In honor of the 5-year anniversary of South Carolina’s 2010 baseball National Championship, TRC is briefly recapping each game of the magical postseason run. Today we look at the first game of the CWS, and first of two against Oklahoma. 

My personal feeling of “just happy to be here” had worn off exactly one week after the Gamecocks secured their first trip to Omaha since 2004. Our half of the College World Series bracket looked daunting – top-ranked Arizona State, 50-win Oklahoma, and a Clemson team that had taken 2 of 3 from us in March, including a humiliating 19-6 loss on our home field – but I had convinced myself this team was capable of making a run.

We were to open with the Sooners on Sunday afternoon, but as I tuned in to ESPN it was obvious the game was going to be delayed for a while. And boy was it ever.

The game was initially delayed for four hours, and then was halted again for two more hours with Oklahoma clinging to a 3-2 lead. Aside from two homers, one each by Christian Walker and Jackie Bradley, the Gamecock offense was stymied for most of the night.

Down 4-2 in the eighth, USC was able to load the bases with two outs, but the threat ended with a Brady Thomas line out to end the inning.  Then they loaded them again in the ninth, but with one out Whit Merrifield fouled out to the third baseman. After a walk to Bradley to cut the lead to 4-3, Adrian Morales cut on the first pitch he saw and flew out to center to end the game and drop the Gamecocks into the loser’s bracket.

The story of the game, besides the interminable rain delays, was South Carolina’s inability to get a big hit with runners in scoring position. (As you well know, that inability wouldn’t last long as there were some huge clutch hits to come.)

To make matters worse, Clemson took down #1 Arizona State the next day in a surprising upset. So here we were in the loser’s bracket, knowing that an extended stay in Omaha would have to include at least one win over our hated rival.

As some would say, the situation was not ideal.

Next: Game 2 of the 2010 CWS – Taking Out Some Frustration

In honor of the 5-year anniversary of South Carolina’s 2010 baseball National Championship, TRC is briefly recapping each game of the magical postseason run, beginning with their Super Regional-clinching victory over Coastal Carolina. 

I was actually on vacation in Myrtle Beach on June 13, 2010. It was the second day of my family’s annual trek to the Grand Strand. We had listened to every nerve-wracking second of South Carolina’s 4-3 victory over Coastal Carolina the previous day during our 8-hour drive, and I actually considered going to game two in person. But the combination of 100 degree temperatures and the minor detail that it was sold slap out relegated me to my condo and a seat inches away from a 20-inch television.

Coastal was far from a pushover, entering the Super Regional with a 55-9 record and earning the privilege to host the series in scorching-hot Myrtle Beach. Many believed the Chanticleers were the best team in the state in 2010.

After being shut down for most of the previous day courtesy of strong pitching performances from Blake Cooper and Matt Price, Coastal broke out the bats in game two and chased now-major-leaguer Sam Dyson after just an inning and a third. The Chants were relentless on offense, hitting three home runs and scoring in six of nine innings. They carried a 9-7 lead into the bottom of the eighth inning, needing only six outs to force a third game in the series.

After a Robert Beary leadoff walk in the bottom of the 8th, Whit Merrifield grounded into what appeared to be a back-breaking double play, and the Gamecocks were down to four outs with no one on base. Jackie Bradley, Jr. drew a walk next, and Adrian Morales doubled to deep left to put runners at second and third for Christian Walker.

Walker fell behind 1-2, and then proceeded to hit arguably the most important home run in Gamecock history.

Matt Price set down Coastal in order in the top of the ninth to send South Carolina to their first College World Series since 2004.

As for me, I’ve never enjoyed a game on a 20-inch TV quite as much as that one. And at that time, just getting to the CWS was good enough for me. Little did I, and I suspect we, know what we had in store over the next two weeks.

Next: Game 1 of the 2010 CWS – The Longest Day

The latest TRC “movie” review focuses on a heartwarming sports story about two defensive coordinators who despise each other but must work together for the betterment of their team. Coaches Hoke and Ward put aside their differences…no, wait, that’s just a remake of Remember the Titans.

