As regular readers of this space will remember, I am the unfortunate member of the TRC triumvirate that lives and works in the heart of CTU country:  Pickens County.  And while my location near Tigertown does afford many benefits (friends, lakes, mountains, and the wondrous Mrs. Tbone) it occasionally induces face-palming frustration.

Today was frustrating.

My ride into work is usually a quiet time, interrupted only by the occasionally interesting story on SCETV Radio’s Morning Edition.   But since SCETV began its fall pledge drive this week, I’ve turned my radio dial to other programming (yes, I’m a freeloader on public radio, but that’s a rant for another blog).  After hovering over a few stations, I settled on WCCP, the flagship radio for Clemson athletics.

To my surprise, the normally banal and commercial heavy Mickey Plyler Show was actually engaged in an interesting debate.  The host and several of the callers were arguing over the recent revelation that local Greenville hero, George Hincappie, participated with his pal Lance Armstrong in illegal doping during their professional cycling careers.

The points of view of the callers ranged from outrage to excuse-making, but the host of the program was resolute:  a failure to abide by the rules of a sport cannot be tolerated.  Any deviation from the accepted standards of conduct, Mr. Plyler loudly asserted, disqualifies the participant from any claims of glory.  We can forgive, the host argued, but we should NEVER forget.

He drew the contrast even sharper when one caller attempted to argue that we, as consumers, are entitled to the best performance possible from our athletes, and since they control their own bodies, we should legitimize widespread doping and just enjoy the resulting show.

Plyler was livid: How can we accept these improper practices?  He offered the caller a choice:  How would the caller (an SC fan apparently) feel if Clemson paid the top athletes in the country to come to the Upstate and play ball?  How would an SC fan react if Clemson clobbered them on the gridiron with players that were bought and paid for by the Tiger faithful?

The caller retreated, and admitted that he would not like such an ill-gotten result.  Plyler crowed victorious, and proceeded to moralize on our collective solemn duty to police ethical integrity in sport.

I screamed at the radio.

Literally screamed.

I didn’t scream because of similarities between this debate and the steriod scandals at Clemson and South Carolina in the mid 1980s, although that would be an interesting discussion.  Instead, my incredulity was based on the fact that we already know the answer to Plyler’s rhetorical question because IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED, from roughly 1978 until at least 1984.

 As we all know, Clemson paid for its players and then won it all.

Now, just how does one of the chief orange apologists dare to assert such moral superiority on the doping issue when the chief accomplishment of his cherished institution, the 1981 National Championship in football, was the direct result of illegally recruited athletes?  Were the Clemson athletes not paid?  Were they not induced to sign with cash, cars, and gifts to mom?  Were the violations not so widespread that the NCAA handed down its harshest penalties up to that date?

Either Mickey Plyler has a very selective memory, or he is applying different ethical rules to each situation depending on whether or not he is a fan of the offender.

Or maybe he is going to advocate that the National Championship banner come down from Clemson’s Memorial Stadium.

Maybe, but I’m not going to hold my breath.  I’ll just have to keep screaming at the radio.

 

The TRC Unleashed gets absolutely giddy over the destruction of UGA. In addition:

• Jadeveon Clowney gets a Heisman push, but can’t win a Rubber Chickens award
• The wide receivers walk away with all the hardware
• Dameire Byrd gets some special teams love
• Georgia LSU Florida is the biggest game in our history
• We love on the overrated chant and throwing garbage from the stands
• Robert Nkemdiche is 100% committed to Clemson except that he’s not

If you listen, you’ll get the meaning of all that. Click the graphic and enjoy!

A lot of people seemed to be frustrated and angry that thousands of our fans broke out the “over-rated” chant at the end of the Georgia game Saturday night. A few took to Twitter to voice their displeasure, including some of our favorite media members to scold the fan base for somehow diminishing our win over the #5 team in the country.

Then, this morning I came across this article from Randall at the Garnet Report (which has been a fine addition to the Gamecock blogging community I must say). He complains about some fans leaving early and the wave and the songs the band plays and that kinda stuff.

