This series of audio blog posts recapping every season since 1987 were originally posted prior to the 2013 season and are sponsored by our friends at Blue Moon Disk.
The 2008 Gamecocks had a more than respectable 7-3 record after their first ten games, with the three losses coming by a combined total of 21 points. They then proceeded to lose their final three contests by a total of 88 points. That’s EIGHTY-EIGHT humiliating points:
By 50 to eventual National Champion Florida (like saying “eventual National Champion” makes us feel any better.)
By 17 to hated rival Clemson, a second straight loss to them, this one while they’re being coached by a grown man named “Dabo”. Thank goodness that hasn’t happened again (until 2014).
By 21 to Iowa in the Outback Bowl, a game in which we never should have been, and by a final score that wasn’t nearly as close as it sounds. As if a 21-point loss could sound close.
There was more to the season than those three games, and Buck covers them all in the 2008 Gamecock Flashback.
Click here or click the graphic to listen, and enjoy!
From practice today: no new QB news. Nobody got hurt. Players are still working hard and battling for positions. And, um, we need to fill some space so…
This is Wallace. I’m not big on naming plants, but my wife read somewhere that giving the plant a name and talking to it somehow makes it healthier. Yeah, I know, COO COO! COO COO!
Regardless, Wallace lives in my sun room. Wallace sits there all day looking around the room and out the window. Wallace is pleasant sort, never bothers anyone or anything. Today was typical for Wallace as he hung around and observed the mundane goings on at the Gman residence.
Things picked up some in the afternoon when Mrs. Gman stopped by for a chat and some watering. She plucked a few dead leaves off Wallace and carefully introduced just the right amount of water to keep him looking vibrant and alive. Wallace was satisfied and happy.
Wallace isn’t expecting much to change tomorrow, but things might get interesting if a storm shows up. Wallace is not fond of storms.
This series of audio blog posts recapping every season since 1987 were originally posted prior to the 2013 season and are sponsored by our friends at Blue Moon Disk.
The 2007 Gamecock football season started off fine enough – 6-1 through seven games with a win over 11th-ranked Georgia. But we knew something was wrong in the second half of that North Carolina game. You know, kind of like when your car starts to rattle in an odd way but you choose to ignore it because it might cost you money and then you wind up losing to Vanderbilt at home 17-6. Yeah, just like that.
From that point on the car was not only rattling, the wheels were coming off and the engine was in flames. A five-game losing streak to end the season had us scratching our heads at where this whole Steve Spurrier thing was going.
It was not a pleasant time, but again, it was a season that molded and shaped us into who we are today. (I think I’ve used that line on my kids maybe?)
Click here or click the graphic to hear all the gory details, and (try to) enjoy!
Not much in the way of news from today’s Gamecock preseason football practice. No big surprise, right? But there was big news from Chyler Leonard’s seventh birthday party over in Ladson, South Carolina, where attendees were amazed at the apparent indestructabilty of the “Happy Birthday” balloon his grandma/legal guardian’s boyfriend bought for him at the Family Dollar.
“Chyler’s been beating on that thing for an hour with a plastic golf club, and it just keeps squirting away” said neighbor Dale Kay. “I figured he’d pop it even before his uncle blew out his birthday candles for him. Or wait, is Chyler HIS uncle.”
Family tree drama notwithstanding, the balloon at issue is still inflated as of the publication of this article, albeit now floating mere inches above the indoor/outdoor carpet on the back porch of the Quincy (née Leopard) singlewide home place.
Check back tomorrow for more Gamecock practice updates.
There was no new news out of Gamecock practice today. Or yesterday. Or for the last week if we’re being totally honest. So here’s a picture of a cute puppy sitting on a brick wall.
Haha, look at him, little scamp. I wonder how he got up there? How’s he going to get down? Where’s his owner? Silly me, maybe it’s a girl.
Hell, that picture might be really old. That dog is dead for all we know. But probably not. He (or she) probably found a way off that wall and is off frolicking somewhere.
Haha, look at him (or her). That dog is trouble I tell you.
This series of audio blog posts recapping every season since 1987 were originally posted prior to the 2013 season and are sponsored by our friends at Blue Moon Disk.
The 2006 season was another early building block in the Steve Spurrier era – flashes of brilliance intertwined with flashes of mediocrity and flashes of awful. Our experiences from that season included:
A shutout loss to Georgia followed by a close win over…ugh…Wofford.
A 17-24 victory over Auburn…oh, wait, we didn’t win that game, we just acted like we did. Cue moral victory speech from the HBC.
Spurrier putting a profusely sweating Ron Cooper on the spot with the media after his “prevent” defense almost got us beat at Kentucky. (Sweet trick play tho.)
This series of audio blog posts recapping every season since 1987 were originally posted prior to the 2013 season and are sponsored by our friends at Blue Moon Disk.
Connor Tapp of the HalfCocked Show podcast and 247 Sports joins us to talk about Steve Spurrier’s first year at the helm at South Carolina.
Among other things we discuss:
The first game hoopla including a visit from ESPN, Big & Rich, and a prediction from Lee Corso (one that he is still right about BTW).
Tough losses to Georgia, Alabama and Auburn early in the year (and why did Steve Spurrier wear glasses sometimes in 2005? I mean, I know why people wear glasses, but you know.)
Antonio Heffner’s ever so brief stint at QB and calling two timeouts at Auburn before running our first offensive play.
Big wins over Tennessee, Arkansas and Florida (here and here), and the emergence of Sidney Rice and Kenny McKinley.
This series of audio blog posts recapping every season since 1987 were originally posted prior to the 2013 season and are sponsored by our friends at Blue Moon Disk.