This review actually covers the latest gem from the South Carolina marketing department, the launch of the second “Here” campaign. From uscsports.com:

“The popular ‘Here’ campaign used by multiple sports during the 2014-15 season began its second year with a new football video today. The 80-second video launches an integrated campaign to promote the May 8th football season ticket deadline as well as the availability for new season ticket sales.

‘We were thrilled with the way the `Here’ campaign was received by Gamecock Country,’ said Associate AD/Chief Marketing Officer Eric Nichols.”

Did he just say Gamecock Country? When did we go from being a Nation to a Country? Is that a step down? Maybe it just sounds that way.

First off, I’m not sure what metrics were used to determine the original campaign was “popular”, but we’ll give the Eric the benefit of the doubt, since he was thrilled with the way it was received. We’re guessing a few more season football tickets were purchased, particularly by those possessing blue collars and garnet hearts. (Even if it meant skipping a rent payment or two.)

But let’s touch on the most positive aspect of the latest video –

NEW VOICEOVER GUY!!!

We spoke, and the athletic department listened. Thank God they did away with that 75-year-old John Facenda rip-off and replaced him with what sounds like a 20-something African-American gentleman. This is good because I don’t think we have any 75-year-old white dudes we’re recruiting for the defensive line.

And my man preaches. He might not be the perfect choice, but he is certainly a tremendous upgrade over Wilford Brimley.

Once again, from a visual standpoint the production team does a nice job. That said, there was nothing particularly original about what they showed. Cover up the Gamecock references on the weights or the t-shirts and you pretty much have any weight room in America. I’m also not sure black and white is the best call here, but it’s a toss-up so I’ll let that slide.

Once again the script is groan-inducing. I wish we could tell you the athletic department listened to our criticism of previous scripts, but alas, it was not to be.

(BTW, I’m just assuming Andy Demetra is writing these at this point because it fits our long-time narrative of bashing him because he’s simply not likable.)

Let’s look at some of the lowlights:

“This room is a lab with four walls, 15 tons, and a volume searching for eleven.”

Cool, four walls, 15 tons and…wait, what? Did he just reference “This is Spinal Tap”? This is (allegedly) classic Demetra, invoking an admittedly famous line from a movie MADE IN NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR. I can’t wait to hear the next video to see if Andy sneaks in a reference from one of his weekends of binge-watching Monty Python.

“He’s got teeth you know! And he leaps!”

“Here I grind for my state.”

At or near the top of the list of words that need to be banned from the sports lexicon – grind.

“Will one more rep make a difference?”

Depends, will it help us get a fourth quarter defensive stop?

“Here we won’t leave those questions unanswered.”

Because, at least last year, the answer was no.

“Because when the game is on the line, and my brothers are counting on me, that quit switch is the only obstacle to becoming legendary.”

I understand this is a hype video, but whoa, let’s slow down on the “legendary” talk. We’re coming off of a 7-6 season and lost quite a bit of offensive production, and have to attempt to recover from having the worst defense since the Brad Scott era. Instead of becoming legendary why don’t we focus on a 5-3 conference record, ok?

And a “quit switch”? What the hell Andy?

Quick note – the player on the bench at the 53 second mark of the video is wearing a “Steve Spurrier 2008 Football Camp” shirt. Not saying that’s good or bad, just kinda funny.

“Here the fourth quarter begins now…”

Oh, great, then let me take a couple of pain killers, grab a bottle of bourbon and watch Josh Dobbs shred our defense for 300 yards and four touchdowns. Seriously, I would’ve steered clear of any fourth quarter references.

“We have no choice but to lace ‘em up…and finish.”

Cliche’ alert.

“Here, glory isn’t given, it’s earned.”

Or, in our case, neither.

“Here, it’s great to be a Gamecock.”

If anyone at Clemson had a shred of talent it would be so easy to spoof the “Here” campaign. Fortunately nobody there does, so we’ll just remind you how much we disliked the first iteration of the Here campaign.

All in all, the effort in this video is slightly better. But again, there is nothing remotely special about it. Cover up the logos, names and stupid hashtag, and this becomes pretty much any football locker room in the country.

