With the Gamecock football season now three-quarters over (how the heck did that happen???), we thought a fun bye-week exercise would be to revisit some of our pre-season conventional wisdom and see how it’s holding up:

What we believed on August 28: Jadeveon Clowney is a Heisman candidate.

Reality on Nov. 8: Jadeveon Clowney is most certainly not a Heisman candidate. I’m even beginning to wonder where he will land on postseason All-SEC teams, if anywhere. Now, we all know he was hyped during the offseason beyond any level he could ever achieve, but his production has been below anything we would have imagined two months ago. Yes, he has nagging injuries and offenses have successfully schemed against him, but the season for him individually has been a disappointment. Fortunately, JD has proven to be a team player and seems to have taken more of a leadership role as the season has progressed. With four, and possibly five games left, I think he still has something spectacular in store for us.

Related: as Twitter followers @NateLord53 and @Aaronbost12 pointed out, Chaz Sutton was supposed to benefit greatly from all the attention Clowney would get on the field and have a monster season. While he has played better of late (see two big plays on Missouri’s final, ill-fated overtime drive), he has disappeared for long stretches this season.

What we believed on August 28: Connor Shaw and Dylan Thompson will split time at quarterback.

Reality on Nov. 8: Connor Shaw is the unquestioned leader of this football team. Sure, it sounded like a novel idea back in August. Last season Dylan Thompson had played great against Clemson, and had finished the game-winning drive in the Outback Bowl that Shaw had started, so he deserved some playing time, right? But when given a chance this year, Thompson threw a momentum-shifting interception against Vanderbilt, and had a lackluster performance in relief of Shaw at Central Florida.

When Thompson started at Missouri and couldn’t put points on the board through 2 ½ quarters, we had to turn to an injured Shaw to pick us up off the deck and engineer one of the great rallies in South Carolina history.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Dylan Thompson and can’t wait for him to lead the Gamecocks next year. I think he’ll be great.

But this is without a doubt Connor Shaw’s team.

What we believed on August 28: Georgia and Florida are our biggest competition in the East.

Reality on Nov. 8: Missouri and Georgia are our biggest competition in the East. When a mostly healthy Georgia team beat us in early September I thought our chances to win the East were dead. After all, when looking down Georgia’s schedule, who was going to beat them?

But no one could have predicted Georgia, along with Florida, would be decimated by so many injuries over the course of the season. At the same time, no one predicted Missouri’s quick rise to the top of the East.

With Georgia’s victory over Florida last weekend, it appears to be a three-team race to Atlanta, and given our schedule advantage, I still like our chances.

What we believed on August 28: We don’t have a go-to wide receiver.

Reality on Nov. 8: We don’t have a go-to wide receiver. But wait, on August 29 I thought that was a bad thing. It turns out the wide receiver corps has been very solid this year, with Shaw and Thompson spreading the wealth between Bruce Ellington (32 catches, 5 TDs), Damiere Byrd (29 catches, 4 TDs), Nick Jones (25 catches, 4 TDs), and, when he’s not in street clothes, Shaq Roland (11 catches, 3 TDs). Also of note, Kane Whitehurst has two catches for two touchdowns.

The go-to-receiver by committee has worked out well for us, and the good news is (barring something unforeseen), they will all be back next year.

What we believed on August 28: Our tight ends will be serious offensive weapons.

Reality on Nov. 8: Our tight ends have mostly been a non-factor. This has been as puzzling as anything we’ve experienced this year. Busta Anderson had proven himself as a quality threat at tight end over his freshman and sophomore seasons, and the reports of Jerell Adams size, speed and athleticism had us drooling to get him on the field. With the uncertainty at wide receiver, we were comforted by the fact we had these two guys. Throw in the talented Drew Owens and we had perhaps the best set of tight ends in the SEC.

But through nine games the three combined only have 25 catches and one TD, and to my knowledge no one has given a good explanation as to why we haven’t seen more production out of the position. Much like the Clowney situation, I expect Anderson or Adams to have at least one breakout game over the last three weeks.