He also wags his finger at the fans who participated in the “over-rated” chant:

Chanting “Overrated!” You’re obviously not using your head on this one. Think about what you’re implying when you’re heard on national TV yelling about how overrated Georgia is. ‘Hey, national TV audience! This team we’re playing today? They’re not very good. Not very good at all, in fact. We just wanted you to know how wrong you were about how good you thought they were. This win isn’t actually very impressive, come to think of it. Since Georgia’s not very good and all. So thanks for putting us on TV! We’ll just keep on beating up on this not-very-good opponent and hope that you still want to slide us way up in the rankings tomorrow!’ What possible reason do we have for wanting Georgia to be overrated? We want Georgia to be EXACTLY as good as everybody thought they were. We want Georgia to finish with the same number of SEC losses as us (if we lose a conference game, that is), so that we’d go to Atlanta with the tiebreaker over them. That would help our BCS standing. If Georgia sucks, our win looks less impressive to the computers and opens the door for someone else to get a big bowl bid over us. If Georgia is really good, the computers like us as much as the humans do, and we can all prance down to the BCS Promised Land together.

First of all, how many people do you think were sitting at their TV’s and said to the person next to them, “Hey Jim, what are they saying? Overrated? Hmmm. By golly maybe they’re right, Georgia is overrated! Well, my respect for this South Carolina team is diminished greatly!”

Or maybe a pollster who watched the game: “Well, Florida State and LSU lost in addition to Georgia. We should probably move South Carolina up to #3, but you know, their fans were chanting ‘over-rated’. This really gives me pause about whether they should move up at all, since obviously UGA was overrated. I mean, the fans’ rhythmic chant told us so.”

No, that didn’t happen. Anywhere. People saw us hammer a very good Georgia team and now we’re not only in the SEC Championship picture, but the NATIONAL Championship picture.

Look, the “overrated” chant has been around forever. It’s a great college chant, right up there with “air ball”. It is not and never has been a vehicle to lessen the accomplishments of the team/fans delivering the message.

“Overrated” is simply salt in the wound, a twist of the knife to your hated rival. I’m a UGA hater from the late 70’s, and I got a kick out of hearing the chant. Kick ‘em while they’re down I say.

At the end of the day we can’t control how good or bad Georgia is. I hope they’re good, really good. But if we don’t keep winning it doesn’t really matter.

We’re the #3 ranked team in the country. Let’s have some fun with it. No inferiority complex needed.

The Gamecocks moved to 6-0 with another victory over a vastly inferior opponent this weekend. They also rose to #3 in the major polls, leaping like J. Clowney over pretenders LSU, Georgia and Florida State.

How did the other teams on USC’s schedule do, and what can we glean from their performances? Let’s take a look:

(Reminder: I do not include this past week’s opponent in the TPR.)

