With the comet Ison streaking through our solar system, I thought it an appropriate time to write a little about the current universe that is South Carolina – Clemson* football.

In the last week or so I’ve heard a lot of talk from Clemson* fans about “restoring the universe.”  This is obviously a reference to the historical win-loss record in the series and their belief that the last four years have been some sort of celestial aberration from the norm, i.e., the stars are out of alignment.

Well, I’ve got some news for them:

The universe is now fundamentally different than it was during the vast majority of the time these two teams squared off against each other in November.  As much as Clemson* fans want to curl up next to the fire and take comfort in the series record, we all know that there’s a new reality, a reality that started in 1992 when South Carolina joined the Southeastern Conference.

At TRC we have never misrepresented the past or the truth. We fully acknowledge that we had a pretty average football program around here for a long, long time.  It’s no secret that Clemson* emphasized winning at football more than we did, and the results showed up on the scoreboard.  With that out of the way, let’s talk about the here and now, the current universe in which these teams operate.

When USC joined the SEC we weren’t ready to compete, not by a long shot. It was a slow, difficult process building up the football program. During this same period Clemson* was still basking in the glow of its glory days of the 1980s.  Over the next decade or so nothing much changed on the surface.  Beneath the surface, however, keen observers could see the transformation that was taking place.  After several years of taking our lumps in the SEC, the overall strength and growth of the conference and all of its football prowess began to show in our product on the field.

Clemson* for a long time remained the more physical team in the series, with its traditional power running game and strength along both lines of scrimmage.  Meanwhile, the Gamecocks were known as a team with good skill position guys but one that was lacking where it mattered the most – in the trenches.  We could occasionally break through with a victory in the big game, but most years the result was a testament to the most basic of all football adages that games are won by running the ball on offense and by stopping the run on defense.  More times than not, Clemson* did this to us and we could not do it to them.

The SEC affiliation has brought better players and coaches to South Carolina.  This is largely a result of the power and money of the conference.  There’s no way Lou Holtz or Steve Spurrier would have come to USC but for our membership in the greatest conference in college football.  While our entry into the SEC was no quick fix for our football team, the gradual transformation of the program from a finesse team to a team emphasizing defense and ball control is obvious and profound.  No more do we have to move offensive lineman and linebackers to the defensive line late in the season.  The past few years we have been known as one of the national leaders along the defensive front, with players like Norwood, Ingram, Robertson, Matthews, Taylor,  and Quarles (oh, and some guy named Clowney) shutting down the opposition.

While we gradually built up our team with recruiting and an emphasis on defense, the upstaters decided to place an emphasis on finesse and the new fangled “up tempo” offensive system sweeping the college football ranks.  The power running game of the past has been replaced by the wide receiver screen.

Is Clemson* good at what they do?  Without question.  Are they capable of beating us tomorrow?  Sure, I believe they are.  Just like we had a chance and occasionally beat them before our membership in the SEC began to reveal itself, Clemson* can beat us tomorrow.  If they do, we will most assuredly be disappointed and down in the dumps for a while.

But will a Clemson* victory be an indication that the order of the universe has been restored, that the stars are now back in alignment?  No, not by a long shot.

The universe has shifted.  We know it.  They know it.  If they try to convince you otherwise by throwing the series record in your face, just smile and say three letters:

S-E-C.

*2012 ACC Atlantic Division Co-champions (even though they lost the regular season match-up against the other co-champions.)

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! Hope you all have a fantastic holiday wherever you are and whoever you are with!

(Photoshop courtesy of the supremely talented Jorge Stevens – @jorge_stevens.)

Former Gamecock standout Jonathan Martin joins TRC Unleashed to discuss his years with Lou Holtz and what it took to go from 0-11 to Outback Bowl Champions. The crew also discusses:

• Annoying voiceovers
• A review of the Coastal Carolina game
• The @blitz_jewelry Rubber Chicken Awards
• Is Dabo conceding?
• And much more that I’m too tired to remember!

Be sure to hang around after the final music to hear a special profanity-laden (for us) blooper!

Click here or click the graphic, and enjoy!

