ Harris tackles the hard-hitting topic of “will success breed complacency in Columbia”:
“What success? With five – yes, five – losses, we can safely debate if South Carolina or Charlie Sheen had more winning in 2010/11.”
Congratulations Russ, you’re the 10,000th blogger to get a cheap pop off making fun of South Carolina football! And bonus points for tying in current events!
By the way, I can think of at least five teams that would’ve loved to have five losses in fourteen games in 2010.
Finally, Barrett Sallee chimes in “on how bad this team would be without Marcus Lattimore”:
“In a word… bad. In two words… really bad.”
Again, maybe I’m out of the loop, but has the word bad been redefined? Granted, this was a different team last year with #21 on the bench, but really bad? Come on Barrett, at least give us average, maybe even slightly above average. This team was/is not completely devoid of other talent.
On to the Tusings:
- My final word on this latest Stephen Garcia incident: I don’t care. I don’t even really fall on either side of the “hey, weren’t you 21 once” vs. “kick him off the team forever” argument. For those of you who want to keep him, don’t worry, he will be under center at Bank of America Stadium come September. For those who want him gone, too bad, you’ll have to wait one more year for Conner Shaw. I’m just not going to argue with anyone about it. I’m sure you’re relieved.
- I hear Darren Horn stated the basketball team must improve next year. Phew! For a minute there I was beginning to believe his agenda involved getting worse.
- I hate to even say this, but…anybody else a little worried about the baseball team? Somebody has to step up at the plate besides Walker and Bradley. And while Michael Roth has been stellar on the mound, this weekend committee stuff isn’t going to work come SEC play.
- Finally, non-Gamecock related, people are doing back flips over this Grant Hill response to Jalen Rose’s comments in the “Fab Five” documentary. But I think Hill is missing the point – I believe Rose was telling us what he thought at the time as an 18-year-old kid, and in no way does he believe that today.
- Bonus: “Fab Five” is a fun trip through the past if you haven’t seen it, but you have to take a lot of it with a grain of salt since it was produced by three of the five. Jason Whitlock hits the nail on the head here about the revisionist history of that documentary and the cultural impact of the Georgetown teams of the mid-80’s.
Go Mountaineers. #beatclemson
The Rubber Chickens Blog 
I am in no position to cast aspersions upon Garcia. For there, but for the grace of HBC, go I.
The Fab Five doc was an enjoyable 2 hours of television. Though I fail to grasp why the Rose/Hill thing of the past couple days is even a thing.
Nice post, Buck.
Nice festive green border as well. But since I’m of Scottish descent AND Presbyterian, I’m gonna assume you did it because you are finally, FINALLY, mixing in a salad at meals every now and then.
To be fair, you can change the background color to anything you want on St. Andrew’s Day.
Buck – thanks for the link, even though you may not agree with all that we said. I can’t speak for my colleagues, but regarding my section, South Carolina was bad without Lattimore last year, and until a legitimate threat emerges to take some of the pressure off of him, I see that continuing. Don’t get me wrong, Alshon Jeffery is a stud. But the Gamecocks had no answer offensively without Lattimore…even with Jeffery and Tori Gurley on the field last year. That’s no necessarily a knock against the Gamecocks though. Even the top teams in the country have one star that stirs the drink. See: Newton to Auburn, James to Oregon, Knile Davis to Arkansas, etc. It’s just the way it is sometimes. If Lattimore is going to continue to get dinged up, another threat HAS to emerge if the Gamecocks are even going to think about repeating as division champs.
Thanks for reading CFN and thanks for posting the link.
Fair enough, thanks for the reply Barrett. Even though being “average” has beccome uncceptable as a South Carolina fan, I think that’s what we are without Lattimore. We’re probably into semantics at this point, but I think Spurrier has improved the talent level to the point that we are at least not “bad”. With Lattimore, we have the chance to be something special.