What we believed on August 28: Mike Davis has a chance to be a decent running back.

Reality on Nov. 8: Mike Davis is a spectacular running back. We’ve said a lot about him in this space and talked a lot about him on our podcast, but Davis has been the biggest and most pleasant surprise of this season. We knew he had potential, but we had no idea he would have the best combination of size and speed we’ve seen at USC since George Rogers. He will be a first-team All-SEC back, and will probably make some All-America lists.

What we believed on August 28: Our linebackers are talented but will struggle because of their inexperience.

Reality on Nov. 8: Our linebackers are talented but have struggled because of their inexperience. But the light appears to be coming on for most of them. The last few weeks they have been playing faster and making fewer mistakes. Skai Moore is a star in the making.

What we believed on August 28: We will have several easy wins this year.

Reality on Nov. 8: We have had one easy win this year, and might (MIGHT, I say) have one more. As Spurrier said after one of our early, root-canal wins, it’s just who we are. For whatever reason, we have trouble putting teams away. The good news is, most of the time, we eventually do put them away.

Any surprises we’re missing?

TRC Unleashed follows a lackluster performance by the Gamecocks on the gridiron with our own lackluster performance over the airwaves. But much like the football team, WE RALLY IN THE SECOND HALF FOR A WIN. Among other things you’ll hear:

• Standing on the corner when I heard my bulldog bark
• Our analysis of an uneven but eventually satisfying victory
• Who were the superlative Gamecock performances on Saturday
• Salty Gman
• If Connor Shaw was a vegetable…
• The 2013 Gamecocks star in “The Karate Kid”
• The @blitz_jewelry Rubber Chicken Awards
• Questions from the Twitterverse
• What Pam Ward would sound like as the #SCVoice

Hang in there through the childishness and the baby crying (not related) and the reverb and you’ll be satisfied. We guarantee it or our names aren’t [redacted], [redacted] and [redacted].

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

Some short, quick, barely researched, not fully formed thoughts from South Carolina’s 34-16 victory over Mississippi State on Saturday:

Meh. That’s pretty much how we felt walking out of Williams-Brice on Saturday afternoon. I turned to Tbone, shrugged my shoulders, and he said, “I’m not really sure what to say about that.” Shortly after, Gman caught up with us, and gave a similar palms up shrug to mine.

It’s not that we weren’t satisfied with the win, we certainly were. Especially given what is on the line in the SEC East over the course of the next month. But it was an uncomfortable game, one that MSU hung around in a little longer that we would’ve hoped due to three-and-outs in seven of our eight first half possessions. But an opportunistic Gamecock defense forced five turnovers, and four of Connor Shaw’s ten completions went for touchdowns to help USC pull away in the second half. It was a hard game to get a good grasp on, so we’ll just put this one in the win is a win is a win category.

Team Shaw. Shaw moved into second all-time in touchdown passes behind Steve Taneyhill, and is now one win from tying Todd Ellis as the winningest quarterback in South Carolina history. It’s hard to believe the kid who came into the 2010 Auburn game in relief of Stephen Garcia for his first meaningful collegiate action would reach such a lofty perch in Gamecock lore.

The Rocket. Mike Davis reached a milestone in the second half, going over the 1,000 yard mark for the season with a 43-yard burst. He has now rushed for over 100 yards in seven of nine games this year. If he continues to match his per game pace over the last four games he would go over 1500 yards for the season, which would be the third-best season in South Carolina history. Davis added a pretty nifty catch down the right sideline that I’m sure is going to catch the eyes of NFL scouts as well.

Home Sweet Home. The Gamecocks tied an all-time record with their 15th straight home victory on Saturday, and can break that record in two weeks against Florida.

Coming around. Lorenzo Ward today said the defense is starting to play up to the standards he expects, which could be scary for future opponents. The team has relied heavily on the offense this season, so it was nice to see the game on the defense’s shoulders against MSU. Good teams find different ways to win when their best unit isn’t clicking, and that’s what he Gamecocks did on Saturday. It wasn’t a lockdown performance by any means, but we made the big plays when they were needed.