• Vanderbilt – beat Missouri 19-15. Vandy gets their first conference win and first win over an FBS team. Hey, it’s no Super Bowl, but it’s a step in the right direction if the ‘Dores want to get bowl eligible. TPR for Vanderbilt: Would like to see Vandy get back to the level they played against us, but they’re still not very good.
• East Carolina – lost to Central Florida 40-20. Turns out they’re just a bad football team, and Ruffin McNeill’s seat is getting warm. TPR for ECU: We will get no satisfaction out of scoreboard watching ECU this season.
• UAB – beat Southeastern Louisiana 52-3. The Blazers get their first win! TPR for UAB: Starting to get the ECU and UAB games confused in my head. Did we have a minor quarterback controversy mixed in there somewhere?
• Missouri – lost to Vanderbilt 19-15. Poor, poor Missouri. Their first season in the SEC is turning into a disaster. A late October date with Kentucky is starting to look like their best shot at a conference win. Getting bowl eligible is going to be a struggle. CBS would like a do-over on the two times they have chosen Missouri for their game of the week. TPR for Missouri: Looked like a good win, then a mediocre win, now a game we should’ve won by more.
• Kentucky – lost to Mississippi State 27-14. A valiant effort by the overmatched Wildcats. They took the redshirt off their hotshot freshman QB, and he leads them to a TD before he proceeds to sprain his ankle. Poor ‘Cats can’t get out of their own way. TPR for Kentucky: Spurrier should carry highlights from the first half of our game against them around on an iPad to show the players and keep saying, “See, they suck, so you must not be that good.”
• LSU – lost to Florida 14-6. LSU was a mark in the loss column for us at the beginning of the year, but their season hasn’t quite turned out as planned. Only beat Auburn 12-10?!? Still, they’re an immensely talented bunch that could put it all together at any moment. Baton Rouge at night ain’t no fun either.  TPR for LSU: Slight edge to the Gamecocks right now because of a quality win over UGA.
• Florida – beat LSU 14-6. Not many people are mentioning the fact that Florida had two weeks to prepare for LSU. Like LSU, a stingy defense, but still trying to find an identity on offense. That identity might wind up being Mike Gillislee 30 times a game. TPR for Florida: Great defenses for us and them, an edge to us in offense, they get home field advantage…ask me after this week.
• Tennessee – bye week. Have lost to Florida by a lot and Georgia by a little, which makes us feel like we’re the better team. If UT isn’t in desperation mode yet, they’re right on the cusp. This game still scares me, and scares me even more if we somehow get through the gauntlet undefeated and are susceptible to a letdown. TPR for Tennessee: Scary but manageable because of their atrocious defense.
• Arkansas – beat Auburn 24-7 (!!!). Sorry, getting used to putting exclamation points after their games. It would be just like the ‘Hogs to get back on track just in time for us. TPR for Arkansas: Wary, but still confident.
• Wofford – beat Furman 20-17. The Terriers moved to 5-0 on the season, but had their first real test against the 2-4 Paladins. TPR for Wofford: STOP SCHEDULING OPTION TEAMS.
• Clemson – beat Georgia Tech 47-31. Something’s wrong with Sammy, he’s not being awesome. Something’s also wrong with the defense, they’re not stopping people from running to the end zone. TPR for Clemson: 4peat coming.

Here are some quick, barely researched, not fully formed thoughts from last night’s 35-7 dismantling of Georgia:

The Big Time. First up, congratulations and thank you to everyone at the University of South Carolina who had a hand in putting on a great show yesterday. It all started at 9 a.m. with ESPN GameDay, and culminated with an absolutely spectacular scene at Williams Brice Stadium last night. I would’ve loved to have been there in person, but I can tell you it all played out on TV like we are a big time football program with big time support.

And it played out that way because we are.

Ambush. There was no reason to believe the game last night would play out differently than any other South Carolina-Georgia matchup. The game has historically been a nail-biter, with a few comfortable victories by the Bulldogs sprinkled in. But a South Carolina blowout? Nobody, and I mean NO-BO-DY saw that coming.

The spread favored USC by 2.5 points, which is about the margin you get for home field advantage. Prognosticators were split, maybe favoring UGA slightly. Desmond Howard even said on GameDay he flipped a coin, and went with the Gamecocks.

But with five minutes left in the first quarter the score was 21-0 in favor of USC, and the Georgia players looked shell-shocked at what was happening to them. They were dominated from the opening bell, and never had an answer with their high-powered offense.

Normally when we beat the Bulldogs they refuse to acknowledge we’re better – “well, if we hadn’t fumbled deep in your territory” (2010) or “we outplayed you in every phase of the game” (2011) – but there is no sugar-coating what happened last night. That was a flat-out no doubt ass-kicking, and the better team won. I haven’t heard any Georgia fans acknowledge that yet, but then again I might not hear ANYTHING from them for a few days.

Statistically speaking. Georgia came into the game averaging 536 yards and 48 points per game, and left the W-B last night with 224 yards and 7 garbage points. Aaron Murray, the leading candidate for first-team all-SEC quarterback, finished 11-31 for 109 yards and 1 INT (and probably experienced garnet-colored night terrors trying to sleep).

Our favorite new Hollywood couple, “Gurshall”, combined for a whopping 76 yards on 25 carries. Actually, if you take away Georgia’s first play from scrimmage, a 15-yard gain by “Gur”, the total is 61 yards on 24 carries.

Also, Georgia had exactly two drives of more than 20 yards all night (h/t to @gamecockhoops). Let that sink in.

More stats. We passed the ball 10 times completing six for 162 yards and scored 35 points. Georgia Tech threw the ball 14 times against Clemson yesterday. Do with that what you will.