South Carolina and Lou Holtz began 2004 with the intention of washing away memories of the horrifying 2003 finale. Skip Holtz had been stripped of play-calling duties (and of the notion he was the head-coach-in-waiting) and the Gamecocks took the field in god-awful black helmets and black and white uniform combinations.
After a somewhat encouraging 4-1 start with a close loss to a good Georgia team, USC stumbled to a 2-4 finish. Rumors began to swirl the last two weeks of the season that Holtz would be leaving. By the time the Clemson game rolled around not only was that a given, but there were also strong indications of who our next coach would be – Steve Spurrier. Obviously that seems easy to believe now that he’s entering his ninth season here, but at the time it was simply inconceivable that such a legend would come to USC.
Unfortunately, this garbage prevented us from giving Holtz a proper send-off. A 6-6 record would’ve probably gotten us a bowl bid, but the brawl cost us that and gave us a lot of bad national publicity. Even though things did not end well for Lou or the ’04 season, when Spurrier was announced as our next head coach a few days later, the program was given a much-needed shot of adrenaline.
Click here or click the graphic for the 2004 season review, and enjoy!
Your starting quarterback. Now go do something productive with your lives. (Photo: The State)Most of you probably didn’t notice because I’m sure you were working or studying or something, but fall practice for the 2015 edition of the South Carolina football team started today. There is always this tremendous build-up to the first day of practice, and then a long, laborious trek to the opening game.
This year, the month of August will be even tougher since Steve Spurrier announced all practices will be closed to the public. Then I think he said he would open a scrimmage, or two, and maybe a practice here or there, or not, unless he changes his mind…well, just stay tuned, but for the purposes of this post let’s assume the vast majority of practices will be closed.
On the bright side, closed practices save us from the ramblings of multiple armchair quarterback observers who take to the message boards to give us pearls of wisdom like “Bryce Sherman is going to have a breakout season nobody can tackle him in practice” or “don’t look now but Taylor Rank is making a strong case to be our starting tailback” or “I’m telling you Kerry Bonds is UN-BLOCKABLE.”
Unfortunately, for those of us who have been pining for the college game to return to our lives, we will be left to scratch and claw for every little nugget of information we can find to help us determine if our final prediction for the upcoming season is going to be 8-4 or 9-3 (because everyone is on the edge of their seats waiting for my prediction.)
But we’re going to do you a favor tonight that will allow you to enjoy these last four weeks before Gamecock football completely consumes you. We’re going to give you a preview of every single practice report between now and September 3, and they’ll all look a little something like this:
The yellow jersey – [insert names] were in yellow, non-contact jerseys today. Oh God, is he really hurt? How bad? Day to day? Those things can linger you know…who’s [insert name]’s backup? Can he play? HE’S IN A YELLOW JERSEY TOO?!?!?!?
The Spurrier interview – HBC will call the media “boys”, make a crack about the weather, and then go on for 3-5 minutes about practice and somehow tell us absolutely nothing. Oh sure, you’ll see mood swings along the way and those might be the leading indicators of how the team is doing. But for the most part it will be like eating an entire bag of cheese puffs alone – satisfying while it’s happening, but ultimately just empty calories that still leave you hungry.
The clickbait – With so many sites out there fighting for your attention, you’ll get teasers like this:
You may be surprised at what Steve Spurrier said about his newcomers.
Want to know what was surprising about what he said? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BUT YOU CLICKED IT ANYWAY. Nice work TBS.
Josh Kendall (@JoshattheState) questions – Kendall will ask such long, winding, confusing questions to the players that all they will want to do is lie down and take a nap because it’s freaking hot out here.
Kendall: “Isaiah, in your estimation, playing for a number of years in the Big XII, and with so many explosive offenses on display week after week, particularly from the Texas schools, and now moving to the SEC where you have a variety of power running attacks disguised as spread offenses, or spread offenses that are truly spread offenses where teams like to throw the ball a lot more, your job in the secondary, is it more read and react, or is it a spacing thing, or are you more comfortable with patrolling a specific quartile of the defensive backfield?”
Isaiah Johnson: “What was the last thing you said? Yeah, it’s that.”
Interviews from Gamecocks Online – Since they control the media, they are the only source for these for about 30 seconds until every Gamecock site under God’s green earth repurposes them and posts them to their site as some sort of original content. Come to my site to see player interviews! No, over here! No fair, you went there last time!
#HereSC videos from Gamecocks Online – Approximately 30 one-minute videos where at least fifty seconds consists of a super slo-mo shot of a football spinning into a slowly appearing graphic…”HERE…we’re so damn chill our footballs move at a fraction of the rotations of normal ones. Now make sure grampa wills you those season tickets young man.”
The announcement of the starting quarterback – NOW HERE IT IS, THIS IS THE ONE THING YOU SHOULD BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR BECAUSE EVERYTHING ELSE IS JUST TIME AND SPACE FILLING NOISE. This is truly the only exciting thing that will happen for the next month barring something unforeseen. And we’ll go ahead and tell you it’s going to be Connor Mitch. And if it’s not Connor Mitch I’m afraid we’re in deep doo doo and you might want to wean yourself off of this team anyway.
Game week – The week leading up to the UNC game will feel different, but it really won’t be. More non-stories filling your days and nights prior to someone actually putting a boot to leather and brain rattling skull to skull.
So take heed of these nuggets fair reader, and then tear yourself away from the internet for a few weeks to finish that novel you’ve been working on, go for a walk with your spouse, or even toss the old pigskin around with Bobby in the back yard.
This series of audio blog posts recapping every season since 1987 were originally posted prior to the 2013 season and are sponsored by our friends at Blue Moon Disk.
Buckshots changes things up a little in this edition, covering the frustrating 2002 and 2003 seasons in one episode.
The Rubber Chickens Blog 