Spurs Up. Probably the position that has drawn the most criticism this year has been the Spur group, and nobody has taken more heat than the starter, Sharrod Golightly. But Golightly played an inspired game against the Bulldogs, as did Jordan Diggs when he had a chance to spell #9. Our linebackers and Spurs have grown up, just in time for the stretch run.

The Bandit. Vic Hampton lived up to his self-appointed moniker, tipping one pass that was intercepted by Skai Moore and stripping a Bulldog receiver late in the game. He can be a wildcard in the defensive backfield at times, but when he’s on his game there are no corners in the SEC that are better.

Hull yes. Tyler Hull recovered from a bad first punt and had another nice game, punting eight times for a 40.4 yard average. Consistency is key, and hopefully he’s finding it.

Wild Wild East. The best scenario for us – beat Florida, Georgia loses to Auburn, and Missouri loses to Ole Miss OR Texas A&M. I think all that sounds really reasonable, but unfortunately we have a few more weeks of nail-biting to go.

TRCpalooza. Great time in the capital city this weekend for all three members of TRC. We had a nice evening restaurant/bar hopping Friday night in the Vista (complete with a zombie flash mob), and then were joined tailgating on Saturday among others by social media superstars Lawrence and his girlfriend Sarah, Jon-Michael Gunnels, Layla, and last but never, ever least, Brandi Fournames. It’s always a little scary to put actual people with social media personas, but we can’t say enough about the folks that came by on short notice. We’ll try to get an earlier start on our planning next year and have an actual event with, like, invitations and stuff.

Go Cocks! Enjoy the bye week folks.

TRC Unleashed revisits the Miracle in COMO, and we cover everything Connor Shaw and non-Connor Shaw related, including Gman’s “love affair” with the Gamecocks quarterback?!? It’s not what you think, or maybe it is because we have some real weirdos listen to our podcast sometimes.

Anyway, we cover:

• Emotions, emotions, emotions
• A quarter by quarter breakdown of the MiCOMO
• Laces in?
• Ellington, Quarles, Fry and the other heroes
• This Week in Dabo

Click here or click the graphic to listen, it’s fun!

Some quick, barely researched, not fully formed thoughts from South Carolina’s improbable 27-24 overtime win over 5th-ranked Missouri last night:

Miracle in COMO. Wow. I don’t believe words can adequately describe last night’s win over Mizzou. Not only did we beat the number five team in the country, but it was on the road. At night. After falling behind 17-0. After not scoring our first points until early in the 4th quarter. After staring down a 4th and goal from the 15 in the first overtime. After surviving Mizzou having a first and goal on their final possession. After the Tiger kicker doinks a 24-yard field goal.

We were on the verge of losing so many times in that last hour of football. I kept thinking “teams that mount this kind of comeback are not supposed to lose. We ARE NOT SUPPOSED to lose after this kind of rally.” Somehow we didn’t.

I can’t think of any other game where the spirit of our mascot was epitomized more. These Gamecocks appeared to be down and out for three quarters, and then mounted a comeback for the ages.

Those guys fought to the football death. And somehow, some way, came out of there with the win. Gamecocks indeed.

4th and 15. I was slumped in my chair at home when the ball was snapped on 4th and 15 in the first overtime. I was thinking about writing this blog post. The theme was how in the world could we fight so hard to send the game to overtime, and then lay down on both our defensive and offensive possessions in overtime. But then Connor Shaw hit a bafflingly open Bruce Ellington, and we had life.

Us old-timers know that’s a play that we’re not supposed to pull off. Plays like that don’t happen for us, they happen to us. But things are different now, and Shaw and Ellington don’t really give a crap about the conventional wisdom of us old-timers. They just want to win.

No Small Fry. After a bad miss last week at Tennessee, and a poor kick in the first half Saturday night, my confidence in Elliott Fry was officially on the decline. But he was one of many Gamecocks who proved me wrong last night, calmly drilling a 40-yarder for the winning points. He handled the pressure much better than…

Doink. Andrew Baggett missed a field goal in the fourth quarter that could’ve put sufficient distance between Mizzou and us, and then inexplicably* doinked a chip shot off the left upright to give USC the win. Who would’ve thought we would eventually win this game because of special teams?