For TRC, I’m Buck, and we’ll see you next time at the movies.*

*Movies = YouTube

Back in June of 2011, the day after South Carolina clinched its second consecutive National Championship in baseball, I penned a blog post called The New Normal. The new normal lauded the Gamecock program as the best in the nation, and a team that wasn’t going away any time soon:

“I think the thing is, for Carolina baseball, this is the new normal.  We have the best baseball program in the country, and I don’t think anyone can dispute that at the moment.  Making it to the CWS is no longer the goal.  Winning the whole darn thing is.”

Who could argue? With arguably the best coach, the best facilities, and a stockpile of top recruiting classes, the Gamecock baseball team was going to be a serious threat to make it to Omaha for many years to come.

In 2012, Ray Tanner captained an overachieving South Carolina team to a CWS runner-up finish, ending the greatest run in Gamecock sports history. Less than a month later, he traded in his pinstripes for a coat and tie and succeeded Eric Hyman as Director of Athletics at USC.

There was no coaching search to replace Tanner, because there was no doubt who his replacement would be – Chad Holbrook.

Holbrook had come to South Carolina in 2009 as Associate Head Coach and was being groomed to replace Tanner from day one. He was named the 10th best recruiter in all of college athletics by ESPN in 2010, and was named Assistant Coach of the Year in 2011 by both by the ABCA and Baseball America. His promotion to head coach was a no-brainer.

In 2013 he led the Gamecocks to a 43-20 record, but they were ousted in an NCAA Super Regional at North Carolina. It was in that series that his in-game management first came into serious question, bunting his best hitter in the first inning of a scoreless game with a  runner on.

The Gamecocks had a similar season in 2014, with a 44-18 record. But the season ended in the Regional round with a shocking 10-1 home loss to upstart Maryland, a team that had ended their 28-game NCAA tournament home winning streak the night before. Holbrook was once again called into question for starting super freshman Wil Crowe in an elimination game against Campbell instead of saving him for the Terrapins.

The Gamecocks lost some big guns after last season, including Jordan Montgomery, Joey Pankake, Grayson Greiner, Tanner English and closer Joel Seddon. But “The New Normal” meant the Gamecocks would just reload from their stockpile of outstanding recruiting classes and be right back on track in 2015. Optimists had the Gamecocks in the preseason top 5, and even the most pessimistic of projections had the Gamecocks easily in the top 25.

An opening season loss to College of Charleston was followed by six straight wins. Losing two of three to Clemson was disappointing, but the Gamecocks reeled off ten straight wins and everything seemed to be, well, normal.

But the win streak was broken with a mid-week loss to Winthrop (no worries, everyone loses mid-week games!) After that, the Gamecocks lost four straight SEC series for the first time since becoming a conference member. Last weekend they were simply not competitive and swept by Florida in three games by a combined score of 38-10.

The capper came last night, with a 7-4 extra-innings loss at home to Presbyterian College. Read that sentence again. With all due respect to PC, that is a sentence that should never have to be written about South Carolina baseball. Ever.

USC is currently 23-15 overall, 6-9 in the conference, and with series left against highly-ranked Vanderbilt, Texas A&M and LSU, are looking like a long shot to make the NCAA tournament. The last time USC didn’t make the tournament was 1999.

It’s hard to believe how far and how fast we’ve fallen. Many have thrown out the “everybody has a bad year” reasoning. If Ray Tanner was still the head coach I’d accept that in a heartbeat, because Tanner had earned the benefit of the doubt and then some. Some have said “look at Florida, they were 29-30 in 2013, it happens”. But they, too, have a head coach in Kevin O’Sullivan that has earned a mulligan or two with the way he has built that program.

My concern is we’ve seen a steady decline over the last three years under Chad Holbrook, with a complete fall off of a cliff this season. Yes, we made the Supers in 2013 and hosted a regional last year. But honestly, making out a lineup card with the likes of Pankake, Greiner, Montgomery, English, etc., made his job much easier.

I honestly don’t know if the recruiting classes we’ve had were overrated, the players simply haven’t developed, or some combination of the two has caused our demise. All I know is the common denominator is Holbrook, whose in-game management has been questioned often in his short tenure.

I’m not exactly calling for the firing of Chad Holbrook, because I’m essentially a wuss. I have very human feelings when it comes to talking about firings, and knowing that Holbrook is a family man and is by all accounts a fantastic guy, I simply can’t make that call right now. Plus, being Ray Tanner’s hand-picked guy, he probably has an extremely long leash.

