This doesn’t even qualify as a ‘Snap Judgment’ post – I’ll leave that to Buck and tomorrow and time and cooler heads, but HOW FREAKING GOOD DID THAT FEEL?!?!
I’m gonna avoid trying to be witty, or thorough, or insightful, and will just give out some game balls;
– To the HBC, for coming here in the first place, putting CTU in proper perspective, and changing the whole feel of this rivalry.
– To Ellis Johnson, for coming with a gameplan and shutting their skill guys out.
– To John Butler, cause you haven’t earned one yet this year. You better get your unit squared away IMMEDIATELY as the only reason this game was ever close was because of your unit.
– To Melvin Ingram, way to go out in style. Unblockable at times.
– To Kenny Miles, ditto on the style points. Good to see #31 go out with a bang.
– To Connor Shaw. Man, what can we say. Coming out party? We’ve got ourselves a quarterback, people.
– To DJ Swearinger. The CTU coaches gotta hate they didn’t offer you early.
– To Stephon Gilmore – the sack on the first play from scrimmage set the tone for the rest of the game. Oh, and who was that guy wearing #2 for CTU? Look like you pretty well blanketed him up.
– To Buster Anderson. Only a freshman, but came up strong and HUGE.
Ther’s more but I’m worn out and a little drunk. I’ll leave you with this: Our team physically whipped the orange necks: on both lines of scrimmage, and even in the defensive backfield. Those CTU wideouts weren’t dropping balls for no reason.
A few thoughts to ponder/debate/throw guacamole at your friends over:
– Who gets the ball first? The HBC consistently choses the ball if we win the toss, and our opponents consistently want to get a stop on us so they elect to kick. Either way, there’s usually a 90% chance we get the first possession. For some reason (OK its CTU’s defensive struggles) I expect Dabo et al to play against the norm and take the ball if they get the chance. Opening kick to Watkins? [shudder]
– Watch DJ Swearinger – The Greenwood native mentioned it again this week – The Tigers didn’t strongly recruit him and only came through with an offer in the final weeks leading up to signing day. He knows as well as us what that means: He was their backup plan. Hopefully the chip on his shoulder carries over to a physical play.
– Speaking of physical play – This rivalry game swings from year to year on who hits the hardest at the point of attack. It’s not going to come down to a big play by CTU WR #2 or SC WR #1, the team that wins will be the team that consistently out-hits the other guys.
– Injuries – Both teams are riddled with them. But to suggest that the nicks and bruises on the CTU squad are anywhere close to our issues is laughable. Not an excuse, just a talking point. Oh, and #winanyway.
– Smack talk – Hasn’t been an inordinate amount of back and forth this week, but I will list a few just to keep your hatred fresh: Boyd and his “SMH” tweet re: Mangus, Allen says he doesn’t know #2’s name, Allen says Boyd will crack under pressure, Dabo drops the HBC’s age about ten times in his presser, the HBC calls Dabo the “CEO,” implying what we already know is true: the Excited One is (only) the CTU head cheerleader.
– Place kicking – Both teams have issues with their field goal units. A “Wide Left” game redux is not out of the question.
– Tailgate Grenade – If you are forced to watch The Game with CTU fans, please do yourself a favor: during the first conversation lull proclaim thusly: “My brother-in-law (etc) is a big Gamecock Club donor and he says the Board of Trustees has already voted to do away with the CU/USC series now that the SEC has expanded and needs 9 conference games. It’s not really a big deal to most Gamecock fans, actually, since we’ve pretty much passed you guys and have 3 or 4 other better rivals. I’m sure its gonna suck for you guys, but hey whaddyagonnado?” Enjoy the spasms of outrage that result. You’re welcome.
– In Case of Emergency – In the unlikely event of a CTU win tonight, just avoid the Dollar General for the next couple of weeks. You will run into significantly fewer CTU fans that way.
Say it with me one last time in front of the home crowd: THROW THE DAMN BALL TO ALSHON!
It’s hard to believe the CTU game is upon us and another football season has just about slipped through our fingers. It’s been a strange season. And as I type that I realize “strange” is only moderately adequate as a descriptor. Consider:
The loss of Stephen Garcia, who had played poorly, and that’s being kind, in his early season appearances.
The loss of Marcus Lattimore. The ultimate nightmare of the Gamecock fan, an injury that happened on a game-winning drive when he was BLOCKING for someone else.
The baffling numbers of Alshon Jeffery through eleven games: 43 catches, 585 yards, 6 TDs. (Seriously, if you had seen those numbers before the season how many games do you think it would have taken to get them? Five? Six?)