*Unless you count Joe Tessitore’s insistence that the laces being in caused the miss. It was a 24-yarder, you should make that no matter where the laces are positioned. 

Team Shaw. The legend grows. When Shaw went down with a knee injury last week there were a lot of us who feared the worst. Even if it wasn’t the worst, surely he wouldn’t be able to play this week. All he did was come in the game with six+ minutes left in the third quarter and lead his team back from a three-score deficit by going 20-29 for 201 yards and three touchdowns. Ho hum, such is the life of the greatest Gamecock quarterback ever.

Team Thompson. At the same time, I hope folks aren’t all of a sudden down on Dylan Thompson. His line was far from terrible – 15-27 for 222 yards and one interception. He was a little wild, no doubt. But like Shaw’s propensity to tuck and run before going through his progressions, there are some things with Dylan we are going to have to live with to get to the things that are going to make him a very good quarterback for us. As Spurrier said, last night was just not Dylan’s night.

The HBC. I was critical of Steve Spurrier last week, specifically his management of timeouts. He deserves a tremendous amount of credit for inserting Shaw last night when the majority of us thought it was a horrible idea. But lost in all the guts and grittiness of the victory is what a superb game he called, particularly in the second half.

Grinders. Our defense gave up 404 yards, but played a fantastic game. Missouri was averaging 44 ppg entering the game and had not scored less than 36 (against the vaunted Gators no less) in any game this season. Lorenzo Ward’s defense held the Tigers to 17 points in regulation, and seven of those came on an unfortunate botched coverage that resulted in a 96-yard touchdown. Aside from Clowney and Quarles, and maybe Hampton, there are no real superstars on our defense. But our guys grind and scratch and claw and make the offense fight for every inch they get. This group is a lot better than they get credit for. (Shouts out to 10, 44,  and 8 for solid games.)

The Rocket (and Shon). Mike Davis had a nightmare of a first half with a pair of fumbles, including one where it appeared we were going in for our first score. But like the entire team, he showed tremendous resilience, and when he wasn’t finding his way in the running game he made things happen through screens and short passes. He is truly a special back.

Also, shout out to Shon Carson, who is running with a lot more confidence these days and has filled in admirably for Davis. He has also saved a full football season for David Williams, who will now assuredly redshirt.

The A-trains. I predicted a breakout game for Busta Anderson, and while that didn’t exactly happen, it was nice to see the tight ends finally involved in the offense. Anderson and Jerell Adams combined for six catches for 86 yards. I hope this is a foreshadowing of big things to come from both.

The Wild Wild East. After last night, four teams still have a legitimate shot at the SEC East title. The Gamecocks need to win out, and they need both Georgia and Missouri to lose one more SEC game.

Missouri still has the simplest, if not the easiest, road to Atlanta. They get there by winning out, but have tough games at Ole Miss and at home against Texas A&M to contend with, as well as Tennessee at home and Kentucky on the road.

Georgia needs to win out, and for Missouri to lose two games. The Bulldogs’ have the Cocktail Party this week, and then a tough game at Auburn.

Florida needs to win out, and have Missouri lose two. The Gators have Georgia and then Vandy at home.

In other words, check back in four weeks.

60 Minutes. Twitter was nuts last night. Through three quarters Gamecock fans were eating their own on social media. I read that Spurrier sucks, Ward sucks, our talent level sucks, our recruiting sucks, our defense sucks and is going to suck so much more next year. I read that Spurrier needs to quit, we’ve reached our ceiling as a program, it’s time to move on, etc. etc. etc.

Now, we’ve been known to overreact, to throw out wild opinions on occasion, and that’s cool. We would never tell anyone their opinions are not valid or to stop giving them, because we all get emotional and handle adversity in different ways. There were some opinions that were idiotic, but you have to take them with a grain of salt and move on. It is Twitter after all.