But at the same time, college baseball is a pretty big deal at the University of South Carolina. The back-to-back CWS titles are getting further and further in the rearview mirror, and there doesn’t appear to be a return trip to Omaha on the horizon any time soon.

We cannot afford to leave our beautiful program in the hands of someone who can’t handle it. And if we leave it there too long, there will be a new “new normal”, and it will not be pleasant.

Hey we’re back!

What would bring The Rubber Chickens Blog out of semi-retirement to make an actual blog post? A Mighty Meaty pizza from Mellow Mushroom? Yes, definitely. Ronda Rousey putting Dabo Swinney in an armbar? You know it. A Jim Carrey film festival minus that stupid penguin movie? Yeah, you got us.

Unfortunately none of those things have been offered to us.

Deadspin, however, piqued our interest yesterday with a hypothetical question that involves things we love like sports, time travel, and the possibility of changing life as we know it via the butterfly effect. The question – if you could change the outcome of one play, which would it be?

They were obviously talking about sports in general, and gave the great example of Gordon Heyward’s half-court shot at the end of the 2010 national championship game against Duke going in instead of rimming out.

I, of course, immediately thought of this question in Gamecock-only terms.

My very first thought (which is usually the one that contains the most intense, deep-seated anguish that is more than likely responsible for my sciatica) is “The Push” by Rod Gardner on Andre Goodman in the 2000 Carolina-Clemson game. While that play not happening probably doesn’t change the long-term fortunes of either school, it would take away a helluva painful moment for Gamecock fans in the rivalry.

The play that possibly changes our fortunes more than any other? I’d have to say Marquez North’s circus catch near the end of Tennessee’s  23-21 upset of South Carolina in 2013. Without that play, South Carolina eakes out an SEC road victory and goes on to an 11-1 record and a date with Auburn in the SEC Championship Game*. And if we could’ve sprung the upset in the SECCG, that very well might have meant a date in the final BCS National Championship Game against Florida State.

*Of course this little exercise involves assumptions, such as Tennessee doesn’t make some other miracle play to win that game, or that we still go into Missouri the following week and win that game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CLxiGhUqy4

The play that I didn’t immediately think of that made me feel like a full-blown jerk is the Marcus Lattimore injury (h/t @brentsilvia). Once again, it was a play that probably didn’t change the fortunes of our football team, but it was a play that radically changed the life trajectory of one of the most beloved players in Gamecock history.

Other twitter/text mentions include:

• The Cam Newton Hail Mary on the last play of the first half of the 2010 SECCG
• Jarvis Moss blocking Ryan Succop’s game-winning field goal attempt in The Swamp in ’06 (this play changes, or at least delays, the SEC’s historic run of national champions)
• Game-winning TD from Steve Fuller to Jerry Butler for Clemson in 1977
• George Rogers’ goal line fumble vs. Georgia in 1980
• Andrew Pinnock’s goal line fumble vs. Georgia in 2002
• Brad Scott boneheaded trick play call vs. Clemson in 1997

Interestingly, we didn’t receive any plays from any other sport than football. I’m not sure if it’s good or bad fortune that we haven’t been “one play away” in other sports. Or at least not memorably.

Fellow TRC writer Tbone then posed another interesting question – what one play in Gamecock sports history would you NEVER GIVE BACK?  While we didn’t pose the question to Twitter, here are the ones we came up with:

• The Hit (Jadeveon Clowney)
• The Hit (Whit Merrifield)
• Brandon Bennett over the top vs. Georgia
• Alshon’s catch vs. ‘Bama
• Jackie Bradley Jr.’s 2-out, 2-strike hit vs. Oklahoma
• Christian Walker HR vs. Coastal
• Brian Scott TD vs. UGA in 2001
• Antonio Grant game winner vs. Cincinnati in 1997
• Scott Wingo miracle double play vs. Florida in 2011
• Josh Brown game winner vs. UT in 2005

How about you? If you could change the outcome of one play in Gamecock history, what would it be?

Or which play would you keep over all the others?

Post your answers in the comments below, or @ tweet them at us. We’d love to hear some that haven’t been mentioned here.

