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.
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 2001 Gamecock football season featured a lot of great memories sandwiched around America’s greatest tragedy. After opening the season with two victories, including a second straight win over Georgia, the season was interrupted by the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.
USC and Mississippi State were the first sporting event, and the first real “event” after 9/11, so there were a lot of eyes on that Carolina victory. After that win, the Gamecocks had a thrilling victory over Alabama, and ran their record to 5-0 before crashing to the ground in a 10-7 loss at Arkansas.
Predictable losses to Tennessee and Florida preceded a win over Clemson which broke a four-game losing streak to the Tigers. And the season ended on a real high note with a cakewalk that turned into a last-second victory over Ohio State in the Outback Bowl (again).
Click here or click the graphic to listen to how the season unfolded, and enjoy!
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.
It was a new century and Lou Holtz and the Gamecocks were looking to beak the nation’s longest losing streak (21 games) and give the fans something to cheer about.
They did that and much more in 2000, starting the season with two goalpost-destroying victories, including a stunning win over ninth-ranked Georgia and interception throwing machine Quincy Carter.
We dropped our last podcast a day early last week and missed all the action, so decided to come back and have a one week retrospective with friend of the show Brandi Mills on the Spurrier impromptu press conference and how we feel about it today. Also:
What does quorum really mean?
Who will be our number three wide receiver? Hell, who will be our number TWO wide receiver?
Some wacky stories from our crazy (read: boring) college days
A surprising spirited debate over Chipotle and Moes
Basketball talk in July? You betcha!
So join the usual crew and the queen of Gamecock social media as we discuss these and many other topics.
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.
Tbone puts the 1999 Gamecock football season into perspective as I’m sure no one ever has, quoting Shakespeare, poet Edith Wharton, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And it all comes together perfectly to put that dreadful season in its proper perspective.
Not only that, but for you young Gamecock fans who were either too young, or had not yet reached your peak fandom by 1999, Tbone absolves you from any of the burden from that season. It is, as he says, “our gift to you”.
The 1999 Gamecock Flashback is an absolute must listen, an emotional ride through a dark, dark time. But it is indeed a time worth remembering.
Click here or click the graphic to listen, and enjoy!
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.
The Rubber Chickens Blog 