Month: September 2022

Snap Judgments – 2022 Georgia @ USC Edition

Photo courtesy of Getty Images

1-2 Punch. About halfway through Georgia’s 48-7 dismantling of South Carolina yesterday, the justifications for why we were being administered such a thorough beating starting pouring in: what do you expect they’re number one in the nation, we’re missing five defensive starters, and my personal favorite – it’s going to take time! The justifications were a response to angry and frustrated fans as a virtual “CALM DOWN” to those raging about a pathetic and frustrating performance against the defending national champions.

As someone with an unquenchable thirst to win at anything at any time, during the heat of the moment these all come across as excuses, not reasons. Of course my resonable side takes over at some point and I regain the ability to recognize there are some very good reasons we are nowhere close to beating Georgia right now. But those reasons don’t cover up the disturbing observation that we simply don’t appear to be very well coached at the moment. Shane Beamer is wonderful at all the off the field stuff, including recruting, but on the field we have no offensive identity, our offensive linemen are constantly making the wrong choices leaving defenders running free, our defense is getting physically whipped. Someone will come back at me about how it’s the players and the recruiting and how the coaches aren’t the ones responsible for missed assignments or dropping passes or bad routes.

But I have a secret, the coaches ARE responsible for those things. They’re responsible for recruting the right people. Coaching them up. Teaching them to catch and run and block and recognize formations and get stronger and TACKLE. The accoutability lies with this coaching staff.

I saw many comments along the lines of “did anyone really expect us to be anything other than 1-2 at this point”. With all due respect that’s a lazy take. I’d say if we were all betting our life savings on what our record would be after three games that 95% of us would’ve said 1-2. That’s not the point. The point is for two weeks against big, strong, fast teams, we have looked small, weak, and slow. The competition has been tough, we have not.

Use your eyes and tell me what you see. If you’re disappointed but encouraged by what you’ve seen in this 1-2 start then I don’t think you’re looking very hard.

Offensive. I have been very benefit-of-the-doubt-ish about Marcus Satterfield until yesterday. We had one of the worst offenses in the SEC last season (and we’re 13th so far the season), but we also had the worst quarterback room. Early in the season the offensive line has played very poorly. Can’t blame these things on the OC, right?

But on the first series of the game yesterday, facing 3rd and 6 on the third play of the game, Spencer Rattler was replaced with Dakereon Joyner. I think everybody in the house knew what was about to happen, and sure enough Joyner tucked the ball and ran, and came up well short of the first down. We punted.

Instead of putting the ball in the hands of a former Heisman trophy contender, he put the ball in the hands of a guy who hasn’t played this season and has essentially had ONE good game in three years at South Carolina. It was absurd. Satterfield continued to make poor decisions on third down the rest of the game.

Satterfield needs two great games against inferior competition the next two weeks or his stint at USC will prove to be a short one.

Wet paper bag. Of our two coordinators Clayton White certain drew the most praise for the performance of his defense last season. But after three games we are last in total defense in the SEC and only have two sacks on the season. White is coaching with one hand tied behind his back so far, and he proved last year he can coach, so I’m not quite as concerned on the defensive side of the ball. Yet.

Squeezed. Juice Wells was leading the SEC in receiving after two weeks, but caught zero passes yesterday. Josh Vann continues to be milk-cartoning his way through this season, but did have a catch yesterday. Without looking up his stats I believe that’s two for eight yards on the year.

Rattled. So much of the blame was placed on our quarterback play last year, it stood to reason the addition of Spencer Rattler would be worth 1-2 more wins this season. But he has been extremely inconsistent so far, throwing five interceptions against only two touchdowns. Like Satterfield, he needs to gain some confidence over the next two weeks against non-SEC opponents.

Emmanworrior. The one person who does not deserve an ounce of blame or criticism for our play so far this season is Nick Emmanwori. This true freshman is an absolute ball player and I can’t wait to see him continue to grow and make plays.

GET OFF THE FIELD. No idea what was going on between quarters that led do a delay to the start of the second quarter, but that was the embarassing cherry on top of an embarassing Saturday.