The loss of Kyle Nunn, who was obviously much more of a factor on our offensive line than anyone outside of the coaching staff gave him credit for.
The unfortunate early season loss of Shon Carson, whose season we mourn because of his enormous potential. No one really talks about this, but remember he had moved up to second team tailback behind #21 and had shown a lot of explosiveness in practice.
The last-minute injury/suspension reports that have become a weekly tradition. I feel like they play Wheel of Suspension about an hour before every game, and then the Twitter feeds explode with “[INSERT PLAYER NAME] is not going through warm-ups and is not dressed out”.
Yet, here we stand at 9-2, ranked 13th in the country and within reach of an 11-win campaign. The play of our defense combined with the emergence of Connor Shaw (somewhat expected) and Brandon Wilds (totally unexpected) moving the chains have saved our season.
Steve Spurrier just said today in his press conference “we’re not a great team, and we’re fortunate to be 9-2.” That’s exactly how I feel, but we also need to recognize there are two, maybe three great teams in the country this year, and they’re all in our conference. “Great” is relative in this wacky, surreal season.
With that said:
If we win Saturday and win our bowl game – spectacular season.
If we lose Satuday and lose our bowl game – disappointing season.
If we split…well, ask me later.
That means we have a ton left to play for, and Saturday should be a lot of fun.
On to the Tusings:
Code Red on the Excuse Meter. The upstaters are already working on their excuse in case of a loss Saturday – “we lost our left tackle whatshisname and Sammy Watkins is banged up”. Well, last I checked CTU’s injury situation doesn’t hold a candle to ours, and Gamecock fans expect win anyway. (Where have I heard that before?)
How We Win. Run the ball and stop the run? Not exactly – I say we definitely need to run the ball, move the chains, eat up clock, but on defense we need to guard against the long ball. CTU has the receivers to get deep, and we need to keep pressure on Boyd and keep Watkins, Hopkins, et al from hitting the big play.
Tommy Bowden Logic Prediction. CTU is 38 points from being undefeated, while South Carolina is only 19 points from being undefeated. Both teams have two losses, so you divide those numbers by two and subtract from each other, and according to Tommy Bowden Logic the Gamecocks will win by 10 points (rounding up the 9.5 point differential). Let’s call it 27-17 Gamecocks. Hooray!
1987. A lot of people are saying this is the biggest USC-CTU game since 1987, which was a battle of two highly ranked teams, and there’s definitely an argument for that. 1987 happened to be my freshman year at South Carolina, and to this day I can say I’ve never seen a wilder, louder crowd in Williams-Brice Stadium. If you were there, how could you ever forget “ROD-NEEEEEEE! ROD-NEEEEEEE!” Has it really been 24 years? Ah, memories…
USC Bowl Destination. I have to say I’m intrigued with the thought of playing in the Cotton Bowl. A shiny new stadium has resurrected the Cotton as a premiere bowl destination, and you also get a day all to yourself (Jan. 6) to showcase your program. Outback? Meh, I’m not going to complain, but it would be nice to take at least a half step up in the bowl pecking order, which the Cotton would be. Facing Oklahoma or Oklahoma State? We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
BCS Title Game Rematch? Lotsa debate going on right now on whether the BCS National Championship game should be a rematch between LSU and ‘Bama. My opinion? If both teams can come away unscathed over the next two weeks, then absolutely they should play for the National Title. The BCS title game should match the two best teams in the country, regardless of conference or even division within conference. I dare anyone to make an argument for any team other than those two (again, provided they don’t lose until then). Oklahoma State? Oregon? Stanford? You all had your chance, now step aside and let the big boys decide it. Again.
How the Mighty Have Fallen. Much has been made of the tumbling fortunes of Florida and Tennessee in the SEC East the past two years. At the beginning of this year I sang the praises of Derek Dooley, saying he was the right man at the right time at UT, and that they were going to surprise some people. Well, I’m here to say I WAS DEAD WRONG PEOPLE.
This video shows just how far the mighty Volunteers have fallen. A wild celebration and trash talk after a monumental victory over…Vanderbilt? A team you have owned forever, winning 28 of the last 29 times you’ve played? For your first conference victory of the year?
Congratulation to James Franklin, whom we like a lot, for earning this kind of respect in such a short time in Nashville.
But come on Tennessee (and I never, ever thought I’d say this), but you’re better than that.