The only suggestion I would make is to always remember a game is 60 minutes long, and sometimes even longer. Every game has its own unique story – a beginning, a middle and an end. Your opinions of our team, coaches, or players in the second quarter could be wildly different from what they are come the fourth quarter.

So next time you’re ready to burn down the program in the second quarter, just CTFD and read the rest of the story. You might just find that you’re going to enjoy the ending.

GO COCKS.

TRC Unleashed laments opportunities missed in Episode 55, and also discovers just how soothing a Clemsoning can be for the soul. In this week’s episode:

• We find out what Gman and Tbone would do with 2:55 and three timeouts facing 4th and 2
• The unbelievable abhority (new word) of our special teams
• Who else can we depend on to score the football (new phrase)
• Mike Davis in beast mode
• JD Clowney’s new persona
• The Rubber Chicken Awards brought to you by @blitz_jewelry
• #Skypeproblems
• Gamecock football: Is this all there is?
• #horsecocks report
• This Week in Dabo

And a bunch of other stuff. I’m honestly a little afraid of what’s included in the episode as we finished late and I did minimal editing. So we think you’ll laugh, we’re just not sure if it will be with us or at us.

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

Some quick, barely researched, not fully formed thoughts from South Carolina’s crushing 23-21 loss to Tennessee yesterday:

HBC. Before I start this, I want to make sure everyone understands I recognize that this program would be nowhere without Steve Spurrier. He has taken this program to the next level, and the level after that. But if we are ever going to get to the ultimate level – an SEC Championship and possibly a National Title shot, he cannot blow games like the one he blew yesterday.

And he blew it.

Football games are a symphony of plays and players and points and penalties and luck and missed opportunities and tons of other factors, and I believe putting the blame for a loss on one guy is pretty short-sighted. That’s definitely not what I’m doing here. But our chances of winning that football game would have been a lot better if Spurrier had made a couple of seemingly fundamental decisions in the second half yesterday.

First, on the last play of the third quarter Connor Shaw scrambled for a critical first down that put us at the Tennessee 45 to start the fourth quarter. We were leading 21-17 and were primed to put some distance between us and the Vols. Somewhat prophetically, during the commercial break the Gman texted us and asked, “Do you think HBC takes a shot here?” My response was “knowing him I wouldn’t doubt it.” Sure enough, on the first play of the 4th Shaw missed badly deep down the left sideline. On second down we ran some bizarre roll out play that looked doomed from the start. Stubbornly, Spurrier called the same play on third down and it looked even worse. (We ran the same play one more time with Dylan Thompson, the last offensive play we ran in the game. That play must be gangbusters in practice.) We punted, and the momentum we carried into the final quarter was gone.

I’m a big defender of Spurrier’s play calling, even when it doesn’t make sense sometimes. After all, he is one of the best offensive minds of all time. But Mike Davis at the time of the three straight incompletions had 18 carries for 132 yards, and despite Spurrier’s protestations that we had a lot of run plays that weren’t working, Davis was by far our best option. Not only did Spurrier not call 28’s number on that series, but he only had three carries for five yards in four possessions in the fourth quarter when a first down on either of our last two possessions could’ve possibly won the game. This shouldn’t be an “in hindsight” thing. Just give Mike Davis the damn ball.

Second, calling two timeouts on fourth down on our final possession was the most Les Miles thing ever. I love that Spurrier goes against conventional wisdom, and gambles more than I’m comfortable with at times. That’s part of his charm. But at that point in the game you have to trust your defense to win the game for you. And even though our the D was victimized by a spectacular catch on Tennessee’s last drive, we might still have had a chance if we had three timeouts instead of one.

If you’re going to go for it, then go for it. I can live with it because he’s the HBC and that’s what he does. But the amount of indecisiveness that leads to burning two timeouts at the end of a game where it is obvious you will probably need them is disturbing.

The Rocket. Mike Davis is starting to distance himself from other SEC running backs. His 21-yard touchdown run in the third quarter featured a jump cut that only be described as elite. Marshall Faulk elite. Barry Sanders elite. I’ve been hesitant to make comparisons to Marcus Lattimore, mainly because I think it’s too early in Davis’ career to have that discussion. But the fact we’re even thinking about Davis being better than Lattimore says a hell of a lot.