Mr. Brightside. I know this hasn’t been fun to read. But I’m still optimistic we can reach a bowl this year. We need to settle in and play well against these teams where we have a decided advantage, win our toss up games and possibly pull an upset or two against teams not named Georgia.

Go Cocks.

Snap Judgments – 2022 USC @ Arkansas Edition

Hogtied. On Saturday Arkansas showed us a glimpse of who we hope to be in the not-too-distant future. The Razorbacks were in their own version of purgatory before Sam Pittman was hired in 2020. Pittman was seen as a very ho-hum hire at the time – a guy who is not particulary young, not well known, and was not on a lot of coaching hot lists. But what he has been is the perfect guy to follow Chad Morris (who was 4-18 and 0-14 in the SEC in his stint at Arkansas). Pittman has endeared himself with his no-nonsense approach, his aw-shucks personality, and his ability to recruit exactly the kinds of players he wants to run his schemes.

Yesterday Arkansas was the epitome of bigger, stronger, and faster for sixty minutes of football. The Gamecocks showed fight, something they always do. But don’t let the fact we cut the lead to one score in the third quarter fool you, there was never a moment where this game was really in doubt. The Razorbacks did what they wanted, when they wanted, against an inferior opponent.

This may sound harsh, but actually it should be encouraging for Gamecock fans. Pittman has accomplished in two years what we hope to do in short order – made his school relevant again in the SEC.

M*A*S*H Unit. The defense had so many guys hurt yesterday that I couldn’t keep up. There was at least one key contributor at each level of the defense that was lost for the game – DE Jordan Strachan, LB Mo Kaba and CB Cam Smith all left with injuries and did not return. Smith sounds like he’s going to be ok, but as of this writing it appears likely that both Strachan and Kaba have season-ending injuries. Both have had to overcome ACL injuries in their careers. For Strachan this could be especially heartbreaking because he’s a sixth year super senior who decided to return instead of pursue an NFL career. Per the ESPN broadcast, “Strachan’s family was in tears and joined him in the locker room.”

Boogie Huntley also went down early in the game but fortunately was able to return.

Satterfold. The identity of the South Carolina offense is still a man dressed in blue button down shirt, khaki pants and a paper bag over his head. The play calling was odd from the start, and that’s being kind. According to the ESPN broadcast, the Gamecock staff (read: Marcus Satterfield) was approached by Spencer Rattler, on behalf of a furious MarShawn Lloyd, about the lack of run plays called through the first three series. And voila! USC produced an 11-play touchdown drive featuring ten run plays on the very next drive.

Now it’s not atypical for a coordinator to ask his players “what are you seeing out there” and take some playcalling cues from that, but the story was a litte bit more disturbing in that our players sounded very frustrated at the game plan. Color analyst Dan Orlovsky pointed out a couple of times defensive alignments that would be perfect to run on, and we threw each time.

Satterfield, with all his unearned confidence, needs for the offense to have a good week sometime soon, or Shane Beamer’s decision to keep him as OC will look worse and worse.

Milk carton heroes. Syvelle Newton summed up my thoughts nicely.

What in the blue blazes are they doing with Jaheim Bell? Four carries for five yards and zero catches. And is Josh Vann still on the team? Zero targets yesterday after having only one catch for nine yards last week. We have too many playmakers to not be using them more effectively.

On the bright side, to my untrained eye the offensive line appeared to play better yesterday.

Spencer for hire. Spencer Rattler had his moments yesterday, both good and bad. He threw for 376 yards and a TD, but also had three fumbles (one lost) and one interception in the end zone. He’s a dude with massive talent, but I’m afraid we’re going to have to live with that good and bad Rattler all season, and hope the good outweighs the bad.

The Rain. Dadgummit, last week as part of my recap I was going to write that even though Jalen Brooks was the leading receiver that I thought Juice Wells would eventually be the primary target for Rattler. Wells proved me right (as far as you know) with a monster game – 8 catches for 189 yards and one TD. He’s currently the leading receiver in the SEC with 244 yards after two games.