TRC Unleashed returns with a healthy discussion about coaching changes, if they should be made, if so then why, if not then why not, if so then who, and oh God I hope the podcast isn’t this boring.

Tune in, we even talk about basketball, and answer a whole slew of Twitter questions.

Click here or click the graphic to listen, and enjoy!

We typically only go to the movies to discuss Gamecock videos, like here and here, but occasionally something comes along outside of the USC marketing department that is so atrocious that we simply cannot ignore.

Clemson’s “I Am Death Valley” is that something. Witness here:

Now, it looks like this video has been around for more than a year, but I just personally found out about its existence this week. Based on a little research the video has been playing before Clemson home games since 2013. Many would argue this video is a direct, stadium-as-first-person ripoff of South Carolina’s “Welcome to Williams-Brice”, which has been playing since 2011. But we really don’t care about that since we don’t particularly like either video.

Let’s start with the voiceover in “I Am Death Valley”. Having Optimus Prime or Beelzebub (I can’t tell which one, it’s not listed in the credits) agree to do the voiceover is quite a coup for the Tigers. But it is also comically distracting. It is either a guy with a deep voice being asked to do something unnatural to make it deeper, or it is computer generated. For the sake of the guy (or girl?) doing it, I hope it is the latter. Again, to sound tough or intimidating you don’t have to have some deep-voiced 60-year-old dude. To both South Carolina and Clemson – branch out with your voiceover talent, do something different.

The imagery is not terrible, although the opening sequence uses the same three under construction photos multiple times to make sync up with the music. Historical footage is always cool, and the rest is pretty standard fare.

The script is not all bad, but there are a few sections that worth noting:

I am the seats handed down from generation to generation. 

Sure buddy, until those PSL’s kick in.

The OOOOOOH of the crowd as a tackler meets his mark.

In 1:25 of creepy voiceover, the “OOOOOOH” part might be the creepiest.

The 110% commitment to be “All In”.

When are people going to learn that, by definition, it is not possible to give more than 100%. And there’s “All In”, ripped off from Auburn, still hanging around.

The paralyzing joy that originates in a California desert. 

What? Perhaps the most nonsensical line of the entire script. What is paralyzing joy? And if joy did actually paralyze you wouldn’t that scare the ever-living crap out of you and take your joy away immediately? And I know the rock came from a California desert, but why did the paralyzing joy originate there? Sounds like somebody got bit by a desert rattler and was transported to the stadium.

I’m where two Perrys, Kirkland, Dawkins, Spiller, and Nuke became immortals.

Why do you use the last names of five of your most celebrated players, and then the nickname of DeAndre Hopkins? It’s not even a cool nickname, “Nuke”. It’s kind of a silly nickname to put up alongside your “immortals”. It also cracks me up that they show Hopkins catching a TD against South Carolina, a team who he never beat. Some immortal.

I am the inevitable erosion of will. The impending doom of consequence.

Wait, did Andy Demetra write this while playing with his Transformers? That would explain a lot.

I am the heart that pumps orange blood through your veins. 

You should get that checked out immediately.

Honestly, most of the script is just typical recycled bravado you find in any hype video produced by a grad student. (Although the paralyzing joy from California thing is just bizarre.) But it’s the voiceover that pretty much turns this video into a parody of other hype videos.

If you think we’re just being haters, we probably are just a little. But you know we hate Georgia, and they put together a ridiculously good set of hype videos this year.  Granted, they’re not designed to be played before the start of every game, but I’m sure if they have one they knocked it out of the park. They use great images combined with great scripts that aren’t overloaded with cliche’. And most importantly they use normal-sounding voices to bring life to the videos. Both South Carolina and Clemson could learn something from videos like this.

OK, so I started this post as 2015 Gamecock Sports Resolutions, but they started sounding a lot like goals and not really resolutions. So like any good blogger I mashed up the two words into something terrible nobody will understand. Really these are part resolution, part goal, part wishful thoughts, and part uncategorized ramblings. But all those things would make the post title way too long, so bear with me here as I present this list of things I choose to attribute to Gamecock athletics in 2015:

FOOTBALL

Win 9 regular season games. Believe me when I tell you, this will be a tall task. With the offense more than likely taking a step back next year, the defense will have to make a miracle recovery for this to happen. Looking at the schedule I’m only counting five probable wins. With road games against UGA, Mizzou, TAMU, and Tennessee, and home dates against LSU, Florida and Clemson, I’m not sure where we’ll find the other four. Win those five gimmes and go 4-3 against the rest (with a win over Clemson) and we’ve got ourselves a spectacularly successful season.

