Snap Judgments – 2017 USC @ Tennessee Edition

Ugly as a brand. Saturday’s win over Tennessee was an ugly one, let’s be honest. But before I continue let me go ahead and state what a lot of you are thinking:

I DON’T CARE HOW WE WIN AS LONG AS WE WIN A WIN IS A WIN IS A WIN.

I agree totally, now unbunch your undergarments and let me talk about this, because it is quite possible you are going to need to get used to this fact:

After five and a half years as a head coach, Will Muschamp’s brand of football, win or lose, is ugly. It was like that at Florida, and is now like that at South Carolina.

Under Muschamp we will most likely never be clean and sleek and fast-paced. When we win we will choke teams out, just like we did to Tennessee on Saturday. We lumbered along against the Vols, punching them in the face on defense and tripping over our own feet on offense, looking like the football version of Rocky Balboa. It looked a lot like how his Florida teams used to play.

I’m sure there’s some part of Coach Boom that would love to roll up 600 yards of offense and 55 points in a blowout win. But even if we had the talent and play calling to do that, I guarantee you he would put the brakes on the offense long before we came close to reaching those numbers. It’s just in his DNA.

I’m not saying this is a bad thing, I’m just saying it’s a thing. And it’s a thing we need to get used to because there’s very little evidence to suggest Will Muschamp teams are anything else. If you want this program to be a Ferrari or a Porche, forget it. We’re a damn mud-covered 2007 Dodge 2500 with a dent in the left rear quarter panel and sounds terrible but by God runs just fine and gets us from point A to point B in the maximum amount of time allowed.

Ugly is our brand. And as long as wins keep coming with the ugly, I’m perfectly fine with it.

Roper hope. There are plenty of people who put the blame for our offensive struggles squarely on the shoulders of Kurt Roper. I’ve done it myself, and the members of TRC even had a frank discussion at halftime on Saturday about where we would turn if Roper was to be fired. Then, in the second half, he proceeded to direct the offense about as well as he has all season.

He began bringing a man in motion on running plays to give the appearance of a speed sweep, which froze Tennessee perimeter defenders enough to allow for some holes to open in the middle of the line. He gave Jake Bentley a read option play on which Jake kept twice on our touchdown drive for nice gains. He included some off tackle run plays which were bounced outside for big yardage on our crucial final drives. In other words, he realized a lot of the offensive game plan was not working so he made some adjustments that eventually helped us win the game.

I’m not saying I’m quite in Kurt Roper’s corner just yet. I’m still not sure why it took an entire half to fix some of the issues, which seem like simple sideline adjustments. And I’m not sure why most Saturdays our game plan doesn’t really spring into action until the game is already 1/4 over.

But I am saying maybe things aren’t always as bad as they seem, and maybe Kurt Roper isn’t always as bad as he seems.

Milk carton alert. Hayden Hurst disappeared against Tennessee on Saturday. He had zero catches on only two targets, and one rush for four yards. How do you not involve your all-SEC tight end more in your game plan? Honestly I think the Volunteers and their defensive coordinator Bob Shoop had a lot to do with that. They identified Hurst as the one man who was not going to beat them and designed their defensive strategy accordingly. That defense knew exactly where Hurst was on every play and had him bracketed most of the game. The beneficiary of that strategy was…

Plastic man. While Bryan Edwards didn’t have spectacular numbers (6-63), he proved why he is now the Gamecocks’ number one wide receiver. After a crucial early drop, he played with a toughness, fire and determination we hadn’t seen out of him before. He was the key player in the Gamecocks’ lone touchdown drive.

Favorable conditions. Facing an improving and confident Gamecock defense was a bad match-up for Tennessee, as they had already been struggling getting the ball in the end zone. Prior to their final 73-yard drive, USC had held UT to 180 yards of total offense and three and outs on half their possessions.

Tennessee has not scored a touchdown now in ten consecutive quarters, and next up for them is…gulp…Alabama.

Wonnum? Can’t have him. DJ Wonnum was named the SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week for the second week in a row, and has become the best edge rusher we’ve seen since a guy who wore number 7. Not too shabby for a guy we flipped from Indiana.

Fenton Island. Still no touchdown catches against Rashad Fenton, but he panicked a little at the end of the game and committed a bad pass interference. We still good though.

Headstrong. Taylor Stallworth picked up a ridiculous penalty in a critical situation on Saturday when he was flagged for continuing to play after his helmet came off. Unlike a lot of you, I don’t necessarily think this is a terrible rule. But I think it was poorly applied against Stallworth, who a) had his helmet ripped off, which should’ve been a penalty on UT, and b) lightly fell onto a guy who was in the grasps of someone else and already going down. The officials have to use some common sense in that situation as Stallworth was in very little danger of getting hurt at that point.

Continuing on that subject, Will Muschamp had an interesting quote on the penalty:

You know what, if a player decides he wants to stick his face in there without a helmet on, he’s making his own judgment. That’s what Will Muschamp would do. I would stick my face in the fire every time. It is a dumb rule.

First, that’s a fairly reckless take by Muschamp considering how high-profile head injuries are in today’s game.

Second, if your helmet comes off around a bunch of elite athletes who are still wearing theirs I hope your first thought isn’t, “hmmm, I wonder what Will Muschamp would do in this situation.”

“You got a home field timekeeper here”. With nine seconds remaining in the game color analyst Tommy Turbeville says “you’ve barely got enough time for two plays.” Tennessee got off three. I wonder if that clock operator knows just how bad all the Tennessee fans want Butch Jones gone.

Go Cocks, relax on your open date.