Up next. To hell with Georgia, the cesspool of the South.

Go Cocks.

Anxious Moments: 31 Years of South Carolina Season Openers – Ranked

Stephon Gilmore saves the day against NC State in 2007. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

When our old pal Ben Breiner asks a question of the old guard, we feel compelled to respond.

To hopefully somewhat answer Ben’s question, we decided to take a look at the last 31 years of South Carolina season openers to determine which were the most all-around anxiety inducing, aggregating the amount of anxiety before, during and after the contest. There’s no real formula or research here, just memories combined with results combined with a dash of context.

From least anxiety-inducing to most, here you go:

31. 2021 – Beat Eastern Illinois 46-0

Even though it was Shane Beamer’s first game, everyone knew EIU was greatly overmatched before, during and after the game. Complete cakewalk.

30. 1998 – Beat Ball State 38-20

The beginning of Brad Scott’s last season and his last win as USC head coach. The thrill was gone.

29. 2001 – Beat Boise State 32-13

Before Boise State was Boise State they were just another small school headed to Columbia for a paycheck. Good USC team, relatively easy win.

28. 2002 – Beat New Mexico State 34-24

Probably closer than we would’ve liked, but still a bit of a snoozer for what turned out to be a pretty disappointing Gamecock team.

27. 2018 – Beat Coastal Carolina 48-15

Yawn. No matter how much the Coastal folks like to talk these days they’ll always be a cupcake against the ‘Cocks.

26. 1996 – Beat UCF 33-14

Before UCF was UCF, they were just another small school headed to Columbia for a paycheck. But they did have a young quarterback named Daunte Culpepper who we would see again one year later.

25. 2005 – Beat UCF 24-15

Some of you may be surprised to see this game so low given it was Steve Spurrier’s first game at the helm and it was a fourth quarter game. But UCF was in the midst of a 16-game losing streak and GADZOOKS STEVE SPURRIER WAS OUR HEAD COACH.

24. 2007 – Beat Louisiana 28-14

Thought to be a season opening cupcake against the Fightin’ Spurriers, this game was much too close for comfort.

23. 1999 – Lost to NC State 10-0

Lou Holtz’s first game as head coach, game was literally played in a tropical storm. Not much reason for anxiety, but we also didn’t know we were about to go 0-11.

22. 2000 – Beat New Mexico State 31-0

There was the pressure of a 21-game losing streak of course, but NMSU was a bad team and just the medicine Holtz and Co. needed. The goal posts came down that day, and then came down again a week later when the Gamecocks upset ninth-ranked Georgia.

21. 2003 – Beat Louisiana 14-7

Way, WAYYYYY too close for comfort. There were hints at this point that maybe Lou Holtz was starting to mail it in.

20. 1997 – Beat UCF 33-31

Turns out that Culpepper kid was pretty good. UCF led heading in to the fourth quarter, but USC scored twice and then held on for the win.

19. 2004 – Beat Vanderbilt 31-6

Very much anxiety inducing before the game started. The Gamecocks came out in fresh black helmets (for the only season under Holtz), the late Jamacia Jackson had a long interception return for touchdown, and the Gamecocks cruised late.

18. 2006 – Beat Mississippi State 15-0

Starting the season with a road SEC game is never an easy task. But the USC defense was stout and Cory Boyd was “back like cooked crack”.

17. 2015 – Beat UNC 17-13

In retrospect it really didn’t matter that we won this game. The season was disastrous, but the win felt big at the time.

16. 2008 – Beat NC State 34-0

This was the proverbial “game was closer than the score indicates”. South Carolina sent Russell Wilson off on a stretcher (he turned out to be just fine) and piled on points late for the win.

15. 2013 – Beat UNC 27-10

Big expectations could only be met with a fast start, and USC needed a win to get things off on the right foot. They rode a 75-yard touchdown run by Mike Davis for a hard-fought win.