Team Shaw. Didn’t watch the replay of Shaw’s injury, but from what the other members of TRC told me it looked like a definite ACL. The fact that it looks like he will be out 1-2 weeks only strengthens the evidence that he is at least part robot. Seriously, I hope he can get back soon, and get those wins that will make him the winningest quarterback in South Carolina history. He deserves it.

Offensive. Shaw didn’t have his best game yesterday, which will bring out of the woodwork the ultra-smart bloggers who like to point out Shaw’s shortcomings on the road. (To whom I say please shut up once and for all.) It was our worst offensive performance of the season, but Shaw didn’t have a lot of help yesterday, from dropped passes to poor snaps to a below-average performance by the entire offensive line. It was a bad day for Ellington, Jones, Roland and company to go MIA. And unfortunately we continue to ask, where are our tight ends?

Speaking of Shaq. Shaq Roland didn’t help himself by dropping the first ball thrown his way in three weeks. I didn’t go back and look at how many snaps he got, but I don’t recall seeing him on the field after that. Watching a guy like Marquez North of UT make spectacular, game-changing catches makes me long for a weapon like that. We keep thinking Shaq will be that guy, but the clock is ticking.

Free Byrd. On the other side, Dameire Byrd continues to exceed expectations. He has become a tremendous weapon.

#Clowneycomin. I did not expect Jadeveon Clowney’s breakout game this year to come against Tiny Richardson, and neither did Tennessee. Obviously they watched last year’s game and how Richardson held Clowney in check for all but one very important play, and thought Tiny could do it again. They were wrong, and hopefully what we saw yesterday is what we’ll get from JD the rest of the way.

Hull No. Another horrible performance yesterday by special teams. Even the one guy we have come to rely on, Elliott Fry, missed his first field goal of the season. But for all that is good and holy, is Tyler Hull really our best option at punter?

The Amazing Race. I would’ve thought a loss at UT yesterday would’ve completely taken us out of the SEC East race, but yesterday was one of the more amazing days in SEC history in terms of upsets. In addition to USC, other teams to lose in upset fashion were Georgia, Florida (which granted doesn’t look like much of an upset), Texas A&M and LSU. I think we’re probably the second best team in the East right now, and have a good chance of finishing there. Missouri is one of the most surprising teams in the country, and going into the other Columbia next weekend and pulling out a win looks like a tall task.

But hey, yesterday, am I right?

Soothing. Yesterday was tough, just as any day the Gamecocks lose. But watching Florida State dismantle Clemson last night eased the pain a bit. There was a ton of talk about whether or not last night was a “Clemsoning”, or whether the Tigers “pulled a Clemson”. The fact that it was such a topic of conversation tells me that it’s a term that is here to stay, which warms my heart. In my humble opinion on this made up term, they definitely pulled a Clemson, no matter how good Florida State is. In one fell swoop they saw their National Championship  and ACC Championship hopes dashed, and their Heisman Trophy candidate play one of the worst games of his career to effectively eliminate him from that conversation. And it was on the biggest regular season stage possible (the biggest ACC game in history!)

Oh, and lost AT HOME BY 37 POINTS.

If that’s not pulling a Clemson, I don’t know what is.

Go Cocks, beat Mizzou.

(Note: The following takes out of consideration the Clemson fans who “pull for South Carolina when they are not playing Clemson”. Those people don’t actually follow sports.)

Do you think there is scenario in which the entire Clemson* fan base would ever yell “Go Cocks”? The idea is not as far-fetched as you might think, and it could happen as soon as the first Saturday in December.

