Tusings, or Tuesday Musings, was meant to be a weekly column where I speak of random randomness involving the Gamecocks. But, since I don’t get paid for this, and because the people who do pay me expect things of me that do not involve writing for obscure blogs…here are your two-day late Tusings!

I feel really good about this weekend’s game.  Which is odd, because I rarely feel good about any game.  I can’t tell you if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, because it’s so rare that I have these feelings about a USC game that I don’t really remember how they turn out.  Maybe it’s that I believe Stephen Garcia is going to get it into gear this week, which means Alshon will get it into gear this week. Maybe it’s because Auburn’s defense is SO bad statistically, and Marcus is so good statistically. Maybe it’s ecause I saw our defense beat up on Vandy like a JV squad. Maybe it’s because the HBC has been in a good mood this week. I don’t know, but if we get our butt beat on Saturday, please remind me to never have a good feeling about one of our games again.

The overrated 1. We love Saturday Down South, and if you haven’t been there, we’d recommend it.  It’s a football lover’s paradise. However, a curious article from “MrPalmetto” yesterday asked the question “Is South Carolina’s Alshon Jeffery Overrated?”, to which his answer was “yes”. (Tip:  if you’re going to write an article you know is going to be controversial, don’t tiptoe around on the title, just call it “South Carolina’s Alshon Jeffery is Overrated”. Take a stand, man.)

Anyhoo, Mr. P can certainly have his opinion, that’s cool.  But a lot of it involved things I don’t actively measure during a game like “he’s not very fast” or “he has problems with press coverage”. My response in the comments section of his article was this:

You can argue that he’s not elite, but the preponderance of the evidence suggests otherwise:

2009 46-763, 16.6 ypc, 6 TD (after only 5 catches in his first 5 games)
2010 88-1517, 17.2 ypc, 9 TD

(BTW, where do you get “one season, heck, six standout games” from? Is that your arbitrary statistical analysis? He had eight 100-yard receiving games last year. And does his freshman year not count?)

He didn’t put up those numbers because he’s slow or because he can’t get separation, I can tell you that. His 14 catches for 246 yards and 1 TD is certainly disappointing so far in 2011, but with the sub-par QB play and the fact he’s been bracketed by two and three players in every game are making it tough to put up numbers comparable to 2010. Teams have geared their defenses to stop him, and it’s worked.

Will he be a great pro? Heck, I don’t know any more than you. People considered better than AJ have flopped and people considered not as good have excelled in the NFL. But to write that he shouldn’t be considered among the elite COLLEGE wide receivers is just silly.

I don’t watch film and break down plays, so I can’t speak to what kind of route runner Alshon is or how well he gets off of press coverage. But I saw this. And this. And this.

That’s just scratching the surface.  And to me, that’s elite.

Bulletin board. Speaking of Alshon not getting off press coverage (gasp! maybe MrPalmetto is right!), apparently Auburn CB Ryan White thinks that’s true: “From what I’ve seen, he can’t get off press. So that’s what we’re coming in with.” Considering the War Tigers’ abysmal defensive statistics, they better come with a heckuva lot more than that.

Bulletin board II. Ryan White again: “If we shut those two down – Alshon and Marcus – we’re going to come out with the W.” Oh, no, we’ve been found out!!!

Dangerous Tigers. In all seriousness, I hope Coach Johnson has as good a plan this week as he had last week. Auburn’s offensive line is bad, but if they can create time and space for the likes of Dyer, McCalebb and Blake, we could have a shootout on our hands.  Also, Coach Butler, please kick the ball out-of-bounds on kickoffs. The one thing I do not want to see is Tre Mason finding a crease.

Ire of the Tiger. Auburn is the only SEC football team we have not beaten since joining the conference in 1992 (0-6). Our only victory against them was in 1933. And no, I wasn’t around to see it. 

It’s all about football. I used to be as big a Braves fan as any team in any sport. I lived and died with the Bravos throughout the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s. Unfortunately, years and years of “almosts” have finally worn me down. I paid only casual attention to their September swoon this year, and watched with mild interest last night as they completed a historic collapse. I was actually asleep during the last four innings.

Folks, I’m officially a football man.

Go Cocks!

TRC Unleashed reviewed the quarterback situation, and came to some surprising conclusions about the future of Stephen Garcia. Also discussed:

• Has the HBC lost his marbles?
• Is Melvin Ingram Batman? Is Jadeveon Clowney Robin?
• CC Whitlock gets an award!
• Tbone expresses his utter disdain for Auburn

Click HERE to listen.