14. 2010 – Beat Southern Miss 41-13

It was a put up or shut up year for Steve Spurrier, and it started with a tough Southern Miss team with a cocky head coach named Larry Fedora. The Gamecocks would pull away and ultimately win their first SEC East title.

13. 2017 – Beat NC State 35-28

This was easily Will Muschamp’s best team. Deebo returned the opening kickoff of the season for a TD, caught two TD passes, and the Gamecocks batted down a pass in the end zone late late to seal it.

12. 2012 – Beat Vanderbilt 17-13

Ugh, talk about anxiety inducing. A really close game for what turned out to arguably be South Carolina’s best team ever.

11. 2009 – Beat NC State 7-3

Just a horrible, horrible football game that ended with a pass batted down by freshman Stephon Gilmore in the end zone. It was a must win with a trip to Georgia the following week, a game which the Gamecocks lost 41-37.

10. (4-way tie) 1992 – Lost to Georgia 28-6; 1993 – Beat Georgia 23-21; 1994 – Lost to Georgia 24-21; 1995 – Lost to Georgia 42-23

That’s right, we started the season against Georgia four seasons in a row. That, my friends, is anxiety inducing on so many levels.

6. 2016 – Beat Vanderbilt 13-10

Will Muschamp’s first game, and you just can’t lose to Vandy in your first game. Elliott Fry drilled a long field goal for the winner in what was a nail-biting 60 minutes. (Muschamp also punted in plus territory about 15 times, tipping his hand for the rest of his tenure.)

5. 2020 – Lost to Tennessee 31-27

Tough way to start Muschamp’s final season (an SEC-only schedule in the middle of the pandemic) as South Carolina had a chance to win but a Tennessee punt hit Cam Smith, and the Volunteers killed the last minute and a half for the win.

4. 2022 – Beat Georgia State 35-14

Maybe some recency bias on my part. The optimism of the offseason, a team that beat Tennessee two years ago and almost beat Auburn last year, USC being behind early in the second half…it all made for a relatively stressful second-year opener for Shane Beamer.

3. 2019 – Lost to UNC 24-20

Everyone in Gamecock Nation was feeling the pressure in this one. Will Muschamp needed a big season, and a win in Charlotte over UNC would be a great way to start. But the Gamecocks imploded in the fourth quarter, getting outscored 15-0 en route to a crushing loss.

2. 2011 – Beat East Carolina 56-37

USC was coming off their first ever SEC East title, and Connor Shaw had won the starting QB job over Stephen Garcia. ECU ambushed the Gamecocks, leading 17-0 early and 28-14 at the half. USC exploded in the third quarter to take control, but I mean to tell you, that first half was about as anxiety-inducing as it gets for me.

1. 2014 – Lost to Texas A&M 52-28

I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever been so excited for a season opener. We had lost a lot of personnel from the teams that had won 11 games in three straight seasons, but I believed in Steve Spurrier and believed the good times would continue to roll. Instead, an unheralded Texas A&M squad, with something called Kenny Hill at quarterback, thottled the Gamecocks from start to finish. This was the day the clock started ticking on the Spurrier era.

These are the opinions of Buck and Buck alone. Agree? Disagree? Let us know what you think.

Snap Judgments – 2022 Georgia State @ USC Edition

Jeets. (Photo courtesy of The State)

Hope springs eternal. South Carolina had an offseason of hope unlike any other in the last few years. It was an offseason fueled by seven wins following a two-win season, a third-tier bowl victory, surprising recruting successes, and – something that is still a little surreal – a five-star QB at the helm. But as Georgia State’s Darren Grainger sprinted into the end zone early in the second half of our season opener for a 14-12 lead, an old familiar feeling started to creep in.

Don’t lie, you felt it. The memory of so many sluggish games at Williams-Brice against teams we should dispatch with relative ease. Sometimes we rally to pull it off, sometimes we don’t, but it’s almost always like passing a kidney stone. Slow and painful.