Triple the 2014 sack total. Maybe an overreach, but our total of 12 sacks in 2014 was astoundingly low. Tripling our total would still only tie us for second in sacks in the SEC this past year. Doubling our total would only give us a tie for 9^th in the league, so I’m shooting for the stars while keeping my feet on the ground.

Learn how to tackle. In the game of tackle football this is an essential skill to have, so we need to develop it. We had two players in the top 30 in tackles in the SEC this year – Skai Moore at 13 and T.J. Gurley at 15. Georgia, Missouri and Tennessee each had two players in the top 10. We need Moore and the fast-rising Jonathan Walton to be tackling machines next year and both finish in the top 10.

Hold opponents to less than 25 points per game and less than 175 rush yards per game. Reasonable, achievable, and necessary. This would likely move us into the top 10 in the league in both categories.

Develop a starting QB not named Pharoh Cooper. You all know we love Pharoh Cooper, but please stop floating the idea that he might be our starting QB next year. He will be the leading returning receiver in the SEC, and we need him at that position so bad it hurts. We need him there much more than we need him to be a full-time wildcat quarterback with bad mechanics and a below average throwing arm.

Connor Mitch, we’re looking at you.

Find a complement to Cooper at WR. Nick Jones and Shaq Roland will be gone, leaving little-used K.J. Brent and Shamier Jeffery as the leading returning wide receivers next to Cooper. One of those guys needs to emerge, along with at least one of our redshirted freshmen – Shaq Davidson, Deebo Samuel or Terry Googer.

Have two backs rush for more than 750 yards. I think at least one of either Brandon Wilds or David Williams can crack the 1000-yard barrier. But with Wilds’ penchant for getting dinged up, I think we’ll see more of a two-headed monster approach in 2015. (Love Williams BTW, think he is a star in the making.)

Return a kickoff for touchdown. If Shon Carson comes back and is still our primary returner, scratch this one.

BASKETBALL

Make a postseason tournament. At the beginning of the season the NIT seemed a reasonable goal. Two missteps in Charleston made us all wonder if even that was attainable. But the proverbial light seems to have come on for this team after the destruction of two pretty decent teams in Oklahoma State and Clemson. Now maybe an NCAA tournament birth is not so far out of reach after all?

It will still be an uphill climb for Frank Martin’s bunch. If they can keep playing at the level they have been playing, and Sindarius Thornwell starts playing like we know he can, they should finish somewhere between third and fifth in the SEC. Anything below third probably makes them a bubble team. But wouldn’t it be nice to watch on selection Sunday with a chance to play in the dance?

Put a player on the All-SEC first or second team. Second team is much more likely. The leading candidate right now? I think we all know it’s Duane Notice. Who had that in the betting pool in October?

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Final Four. Dawn Staley said it, the players have bought into it, so let’s do it. I certainly think we’re one of the top four teams in the country, but it will be interesting to see how our young players hold up to the SEC grind.

BASEBALL

Super Regional. The honeymoon is over for Chad Holbrook, and it’s time for the baseball team to take a step forward instead of another step back. If there is one area of South Carolina athletics where “good enough” is not good enough, it’s baseball. Holbrook is a great guy, and by all accounts a fantastic baseball man. But the shocking Regional loss to Maryland last year at home has stuck in the craw of Gamecock fans all offseason, and another exit like that could get the natives grumbling.

The preseason rankings don’t bode well for the Gamecocks (I’ve seen 21 in one poll), but we all know rankings are garbage at this stage. The talent is there to make a run if we can stay healthy, and we need to win back some of that CWS good will before Vanderbilt takes it all.

How about you, what would you like to see in 2015?