TRC Unleashed bounces back from a lackluster effort after the Mississippi State game to give you an action packed hour of Gamecock entertainment. Included:

• An interview with Carey Rich about how the Gamecock basketball team looks early
• A review of the Prayer on the Plains and our grind-it-out win over Florida
• The Rubber Chicken Awards
• Why do the polls hate us?
• What are our bowl possibilities?
• #Horsecocks equestrian update

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

Some short, quick, barely researched, not fully formed thoughts from South Carolina’s 19-14 victory over Florida on Saturday night:

Winning ugly. Florida deserves a tremendous amount of credit for coming in to Williams Brice and putting up a valiant fight on Saturday. They have been decimated by injuries, were coming off a home loss to Vanderbilt, and were starting a freshman quarterback who had never taken a snap in a game. But Will Muschamp and staff put together a game plan that nearly worked.

Florida tried to shorten the game by using a power running attack, and I think surprised the Gamecock coaches by not even considering pass plays in the first half, even on obvious passing downs (Florida’s first rushing TD was on 3rd and 14). But after rushing for 169 yards in the first half, the Gamecocks loaded the box and held the Gators to only 31 yards in the second. When forced to make throws, Skyler Mornhinweg eventually made a freshman mistake and was picked off by Jimmy Legree to seal the game.

It was an ugly win, and one that makes you wonder what we can realistically expect in our final three (four?) games. But an ugly win is fine, because there’s no such thing as a pretty loss.

Seven and Seven. There were times early in the season when Shon Carson looked like he might be losing his place on this football team. He was third team behind Mike Davis and Brandon Wilds*, had lost his kick returner job, and didn’t look confident or capable in the limited carries he was getting. There was even talk of taking the redshirt off of freshman David Williams when Wilds went down with an elbow injury. But Carson has gotten better each week, and with Davis nicked up last night, our offensive number 7 came up with the best game of his career with 102 yards on 13 carries, including a 58-yard run that set up the go-ahead field goal. Considering how much Carson has gone through since he’s been at USC, it’s good to see him making such a meaningful contribution.

Our other number 7, you know, the guy on the defensive side, was vintage Jadeveon Clowney. Even with an injured foot, he was flying off the ball and seemed like he was in the backfield more times than not. This season has been a disappointment numbers-wise for JD, but anyone who watches him play week in and week out like we do know he’s still the best player in college football.

*Carson may be the number two back even when Wilds is fully healthy. Steve Spurrier did not seem too happy with Wilds when he claimed he had a sore hamstring and couldn’t play.  

Just four kicks. Steve Spurrier hates kicking field goals. I mean, he HATES kicking field goals. But he knew the way Florida was playing last night that points were going to be at a premium. So when the offense stalled on multiple occasions, he called on true freshman walk-on Elliott Fry, who responded by hitting four of his five attempts. The Texan has been a revelation this season, and has been at the lone bright spot in an otherwise dismal season of special teams.

Busta move. As we wrote last week, the tight ends have not been nearly the threat this season that we expected them to be. But Busta Anderson came up big against the Gators with 3 catches for 69 yards. The biggest of those was a leaping 34-yard grab on 3rd and 9 from the Florida 36-yard line. Had he not made that play (and had he not been interfered with), the Gamecocks would’ve been faced with a tough decision down 14-13. It was arguably the play of the year out of our tight end position.

Whammy. For some reason Lorenzo Ward has been the target of a lot of criticism this season. He has taken a squad with the most inexperienced linebacking crew in the country and turned them into currently the third best defense in the SEC. Last night he did that thing we always talk about coaches needing to do – make adjustments. After halftime he put more people around the line of scrimmage, and the Gator rushing attack went away. Coach Ward deserves a lot more credit than he’s gotten this year.

Unsportsmanlike. I cannot tolerate stupid penalties, and under the HBC we haven’t seen too many over the years. But Jordan Diggs and J.T. Surratt committed two of the worst in recent memory, and they could’ve cost us a lot worse than they did. I’m sure they will be reminded of those penalties in practice this week.

Prayer on the Plains. The first piece to an SEC East title for the Gamecocks had been falling into place all afternoon as Auburn had been dismantling Georgia. But I watched in relative horror as the resilient Aaron Murray led the Bulldogs back, and saw them take the lead with under two minutes to go on a questionable touchdown run. My heart sank as Auburn lost yardage on their first three downs, and faced an impossible 4th and 18 from deep in their own territory.

Then, this happened.

Somehow I didn’t even react. I just watched and soaked in what I immediately knew was one of the greatest plays in SEC history. And a play that could very well get us to Atlanta the first weekend of December.

Wild, wild East. Speaking of, the path for both Missouri and South Carolina to the SEC Championship Game became a whole lot clearer yesterday. If Missouri beats Ole Miss and Texas A&M, they go. If they lose either, we go. Let the scoreboard watching commence.

Go Cocks, beat The Citadel!

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!