Not Gamecock related, but this might just be the greatest football photo ever. Captions welcome.

Some quick, barely researched, not fully formed thoughts from tonight’s train wreck of a 21-3 victory over Vanderbilt:

We are who we are, and unfortunately that’s not good news. I’ve been one of those guys throwing around justifications for our less-than-impressive 3-0 start, talking about unconventional offenses and tough SEC road tests and how everyone experiences a little early season sloppiness. But after last night’s game against Vandy, I now fear we’re just not very good. “But Buck,” you say, “you’re going to complain about a 4-0 start that includes a road win over Georgia?” To that I respond, “Have you seen us play?”

Our offense makes the football gods have a sad. You saw it. Four interceptions from our fifth-year senior quarterback, numerous decent plays wiped out by penalties, general disorganization leading to untimely timeouts. Bumbling. Stumbling. Very little rumbling. Vandy sold out to stop Marcus Lattimore, so we turned to our best pass play, which basically amounts to throwing a jump ball to Alshon Jeffery. Our huddle must sound like a sandlot game, “Alshon, go long. I’m going to throw it in the general direction of the 30-yard line. Everybody else block. Reddeeeeeeeee, break!”

The defense of Stephen Garcia stops here. I feel you Alex Roberts. We’ve been staunch supporters of #5, taking the good over the bad, which has worked out for the most part. Part of that has also been betting on the come, that Garcia as a fifth-year senior would be smarter, more accurate, and more dependable. But now I cringe when he drops back, wondering what’s about to happen. His decision-making is mind-boggling. Accuracy? When he hasn’t been throwing interceptions this year, he’s been overthrowing, underthrowing, too-far-in-front throwing and too-far-in-back throwing. Unfortunately, he appears to be our only option.

Steve Spurrier is sick, or Garcia has incriminating photos of him. That’s the only explanation for leaving Garcia in after his first three picks. Well, maybe there is a third explanation, maybe Connor Shaw is just really bad. In any case, it doesn’t bode well for us. I saw a lot of tweets/posts ripping the ESPN announcers last night for ripping our QB situation, but I’m not sure why. The only QB situation in American football that is worse than ours at the moment is the Indianapolis Colts.

The defense is fixed…at least for one night. That was a historically dominating performance by Ellis Johnson’s defense. Holding any opponent under 100 yards total offense is incredible, much less a conference opponent. We looked like we had 15 guys on defense. We didn’t, of course, because we would’ve been called for it.

Welcome back Melvin Ingram. About time he scored another touchdown. Geez, stop taking weeks off #6.

Obligatory Jadeveon Clowney bullet point. I can’t think of any words left to describe this guy. Let’s just say the hype was justified.

This season is far from lost. But for the first time last night I thought about 2007 when we started 6-1 and were in the Top 10. We didnt’ feel like a top 10 team, and the final five games of the year showed that. This year, despite all our talent, and despite the fact we are 4-0, we don’t feel like anything close to an elite team. We’ve been waiting for four weeks for Spurrier and the Gamecocks to put it all together, but after last night I’m wondering if we have it in us. I sure hope I’m wrong.

Miscellaneous…I think watching Clemson march up and down the field against FSU all day made last night’s offensive debacle even harder to take…Good to see Victor Hampton and Brandon Wilds on the field, they both looked darned good in limited action…Welcome Demeire Byrd, we hope you live up to the hype as well…After speaking with an Auburn friend this morning, this week will be an epic battle of poor-mouthing…Anybody else going to get bent out of shape this week because the national media is going out of its way to ignore us?

After reading Marty Simpson’s article on Gamecock Central this morning, I have one request of the Gamecock Nation: please stop with the victim mentality.

You can read the article, I wont’ re-hash too much of it, but there are some facts we need to come to grips with as University of South Carolina fans:

• We are the University of South Carolina – We are not Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan or even Boise State for crying out loud. With the exception of Boise, these teams has been very good for a very long time, and have national appeal. Boise has wedged itself into the national conversation by doing one thing – winning. We have consistently been a middle to lower end of the pack SEC team. One SEC East crown doesn’t change that, especially when everyone else was “down”. No matter what you think of the media, one thing is for sure, their respect first has to be earned.
• We have very little credibility on the national stage because our football program has had ONE ten-win season in its history, and is only slightly over .500 after 110 years of football. Our 9-5 season last year was one of the best in school history. NINE AND FIVE. Think about that. (One local Atlanta sports talk host once called us the most underachieving major football program in the last 100 years. I can’t honestly think of anyone we’d be competing with for that crown – Rutgers maybe?)
• We have beaten three good (and I reserve the right to use that term loosely) teams this year, but…nobody respects East Carolina, period. People respect Navy, but more because of who they are as individuals than who they are as a football team (I tried to tell people before and after our game that Navy is a good team, and the most common response I got was “PFFFFT! Right.”) Nobody really knows what Georgia is right now.  In other words, any one of those wins might look really good come November, but people judge us and them on where we are NOW, not where we might possibly be in November.
• The Worldwide leader is not going to spend much time on us until we are doing something special, and quite honestly the only reason they are spending any time on us right now is because of three people – the HBC, #21, and #5 (the last one for mostly wrong reasons). ESPN knows where their bread is buttered, and right now it is not Columbia, SC.
• From the article: “undeserved admiration thrown at the national powerhouse programs is part of what keeps those programs at the elite level”. That just sounds like good old fashioned hatin’ to me. “Undeserved” and “national powerhouse program” is a little contradictory, no? They did something right to become both national and a powerhouse. Those two things equal throngs of fans across the country, which means huge ratings for ESPN and the like. It ain’t hard to figure out.
• Bottom line – our football team has not earned to right to be talked about on a regular basis by college football pundits. I hope we’re on the way to changing that, but we’re going to need a few more banners hanging before it truly does.

I have nothing against Marty Simpson, I kinda like the guy’s writing. But his latest article comes off as whiney and for some unknown reason even reeks of entitlement. I love the Gamecocks as much as anybody. I’m proud of my alma mater and will stand up for the University of South Carolina every chance I get.

But like it or not, we deserve exactly how much media coverage we are getting right now. Whining about it only makes us look worse, and might even be counterproductive in the hands of some of the more prominent and narcissistic bloggers/writers/broadcasters who pay attention to everything said about them.

Defend your Gamecocks. Fight for your Gamecocks.

But for the love of God, don’t be a victim.

It’s been one year today since the passing of former Gamecock great Kenny McKinley, and it is no less shocking or sad than the day we found out about it. Here is what we wrote the day after receiving the news. RIP Kenny…

Over the next days and weeks a lot of people will be recounting their memories of Kenny McKinley, and deservedly so. They’ll talk about the slant routes against Tennessee.  His first career touchdown catch against Arkansas. His touchdown throw to Syvelle Newton against Kentucky. His catch-and-run against Clemson. His two-touchdown performance in the Liberty Bowl…and on and on.

But something else came to mind for me.  It was the 2006 Clemson game.

I know you all remember the play.  Carolina was driving for a touchdown late in the first half.  But impossibly Jock McKissic, a Clemson defensive lineman, picked off a Blake Mitchell pass and lumbered the other way for a touchdown.

Towards the end of the play, Kenny McKinley comes flying into the picture.  Just as McKissic crosses the goal line McKinley takes a swipe at the ball, but the effort is futile.  The camera follows McKissic as he turns to the left, but just before McKinley disappears from the picture, out of frustration you see him kick the pylon in the back of the end zone with his left foot.  Just boots the heck out of it.  I remember watching that several times later and getting a good laugh out of it (of course, it wouldn’t have been nearly as funny if we would’ve lost.)

Cant’ you just see a kid having that reaction?  Then one of the coaches coming over to calm the kid down? As I reflect on Kenny McKinley’s career, I think that play was indicative of the childlike joy and passion with which he played the game.  There was an innocence to it that still makes me smile.  I bet Kenny saw that replay later and smiled his trademark smile too.

Don’t get me wrong, Kenny McKinley was a man on the football field from the first day he suited up at the University of South Carolina.  He never played a down of wide receiver until college, but worked his tail off and became, numbers-wise, our greatest ever.

No one would’ve batted an eye if this lightly recruited kid had gotten buried on the depth chart and transferred to Furman or Newberry or Hampton.  But somehow, against some pretty steep odds, he became an NFL draft pick, and got his name prominently displayed on Williams-Brice Stadium.  More than that, he had the undying adoration of the Gamecock Nation.  Not just for his catches and yards and touchdowns, but for the way he played.  For his joy and innocence.

I don’t know when the joy and innocence faded from Kenny McKinley.  Maybe it was just the last few days. Maybe it was weeks or months, possibly even years.  I honestly don’t want to know any details.  I don’t want to think about the unbearable sadness that must’ve consumed him to make him do what he did.