Fortunately, our five-star QB drove us right down the field to re-take the lead. We blocked a punt for a TD. Then did it again. And the party was on, complete with a world class light show. No, it wasn’t pretty, but after the first couple of minutes of the second half, football was fun again, and the promise of the Shane Beamer era was still in tact and still on schedule.

We’re in for some bumps in the road this season, you can count on it. We lost four of our six games last year by 20 or more points. We didn’t beat Kentucky or Missouri, which is imperative for us to take the next step. Our wins over Florida and Auburn were fun, but both of those programs were disasters by the end of the season.

People have short memories when things start going well. That’s the hope in all of us, that THIS TIME we’ve really turned it around. And maybe we have, we have eleven more games to find out.

There’s a ton of room for improvement, but to be able to breathe easy in the fourth quarter last night was a good start. One that we’ve too often not had the luxury of enjoying.

Rattle and Hum. There was no question heading into the season the greatest infusion of talent we had was Spencer Rattler at quarterback. Last year’s quarterback room was an island of misfit toys, and having a guy like Rattler could be worth two or more wins this season.

He did not disappoint last night. When a guy is special at the postion you can just tell – pocket presence, arm strength, accuracy. He has it all, but is also not above making mistakes, and he made a few. Most people will point to the interception where he could have run for a first down or hit Juju McDowell right in front of him and instead chose to throw the ball downfield for an interception. But the interception that glanced off of Ahmareon Brown’s hands was simply a bad throw. Brown was wide open and the throw should’ve been easy, but it sailed on him. Rattler also threw into triple coverage late in the game and was lucky to not have that picked off.

You know what, I’ll just shut up. Spencer Rattler is the most talented quarterback we’ve ever had and nitpicking his first ever game in a Gamecock uniform is stupid. Let’s sit back and enjoy.

The third phase. Holy cow Pete Lembo. Two blocked punts for TD, two 50-yard field goals, a fake field goal to give us a first and goal. It might’ve been the greatest special teams night in Gamecock history and Lembo should get a bonus.

Kicks Jeter. Mitch Jeter is a kick god. For a college kicker to come out in front of 75,000 fans and hit the first two field goals of his career is one thing, but to make both from 50+ yards is amazing and SEC Special Teams Player of the Week material. I question how many times this has been done in college football history, if ever.

Scatterfield. Marcus Satterfield took more heat than anyone in the Gamecock progam last year. Our offense was anemic until the final game. So much so that many thought he would be relieved of his duties at the end of the season. He survived, and was given votes of confidence by both Shane Beamer and the incoming Rattler. Satterfield himself seems to have a lot of confidence in his scheme and doesn’t care much for what fans and outsiders think. I like that.

What I don’t like is the offense didn’t look much better last night than it did most of last year. Last year’s excuse was the QB position. Last night it was our porous OL. These are seemingly legit reasons for an offense to not perform well, but at some point the offensive coordinator has to be the responsible party for a lack of yards and points.

Offensive. Our offensive line was atrocious, there’s really no way to sugar coat it. For a veteran group to get abused by a G5 school like that is not a good sign. I actually felt sorry for Lynch and the other backs last night. There were missed assignments and white jerseys in the backfield all night. Georgia State did a nice job of bringing pressure for different angles and positions, but for them to be that disruptive for four quarters is inexcusable.

Showtime. What a tremendous job by our athletic department with the new light show, music, highlight packages, etc. I wasn’t there but it looked like a great upgrade to the gameday experience.

Ex-Cocks. Last night marked the return of former Gamecock coach Shawn Elliott and former player Jamyest Williams, two dudes I’m very fond of. Elliott has done a really nice job at Georgia State after a stint as interim head coach at South Carolina. Who knows how close he came to becoming our head coach, but at minimum he was in the mix and in retrospect couldn’t have done a worse job than Will Muschamp.

Williams was one of the most talented high school players I ever saw. He was absolutely electric with the ball in his hands, but never got a chance under Muschamp, instead spending all his time at defensive back while at USC. It’s good to see him thriving at running back for GSU.

It’s good to be back. Go Cocks.