More Latti. We won’t know for a while if Marcus Lattimore will forgo his senior year to jump to the NFL, but if he does his final stat line in three games against UGA: 88 carries for 467 yards (5.3 ypc) and 4 TDs, plus 5 receptions for 48 yards. Solid.

Heisman Watch.  There is a player on the South Carolina football team that deserves to be invited to New York in December for the Heisman ceremony, and his name is not Marcus Lattimore. While Lattimore is arguably the best running back in the country, Jadeveon Clowney is arguably the best football player in the country. Clowney’s stat line looks rather pedestrian from last night – 4 tackles, 1 sack – but his impact on the game goes much further than that. At times he was occupying three offensive players for Georgia, creating one-on-one situations for our other linemen or blitzers. His athleticism is unparalleled for someone his size and was on full display last night.

Clowney was the talk of the game last night on a defense that was spectacular, and the talk will only grow as the season continues. The chances of him winning the Heisman are exactly zero, but the Downtown Athletic Club needs to do the right thing and send the best player in the country an invite and a plane ticket.

Ace. I just don’t know how to feel having an actual living, breathing punt returner on our team. Once again, Ace Sanders was electric last night. What a great bonus to have a guy who can give you, or set you up for, six points on a special teams play. It’s a luxury we haven’t had at USC since 1987 with a guy named Sharpe.

Great expectations. I don’t know about you guys, but my expectations began to shift last night as I watched N.C. State rally to beat FSU. We will move up to #3 in the polls today, and one of the teams ahead of us we will have the opportunity to play in the SEC Championship game if we continue to take care of business. I know, I know, trips to Baton Rouge and Gainesville await, and both of those games will be street fights. But I make no apologies for looking ahead, because after all, I don’t have to play (thank goodness).

There are many obstacles in the way, but there’s no denying a path has been laid out for this team to get to Miami.

Let’s go streaking. South Carolina now owns the longest winning streak in the country at 10 games, which also happens to be the longest winning streak in school history.

Look in Damiere. In addition to his great catch on the second play of the game, Damiere Byrd once again saved us on special teams. For the third time this year, Byrd tracked down a kickoff returner to prevent a touchdown. And it’s not like Malcolm Mitchell is a slow dude. Aside from Ace Sanders, Byrd has probably been our most valuable special teams player.

Keeping it on the D.L. D.L Moore has been somewhat maligned in this space and on TRC Unleashed, but he deserves major props for his great catch last night. Because of his size, we keep wanting him to be a shadow of Alshon Jeffery, and last night he delivered, out jumping and out fighting a Georgia DB to set up the TD that was the final nail in the coffin. Mad props D.L.

The other 21. Devonte Holloman, another great game last night.

Two fiddy. Congratulations to Coach Spurrier on his 250th career victory last night. Fitting that it came against his old nemesis.

Go Cocks, beat LSU!

We’ll finish off our brief and fun look back at some of the great Gamecock moments against Georgia in the last 25 years by fast-forwarding to the 2010-2011 seasons.

After the wins in 2000 and 2001 for South Carolina, Georgia was able to win seven of the next eight contests. A couple of those games were not particularly close, but more often than not the Gamecocks could point to one or two plays that cost them in a tight game, i.e. fumbles on the goal line, missed extra points, etc. (We don’t really have to re-hash those do we?)

But in 2010 a young freshman named Marcus Lattimore arrived on campus in Columbia, and he had his coming out party against UGA that season, rushing for 182 yards and two TD’s in a 17-6 victory over the Bulldogs.

In 2011 a wild game broke out in Athens that had just about everything. Once again, Lattimore was a major factor for the Gamecocks, overcoming a slow start to rush for 176 yards and a touchdown. But two plays will forever stand out in Gamecock football lore.

One, a fake punt, I chronicled here as possibly the greatest special teams play in South Carolina history.

The other play essentially sealed the game for the Gamecocks (although not without some additional drama). It also introduced the college football world to a kid named Jadeveon Clowney, and firmly established Melvin Ingram as a player to watch throughout 2011.

Let’s hope we have some great moments to recount after tomorrow.  Go Cocks.