Now, the Tiger fans might not literally yell those melodious words together, but they could be put in a position where they would be forced to pull for us. Let’s just imagine:

• South Carolina wins the rest of their games on the SEC schedule prior to the annual showdown with Clemson*
• Georgia drops one or more SEC games left on their schedule
• Clemson* comes into the game with South Carolina undefeated
• Alabama wins the rest of their regular season games
• Oregon wins the rest of their regular season games
• Clemson* defeats SEC East Champion South Carolina (hurts even typing that)
• Alabama finishes the regular season ranked first, Oregon second, Clemson* third
• Oregon wins PAC 12 Championship Game, assuring a spot in the BCS National Championship game
• Alabama faces South Carolina in the SEC Championship Game on Dec. 7 (kick time TBD)
• Clemson* faces an extremely beatable opponent in the ACC Championship Game on Dec. 7 (8 p.m. kick)

Do you see what’s going on here? It’s really not complicated – if Alabama and Oregon win out, they will play for the crystal football, locking Clemson out of the national title game. Clemson will not jump undefeated Alabama or Oregon in any scenario.

However, if all of the above happens, South Carolina springs the upset of Alabama, and Clemson* takes care of business in the ACC Championship…then whoa, the Tigers* 32-year exile from their rightful place at the top of the college football heap will be OVER.

Clemson* would not have a choice, they would be forced to pull for us in this scenario. They could make it to the National Championship Game, and it would be because of us.

(To be clear, it this did play out, I would probably start a petition that we forfeit the SECCG.)

But alas, I’m certain it will not go down that way. The team from Tallahassee is going to see to that this weekend.

Go ‘Noles.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME the Unleashed crew returns with a rambling, babbling, not-paying-attention-to-the-line-of-questioning review of the Arkansas game. Gman didn’t ride the bus to the podcast, so he joins the show late, but not before we are able to cover:

• The equestrian team’s heartbreaking loss to top-ranked Georgia #horsecocks
• Why we call Native Americans “Indians” and why it is inaccurate
• The going rate on the black market for a 9-month-old baby girl

And then we actually get to football:

• The stunningly awesome performance of the Gamecocks in Fayetteville
• Whether this type of play will be the exception, or the rule
• Offensive and defensive superlatives
• Whether or not Connor Shaw is the greatest QB in Gamecock history
• A history lesson from Gman about a Gamecock who played QB in the NFL you’ve never heard of
• The @blitz_jewelry Rubber Chickens of the Week
• Should we be worried about Tennessee

Listen closely and see if you can pinpoint the moment where Tbone was not paying attention and answers a question that was not asked. All this and more on the latest episode of TRC Unleashed!

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

Some quick, barely researched, not fully formed thoughts from Carolina’s 52-7 disemboweling of Arkansas yesterday:

What a difference a week makes. Last week in this space I lamented that the Gamecocks were not living up to expectations. Not record-wise, mind you, because at the time 4-1 was about what was expected. What was bothersome was that in all four wins we had to suffer through some uncomfortable second half moments before holding on to win. I personally felt like we were too good a team, and too good a program to allow that to happen every week. It bummed me out after last week’s win over Kentucky that Steve Spurrier commented, “This is who we are.”

Well, as Gman said on last week’s episode of TRC Unleashed, every college season has its ebbs and flows. If you don’t like what you’re seeing, stick around, because the landscape can change drastically over the course of a week. And boy did it change with yesterday’s win over Arkansas. I’m not saying the ‘Hogs are a quality opponent, because despite sprinkles of talent, they are quite bad. But to go on the road and do that to an SEC opponent…well, let’s just say the Gamecocks’ perspectives, and quite possibly our expectations, have changed a bit.

Wild, Wild East. After Georgia’s stirring win over LSU two weeks ago, most all of us wrote off the possibility of a trip back to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game. I mean, looking down the schedule, who was going to hand the Bulldogs an SEC loss? Much less two?

But after a costly win in Knoxville, Georgia was ambushed in Athens by a resurgent Missouri team. With all the injuries the ‘Dogs (I refuse to spell it the other way) have suffered, another conference loss or two are not out of the question. Halfway through the season, here’s where we are:

Missouri – undefeated and controls their own destiny, but the loss of QB James Franklin for the season is devastating. It’s hard to imagine they won’t drop at least two games out of Florida, USC, Tennessee, Ole Miss and TAMU.