The Good News. Obviously, it was a win. And win #9 to be exact. Even better, CTU lost. Any Saturday where we win and CTU loses qualifies as a good day. Putting things in perspective, 9 wins for this football team, and this program, is quite an accomplishment. It’s only the 4th time in our history this has been achieved. As much as we want the Auburn game back, we should all be realistic and realize that we could easily be 7-4 or 8-3. This team gutted out some tough wins (Navy, MSU) and reached into the bags of tricks for others (UGA, ECU).
The Bad News. We played down to the competition, again. Other than the Kentucky game, it seems as if we always have to sweat a little bit. Don’t tell me you weren’t concerned when El Cid kicked the field goal to make it 20-13, knowing that they got the ball to start the 2nd half. Another huge concern when looking at this game are the injuries. While only the one to D. Jeffrey seems serious at the moment, several starters, particularly on defense, are nicked up. This is not the condition we need to be in with Tajh and Sammy coming to town. Here’s hoping that we heal up fast and that most of the walking wounded can suit up on Saturday night. Finally, some words about our special teams: THEY SUCK.
Connor Can Throw. Yes, there was the one bad pick, but otherwise Shaw chunked it around pretty well. This was good to see given that our passing game has been viturally non-existent the last few weeks. While he still pulled the ball down a bunch, at times he hung in the pocket and delivered some pretty good throws. The screen game to Wilds was impressive as were the deep out and the pump and go passes he threw to Sanders. Plus, it was nice to see Alshon back in the game plan. Speaking of Alshon…….
Alshon Can Catch. While we all pretty much know that big #1 will likey be playing on Sundays next year, it was awesome to see him make another highlight reel catch in a USC uniform. Most of us could feel a pass to Alshon coming on that drive. Heck, it appeared that the big guy actually called it at the line. The catch was vintage Alshon-one handed with defenders draped all over him. Gonna miss the big fella. Hope more monster catches are in store this year now that the drought has been snapped.
Fumble! Glad we didn’t need the turnovers as every loose ball seemed to avoid the garnet and find the blue on Saturday.
No More Triple Option. Unless we somehow find ourselved matched up with Georgia Tech in the post season, it appears that we survived the triple option. While I love watching that offense being executed properly, I hate it when we have to face a team that runs it. Our D is obviously better suited for the more conventional offenses being run in college today. Our defense pursues well and can get after the quarterback. Those things don’t help much when the opposition runs the belly play well and hardly ever passes. Oh, and thanks to El Cid for running that stupid throw back to their offensive lineman on 3rd and five from our thirty. Two dives from the fullback would have resulted in a first down. One of the plays of the game.
Kudos to The Citadel and the Military. The Cadets played tough and disciplined football. Their quarterback looked no taller than 5-6, but that dude could play. Gotta give their players credit for playing hard and taking it to us. They gave us all we wanted and more. The salute to the armed forces at halftime was well done and well received by the fans. The figher jet flyover always gives me chills.
Wacky Saturday. Those who stayed up late were treated to some fantasitic finishes. The Oregon-So Cal and Baylor-Oklahoma games, and the finishes in particular, were pretty darn amazing. I missed TN-Vandy and FSU-Virginia but understand that those games were great ones as well. I was able to catch some of the CTU beatdown. Damn, that had to hurt.
Inspired by TRC Patron Saint, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, a list of things for you to do – RIGHT NOW.
First, in memorium:
Now, get busy with the following:
– Read this article by “Mr. CFB” Tony Barnhardt. Yes I just rec’d an article by Tony Barnhardt, and yes I hate myself a little for it. But wisdom and perspective are found, my friend, in yonder link.
– Watch “American Horror Story” Wednesday nights at 10:00 pm on FX. Its not the smartest show on TV, but it is the creepiest, and gets downright disturbing now and then. No, I’m not talking about Kentucky football.
– Follow @ITS_DABO on twitter. I don’t know who this cat is, but his twitter feed is gold, I tell you, GOLD.
– Apply for the Ole Miss head coaching job. The job is now posted on their HR department, and hey, you couldn’t do any worse than losing to LaTech, could you?
– Contact anyone you know from the University of Missouri and welcome them to the Southeastern Conference. Might as well, as it looks like they are already making themselves at home. [ACHIEVEMENT LEVEL UNLOCKED: Coaching Staff Arrest +1]
– Watch the following, which teaches you everything you need to know about the Trollface meme (h/t here):
– Honk your horn when you pass a Dollar General. It is obnoxious, but it also entertains the CTU fans.
– Don’t watch the following during lunch, but do watch it:
– And last but not least, quit playing on the internet and get back to work, RIGHT NOW!
South Carolina dropped a 58-53 decision at Elon in front of a raucous crowd of 427 on Tuesday night at Alumni Gym. Anthony Gill led the Gamecocks with 9 points and 9 rebounds, while Demontre Harris added 10 rebounds.
