Grinding (I’m co-opting it, DJ)

A Monday morning look back at the Gamecock weekend that was:

– Steve Spurrier will never, ever, no, not ever be an Athletics Director.    Good thing is, he has zero desire for that kind of job.  Need convincing?  Just listen to his latest presser from Media Day yesterday, and note how much he cares about finances.  I’ll give you a hint, its less than he cares about defense.  I think his quote was “don’t they just put all that cash in a big wad?”

– Marcus Lattimore and the Book of Job.  Again, watching video from yesterday’s Media Day and noted Marcus waxing personal about why God was testing him (and his ACL) in Starkville last fall.  Hate to go all Presbyterian on you here, but I think he’s got it wrong.

Augustine said it best, and I will paraphrase it poorly: God may well test us, but only to reveal to us how much grace we already have, not to prove anything to Him.

Or, maybe Latti was referring to visiting Starkville in the first place as being a test from God. In which case, point taken.

– Rico McWilliams – Feel horrible for this kid, and we died just a little when Lattimore said, in the above-referenced video, that he was dedicating each hit he took this season to the injured freshman.  Keep your head up, Rico – we are pulling for you to have a big 2013.

– DeDe Smith is a star in the making.  We here at TRC are really pulling for this guy, who is apparently now one of our starters at wideout.  Of course, so were Jason Barnes and Taqiy Muhammed at some point in their careers, says that nagging voice that’s been worrying me about the Gamecocks for over thirty years.

– ‘Punish.’  Reports have it that the 2012 Gamecock has adopted the word ‘punish’ as their slogan.  Couple of points here:  First, its wwaaaayyyy better and less prone to double entendre than “All In.”  Second, it certainly scares the crap outta me, and I’m not likely to be running a crossing route over the middle anytime soon.

– ‘Beastboard’ update.  It might, or might not, have been Eric Nichols of the Gamecock Front Office that coined the phrase (at least he’s using it on his twitter feed).  Regardless, we LOVE it as the unofficial moniker of the hulking behemoth that is now being constructed in the North end zone of the ‘Brice.

But one thing on the Beastboard, and someone pass this on to Mr. Nichols:  If, prior to the ECU game, we miss the gargantuanly dramatic opportunity to run the old school ‘2001’ opening video circa 1980 in the exact size and location of the old video board, and then immediately wham-splash a new updated video all over the Beast for the actual 2001 entrance, then we’re just killing puppies and kittens and wasting time.

See to it, Eric.