Some quick, barely researched, not fully-formed thoughts from South Carolina’s 24-21 DCI Bowl victory over Miami:

Happy Endings. There were so many things to be disappointed about in South Carolina’s 2014 season – a humiliating opening loss on the SEC Network, a maddeningly ineffective defense, fourth quarter collapses peppered throughout, our first loss to Clemson since 2008. None of those things were wiped away by our fourth consecutive bowl win yesterday. But it sure felt nice to end the season on a high note.

Yes, it was December 27. Yes, the game was in Shreveport. Yes, there was a (much) less than full stadium there to watch it. But judging by the smiles on the faces of Steve Spurrier and our players after the game, it was as important as any game we played this season. It was important to have a lasting memory of hoisting a trophy to close out 2014. It was important to send an extraordinary group of seniors out with a win. It was important to lay that first mental building block for 2015.

As frustrated as you and I have been throughout this season, I promise you it doesn’t come close to the frustration felt by those players and coaches. I’m both happy for and proud of them for going out with a win.

Pharoh. Speaking of 2015 building blocks, look no further than Pharoh Cooper as one of the cornerstones. Cooper woke up a slumbering offense with a 78-yard touchdown catch for USC’s first score, and went on to grab nine balls for 170 yards and the Independence Bowl MVP honor. He finished the season with 1136 yards receiving and will surely be first-team all-SEC heading into next season.

Hello defense. (Nice to see you. It’s been a long time.) In the first quarter it looked as if Miami’s Duke Johnson might be on his way to a record-setting day in the DCI Bowl. But embattled defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward and his defense made important stops to hold Miami to field goals early, then played just well enough in the third and fourth quarters to help secure the victory.

Skai Moore (defensive MVP) and the suddenly Urlacher-esque Jonathan Walton were outstanding at linebacker. If the help coming on the defensive line next year lives up to its billing, and some of our young DBs develop the way freshmen to sophomores should, the defense could be back to respectable (or even better!) next year.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes? To the dismay of many Gamecock fans, Steve Spurrier announced after the game that there would be no coaching staff changes until at least after signing day in February, and hinted there may be no staff changes at all.

“If something happens down the road and we can strengthen our staff somewhere, then, obviously, I have to look at that,” he said.

Team Thompson. I’ve pretty much defended Dylan Thompson in this space all season, so I guess I’ll do it one more time. Yesterday’s stat line: 22-34, 284 yards, 2 TDs passing, 1 TD rushing.

And yet, I still saw tweets complaining when Thompson threw into coverage or overthrew receivers. I made the mistake of visiting a message board last night and saw his game referred to as “garbage” and a couple of people saying they are glad he won’t be back next year.

Such is the life of a starting quarterback, I suppose. Just don’t forget Thompson set the record for most passing yards and completions in a season, and is second in TDs for a season.

I’m not advocating that Thompson is the greatest quarterback in Gamecock history by any stretch of the imagination. But he deserves a lot more respect than he’s gotten this year, both as a player and an ambassador for this program. If you don’t like the fact we went 7-6 as a TEAM, or his religious views, or his haircut, that’s fine, you are certainly entitled to your opinion.

But from a purely football standpoint, if you like USC football and you’re happy Dylan Thompson has played his last game in a Gamecock uniform, then I can only assume you are an idiot. At least from a football sense.

Snaps shut. This concludes Snap Judgments for 2014. I must admit, this has easily been the most difficult season since we started this blog in 2010. It’s easy to stay up late on Saturday or get up early before church on Sunday and write when you’re winning. It’s even fun.

When you’re losing though, and hooboy losing the way we lost some games this year, it can be pretty tough. But it can also be therapeutic, and it was many times over the course of the season. Thanks to everyone who came back week after week, it is very much appreciated.

So until next season, Go Cocks!

Happy Holidays Gamecock fans. Our Christmas gift to you is this podcast, because quite frankly we can’t afford something for all of you, even if we put a $10 limit on it. On this episode we discuss:

• The Spurrier plan – retire in six days or five years?
• We ain’t getting a new defensive coordinator.
• Recruiting – calm down we’re fine no we’re not.
• Shaw, Lattimore and…Chad Kelly?
• Oran “Juice” Jones
• Basketball!
• Twitter questions and some Christmas trivia

For  you Serial podcast fans, hope you like the opening. Click here or click the graphic to listen, and enjoy!