As college football fans, we chew players up and spit them out every four years.  We recognize them at their last home game, thank them for their service, give them a bouquet of flowers and wish them well.  Then we forget about 99% of them.  Not because we don’t care or don’t appreciate them, we just don’t have the capacity to remember them.

Then there are the 1% that stay with you.  The 1% that create the lasting memories.

Thank God for that 1%.  Thank God for Kenny McKinley.

TRC Unleashed – Episode 6 is right here for your listening pleasure.  Due to a previous obligation of mine, this episode is “Buckless” (insert whip crack sound effect) and features Tbone and Gman recapping the predictably nail-biting win over Navy and all the trappings that went along with it.  Enjoy.

TRC Unleashed – Episode 6

Some quick, barely researched, not fully formed thoughts from yesterday’s nail-biting 24-21 win over the Naval Academy:

We would like to officially announce Marcus Lattimore’s candidacy for the Heisman Trophy. It’s still very early, but after his 246-yard rushing, 25-yard receiving game on Saturday, #21 put himself squarely into the Heisman conversation. From the first offensive series you could see Navy wasn’t going to be able to stop him, and he bulled his way to his most productive game as a Gamecock. He currently leads the NCAA in rushing with 534 yards after three games. 

The only carry where he lost yardage came on a toss sweep on fourth down late in the game that could’ve sealed the game, and it also came about two plays after I had texted to Tbone and Gman “A toss sweep would be money here.” I meant to the WIDE side of the field coach!

Stephen Garcia, the time is NOW. Garcia didn’t have a bad game last night, but he could’ve had a great game (and this game might not have been so close) had he connected on a few early passes that sailed high. His interception was very Garcia-esque, killing a drive early in the second half that would’ve put us in control of the game. Spurrier took the blame for the play call, but that’s a ball you have to eat. If we are going to meet any of the lofty goals we have in our sights in 2011, #5 is going to have to have a remarkable awakening and play like the quarterback we’ve always thought he could be. Enough roller coaster, let’s have a nice long stretch of flat highway for a change.

Putting out an All Points Bulletin for Alshon Jeffery. Coming into the Navy game I think most Gamecock fans thought Lattimore would get his, but that this would also be Jeffery’s breakout game for 2011.  Unfortunately he was suspended for the start of the game for breaking the infamous undisclosed team rule, and then was never really a factor once he did come into the game, catching only two passes. He’s had a slow start to the season by his standards, and knowing that teams will gear up more and more each week to stop #21, he’ll need to start playing more like the Alshon Jeffery we’ve come to know and love.

Welcome to USC Nick Jones and Jason Barnes. Good to see these two youngsters have some meaningful catches in a game. Hopefully these guys will continue to improve over the years and help our stable of wide receivers live up to their billing. Wait, WHAT? Jason Barnes is a SENIOR?!?

Obligatory Jadeveon Clowney bullet point. Once again, fairly quiet for the majority of the game, and then when a play needs to be made, boom. That last series for Navy he was scary good.

I‘ll give the DB’s a break this week. As a matter of fact, I’m going to give the entire defense a break this week. I saw a lot of tweets about the “missed assignments” and “secondary breakdowns” on Navy’s completions.  To be fair, the two long third-down and one fourth-down completion came on scramble plays by a pretty elusive quarterback, and those types of plays can get dangerous in a hurry. Fortunately, our guys made plays when they had to, and that’s the bottom line. But with some pretty explosive offensive attacks coming at us down the road, we need a lot, a LOT, of improvement on the defensive side of the ball.

Jay Wooten. Clutch.

They were who I thought they were. As the week leading up to this game wore on, the more I had a sinking feeling this game was going to go down to the wire, and I was hoping we would be able to squeak out a win. Navy is a difficult team to prepare for because of their scheme, and they are extremely well-coached. Give them credit for making a lot of plays when they had to as well.

Dude, you’re completely delusional…oh, and thank you for serving our country. Navy fullback Alexander Tiech after the game: “I’m not going to lie, I think we were the better team.” Well, sir, you are entitled to your opinion, no matter how wrong it is.    

We’re 3-0. As they say in tournament ball – survive and advance.   

We’re too exhausted after watching that escape from the Naval Academy to give you too much insight as to what we’ll talk about, but here is your link for TRC Unleashed – Episode 6:

TRC UNLEASHED – Episode 6

Tune in at 6 p.m. Sunday night. You’re going to LOVE it.