Florida – one loss and controls their own destiny. Yesterday’s loss to LSU doesn’t hurt much as far as the East title chase goes. The Gators still have Mizzou at home, UGA in Jacksonville and USC in Columbia.

Georgia – one loss and needs help. But not as much help as us. They hold the tiebreaker over USC, but need Mizzou to lose twice, which as we see above is very possible. A loss to Florida would do serious damage. A late-season trip to Auburn is also looking much more difficult than it did at the beginning of the season.

South Carolina – one loss and needs help. We still need UGA to lose at least one more, and need to sweep the rest of our SEC games against Tennessee, Missouri, Mississippi State and Florida. We could still win the East with two losses, but things would have to get seriously nuts for that to happen.

Looks like we’ll be doing a lot of scoreboard watching in the coming weeks.

D (cardboard cutout of a fence). We gave the defense a hard time last week, not because of the yards and points they were surrendering, but because of when and how they were surrendering them. Yesterday was easily the most complete defensive effort of the season. Aside from the opening drive, the defense smothered a pretty good Arkansas running game, holding the SEC rushing yardage leader Alex Collins to 69 yards. Yes, they rushed for 218 total, but three runs accounted for 124 of those yards, so I’m not going to complain too much on a day when we held an SEC opponent to seven points on the road. We also created turnovers which led to or prevented points. Credit Lorenzo Ward for having these guys ready yesterday.

Hampton In. Vic Hampton drew the ire of Gamecock fans and apparently the HBC last week by freelancing a little too much on defense. But he redeemed himself on Arkansas’ second series when he jumped  short route, picked off an Alex Collins pass and set up USC’s first touchdown.

Clowneygate. Hey.

Team Shaw. 19/28 for 219, 3 TD and no interceptions, and one running TD. ON THE ROAD. And by the way, you “Shaw plays bad on the road” folks, you realize that all four of his career losses on the road were to top 10 teams? You do realize that, right?

Also, props to third-teamer Brendan Nosovitch for his first career TD. NOSSY! (Or is it Nosty? Or Janet? Or Ms. Jackson?)

Boooooooo. No, they’re not saying boo you dummy. They’re saying Bruuuuuuce. Ellington has settled in as the leader of this wide receiver corps, with six more catches yesterday for 96 yards and two TDs. Aside from some early drops, the entire group is looking solid.

Jeffery. No, not Alshon, Shamier. He had five catches yesterday. OK, they were only for 32 yards, but still. Welcome aboard Sham-wow.

Kane is able. You knew Spurrier was going to throw a couple of balls towards former Razorback Kane Whitehurst in his “homecoming”. Whitehurst blew an early chance with one of the drops mentioned above. But late in the game he hauled in a 15-yard TD from Dylan Thompson to put a little icing on top of the icing on the icing on the cake.

King Tuttchdown. Pharaoh Cooper doesn’t have a touchdown yet, but he will soon. Cooper looks just like the Ace Sanders replacement we’ve been looking for in the return game, and oh my goodness the Wildcat. This is high praise, but he reminds me a lot of former Kentucky all-everything Randall Cobb.

The Rocket. Ho hum, another week, another 120+ yard performance for Mike Davis. Davis is neck-and-neck with Jeremy Hill of LSU as the top back in the SEC. If he continues to play well, and the Gamecocks continue to win, he might start getting some fringe Heisman consideration.

Hog mild. After 22 years, yesterday marked the last game between South Carolina and Arkansas as cross-divisional opponents. We never really developed a “rivalry” per se, but something always seemed right about seeing the Hogs on the football schedule every year. Through the genius and vision of Roy Kramer, we entered the SEC together in 1991, long before schools regularly jumped conferences for money and television contracts. Since then we’ve played each other every season since 1992. They haven’t always been great games, and we’ve rarely both been good teams. It’s been an odd long-distance relationship that has been more frustrating to the Gamecocks than rewarding, so it was good to go out with two straight wins.

See you down the road Hogs, best of luck to you.

Go Cocks.