“People just don’t go into Alumni Gym and expect to walk out with a victory,” said Gamecock head coach Darrin Horn. “Elon is a tough, tough basketball team, as evidenced by their preseason ranking of fifth in the North division in the Southern Conference. The bottom half of the North division is traditionally one of the toughest bottom halves of a lower mid-major conference in the Southern part of the mid-Atlantic region. ”
Horn continued, “We played these guys tough, make no mistake, we just didn’t make the critical plays down the stretch. I told the guys before the game we were going to need to shoot heavily contested threes to win this game. I figured 10% from behind the arc would win, and we shot 11%, so you certainly can’t fault the game plan. Elon just made plays, that’s what they do.”
Horn bristled when asked if this was an embarrassing loss for this program.
“Embarrassing loss? I don’t think you can ever classify a loss to Elon on their home court as embarrassing. Did you hear that crowd out there? I haven’t heard a crowd that loud since my wife and I went to hear that Thin Lizzy cover band at that bar I can’t remember the name of.”
Horn was asked what positives he could take from the loss.
“Well, just the fact we played Elon to within single digits on the road will boost our confidence. Also, one of our goals is to get at least one player into double digits in scoring every game, and Gill had nine. Nine is one less than ten, which is double digits, so we have room to improve, but that’s still a step in the right direction in my book.”
Horn was then asked how his team was going to regroup for Tennessee State on Sunday night.
“Please, I don’t even want to think about Tennessee State right now. Let me get my head around this loss and we’ll start game planning for the…the, uh…anybody know Tennessee State’s mascot?”
“Tigers.”
“Yeah, Tigers, got to game plan of for the Tigers. How many tall, slow white dudes do they have? That’s a problem for us, you know.”
Tennessee State at South Carolina will tip off at 6:11 p.m. on Sunday night. For some reason it will be televised.
And Darrin Horn will still be the coach of the Gamecocks.
That time of year again, where we begin to weigh out our gridiron victories (and inexplicable faceplants) and try to determine where we might be spending the first weekend of the new year (hopefully) or the last weekend of the old (againingly – yes I just invented a word).
After hours of research, repeated contacts with our sources, and references to both historical trends and BCS projections, here is how we see it shaking out for the SEC (Note, we did none of the preceding):
Allstate BCS National Championship Game:
We can’t see LSU losing to Arkansas, and we can’t see Okie State losing to the Sooners. That’s right, we can’t see either of these things, because we will 1) be at a lame dinner party the Friday night of the Battle for/of/whatever/ the Boot and 2) will be consumed with all things Clemson/Carolina the next day. As such we will stick with the safe picks and predict: LSU v. Oklahoma State.
Allstate Sugar Bowl:
Alabama v. Houston makes absolutely no sense on any level, so that’s exactly what will happen. For an added enjoyment factor, imagine Houston as the Allstate Mayhem character, and Bama as Dennis Hasbert, the Allstate spokesperson. Whichever side loses has to stop with the ads already.
Capitol One Bowl:
Look for the Arkansas Razorbacks to stumble into an inexplicable loss against some random Big Ten team – I’m going with Nebraska since they’re new and all. BONUS GRENADE: the Sports by Brooks assertion that a SEC coach is about to leave because of conflicts with his AD is true, and that coach is Bobby Petrino.
AT&T Cotton Bowl:
Everyone is predicting the Gamecocks land in this one, which means everyone is wrong . . . again. The Cotton will end up with Georgia for an offensive display of defense along with Oklahoma.
Outback Bowl:
They’re gonna take Carolina, and yes I know none of us want to go back there. Heck, we didn’t want to go the last time either. And that’s why it keeps happening to us. Probably pair us with Wisconsin so we get to beat up on Russell Wilson again.
Chick-fil-A Bowl:
These guys are hurting this year (and are probably pulling hard for the SEC to get only one BCS slot) cause the conference is absolutely putrid from this point on out. If I had to guess, I’d go with Auburn, unless Clemson loses the ACC championship somehow, in which case the Bowl folks will try to avoid the rematch. Since by Mighty Dollar General Mandate, Clemson can’t lose anymore, I’m calling it as Auburn v. Virginia Tech
Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl:
Achievement Level Unlocked: Worst Bowl Sponsorship Name Ever. Florida is the logical choice since it’s the Gator Bowl anyway, get it? Huh? Do you? [crickets] Penn State gets the other invite to this one, and that’s all I’m gonna say about that.
Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl:
North Carolina and Tennessee: MAKE IT HAPPEN FRANKLIN AMERICAN. Oh, and put one second back on the clock so we can watch Dooley’s head explode again. WAIT, THEY PUT ONE SECOND BACK ON THE CLOCK IN THAT GAME? WHAT ABOUT IN OUR GAME WITH AUBURN??? /own head explodes
Autozone Liberty Bowl:
This is the first time the following sentence has ever been written in English or any other language: Who gets the Liberty Bowl invite if a Conference USA team gets a BCS bid? I’m gonna guess the conference runner-up and pick this as an (not) epic Southern Miss – Mississippi State matchup. No one will watch this game outside of the State of Mississippi and the City of Memphis unless it snows naked women for the entire game.
BBVA Compass Bowl:
Vandy, right? Bizarre. Maybe they will play South Florida or something. No one will notice, anyway. Oh, and WE HATE YOU, LEGION FIELD.
Snap Judgments for the Florida game are a little late today, my apologies. So here are some quick, barely researched, not fully-formed thoughts from yesterday’s historic 17-12 victory over the Florida Gators:
The good news. Yesterday’s win locked up some pretty impressive records for the Gamecocks over the last two years: 6-0 vs. nemeses Georgia, Tennessee and Florida, and 9-1 vs. the SEC East overall (stupid Kentucky!). It was nice to hear Steve Spurrier wax philosophical about it yesterday and today because for once he seems content and proud of what the 2010-2011 Gamecocks have accomplished.
The bad news. Georgia pummeled Auburn 45-7 to, for all intents and purposes, end our run at back-to-back SEC East titles (stupid Kentucky!). This is the same Auburn team that left Columbia with a 16-13 victory on October 1, and has since lost road games to Arkansas (by 24), LSU (by 35), and now UGA (by 38). That game will linger as the one that could’ve meant a great season instead of a very good one…just like stupid Kentucky last year.
Grinding. Yesterday’s win was very typical of the 2011 edition of the Gamecocks. We weren’t impressive against an unimpressive opponent, but did enough to get the win. Credit the coaching staff for taking what Florida gave us on both sides of the ball. Credit lady luck that our special teams play didn’t hurt us any more than it did. We don’t win pretty, but we win. I’ll take it.
Connor Shaw – The Chief Grinder. Connor Shaw once again showed us he is simply a football player. He took what the defense gave him, and took some pretty good shots along the way, but managed to pick up critical first downs at the right times. And the deep throw to Ace was a thing of beauty (and a spectacular catch by Ace, BTW). I don’t know how long #14 will be the QB at USC, but as long as he’s in there you at least know you’re going to get 100% on every play.
Wilds Vision Quest. I texted a couple of guys mid-way through the first half that Brandon Wilds has great vision, and that’s what makes him a good back. He doesn’t have breakaway speed, and he doesn’t have great power just yet (although with his frame and an offseason in the weight room, look out). But he knows how to find a hole, and that helped lead to another 100-yard performance yesterday.
#1. Congratulations big man, sorry it took so long to get you the record. I hope you still have a breakout game in you this year, and I hope it’s in two weeks.
Welcome Back #6. Melvin Ingram had been MIA the last couple of weeks, but made his presence known and then some against the Gators. His sack and non-strip of John Brantley may have been the play of the game. Speaking of the non-strip…
What Were the Officials Watching? There was one angle of that play that clearly showed Brantley going to the ground with zero of his hands on the ball. CBS showed it only once, right after the play was over. Did the booth officials not see that? I admit, all the other angles were inconclusive, but geez, what a big call to miss. To continue with the theme…
How Bad Does #7 Want to Score a TD? Watch the replay of that again. Jadeveon Clowney purposely doesn’t fall on the ball, composes himself over the ball, makes sure his knees are not on the ground, then picks the ball up. That cat wanted an opportunity to jet with that ball SO bad.
Kudos to UGA. I’ve been hammering UGA’s sad excuse for a win streak ever since it started, but they looked darned good yesterday. As bad as I wanted a return trip to Atlanta, they might actually be the team to give LSU a run for their money. But still…45-42 my Bulldog friends.
Ellington. Will be the next guy to return a KO for touchdown for the Gamecocks. Maybe this week.
TRC Unleashed will air later this week due to some conflicts, we’ll let you know as soon as it is scheduled.
That time of year again, where we begin to weigh out our gridiron victories (and inexplicable faceplants) and try to determine where we might be spending the first weekend of the new year (hopefully) or the last weekend of the old (againingly – yes I just invented a word).
The Rubber Chickens Blog 