I know you are all anticipating that as eagerly as you are anticipating the start of the season. I just didn’t want you to think we cheated when we nail the games, tonight.
Archive for September 2nd, 2010
BlogHawgs Week 1 Picks Will Be Out Tomorrow
Posted by Adam Butler on September 2, 2010
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2010 South Carolina Preview: Seven Isn’t Heaven
Posted by Adam Butler on September 2, 2010
(This is the 9 th in a series in our annual SEC Preview)
Before the 2009 season, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier lamented that he has been a 6 or 7-win ball coach since taking the helm in Columbia. Then, his squad promptly went out and, much to his chagrin, won but 7 games–again.
A year later, Spurrier is still trying to get over the 7-win hump, but, with plenty of returning starters on both sides of the ball and some tailor-made opportunities for SEC East road wins, the ’Ole Ball Coach may have the pieces in place to move on up in the SEC East.
The South Carolina Offense
If the Gamecocks are going to have much to cluck about in 2010, they will need junior quarterback Stephen Garcia to be the Cock of the Walk.
Unfortunately, far too often in his career thus far, Garcia has toiled behind spotty offensive line and has instead been forced to run around SEC football fields like a chicken with his head cut off.Spurrier, per his usual, is anything but easy on his quarterback.
In fact, it seems at times that the South Carolina Head Coach would like to ring Garcia’s neck.I left him alone this summer. I left him alone this spring pretty much, let him go play,” Spurrier said at SEC Media Days. “We have a quarterback coach, G.A. Mangus, does a good job with all those guys. Sometimes our local media guys think I’m critical of him a lot. I’m just trying to tell — express what he needs to do to help our team certainly. That’s avoid the sacks and make better decisions.”Spurrier did not stop there, adding to the ringing endorsement of his signal-caller.
Garcia
“’I’m not critical of him,” Spurrier seemingly dead-panned. “He may be playing the best he can. I don’t know yet. You know, you coach and you coach and you coach and you coach. At some point, players don’t really make better decisions or play better, then that’s the best they can be. That’s all you can do. If you don’t have another player to put in there, then you live with it. That’s the way you go on. But we think we’ll have at least another quarterback ready to play this coming season in case Stephen struggles. Stephen will have the first opportunity to go the distance for us.”
If Garcia, doesn’t go the distance, his replacement stands to be true freshman Connor Shaw. Shaw had plenty of options in recruiting, and will likely see action in the ‘Cocks Wildcat action and could grow into a larger role if Garcia struggles early.Neither QB will thrive if South Carolina’s offense line is as porous as it has been the last three years–giving up a whopping 107 sacks in that span.
The good news is that four starters return on the USC-E offensive line. The bad news is that they have collectively managed to not be very good at pass blocking or run blocking–as the Gamecocks were also dead last in rushing a year ago.
Spurrier said they have to improve in order for him to call better ball plays.
“If we’re going to have a good offense, we got to eliminate is our backward plays, sacks, bad snaps out of the shotgun,” Spurrier said. “We’ve been bottom of the league in sacks, which has made us bottom of the league in rush offense. We must eliminate the backward plays to give our offense a chance to be more successful.”
If the offensive line can open some holes, freshman phenom running back Marcus Lattimore will shine.Lattimore could have gone to any school in the country and may provide the home run threat in the running game that the Gamecocks have generally lacked in the Spurrier era. With any kind of passing attack keep opposing defenses from loading up to stop Lattimore, he will be the best freshman running back in the SEC this season.
Wide receiver Alshon Jeffery emerged as a star last season and was made most preseason All-SEC lists. There was also nothing feminine about Tori Gurley, 6-5, 230, who pulled in 31 catches and 440 yards as a freshman.Tight End Weslye Saunders is the pick of many to be an All-SEC tight end if he can emerge unscathed from South Beach Agent Gate 2010.
Saunders is suspended for tonight’s opener, and he may not be the only Gamecock on the bench because of potential eligibility issues.Several Gamecocks, including — cornerback C.C. Whitlock, offensive tackle Jarriel King, guard , safety Akeem Auguste and defensive tackle Ladi Ajiboye — may miss tonight’s nationally televised matchup with Southern Miss, depending on the decisions that the NCAA hands down. Some of the players may also be required to miss future games.The Gamecocks who do take the field should have plenty of motivation after a few shots over the bow from the folks at Southern Miss. Spurrier says he hasn’t paid much attention to the chatter.
“They haven’t talked that much trash,” Spurrier said. “They’re trying to get excited about a national TV game, which we can understand. But certainly our players will know they’re coming in here to kick our tails on our home field. We got to be ready ’cause they’re a good team. We got to be ready to play. But we should be ready to play all of ‘em anyway. I’ve never been a big believer in the talk bit helping anybody. But certainly if somebody says something that you think can put a little extra fire in your guys, you got to let them know about it.”
The South Carolina Defense & Special Teams
The South Carolina defense should be able to talk plenty again this year. That unit lost stalwarts LB Eric Norwood and CB Darian Stewart to the NFL, but retains potential All-SEC talents in defensive end Cliff Matthews, stocky linebacker Shaq Wilson (who should remind Hog fans of former Razorback Sam Olajabutu) DT Ojiboye, safety Auguste and cornerbacks Stephon Gilmore and Chris Culliver.
Gilmore
Gilmore and Culliver may be the best pair of cornerbacks in the SEC, and each contribute significantly on special teams returns.
“We think our defense is going to play as well, maybe get some more turnovers,” Spurrier said. “We didn’t get as many turnovers as we had hoped last year.”
Spencer Lanning was a walkon last year, and had a great season, picking up where departed (for the NFL) placekicker Ryan Succup left off.
The South Carolina Schedule
Hopeful South Carolina fans won’t want to reads this, but they are staring at….a 7-win schedule.USC-E should handle Southern Miss tonight to open the season. Then, they host UGA in a big swing game. From there, the Gamecocks travel to Auburn on September 25, have an open week before hosting Bama, (like almost everyone else) head out on a winnable road trip to Kentucky and Vandy and then host Tennessee and Arkansas in a homestand that will likely go a long way in telling the tale of South Carolina.USC-E travels to the swamp to take on Florida on November 13th, and then closes the season by hosting a punchy Troy team before ending with their annual rivalry tilt versus Clemson.
(7-5, 4-4)
Sept. 2 Southern Miss W
Sept. 11 Georgia L
Sept. 18 Furman W
Sept. 25 at Auburn W
Oct. 2 OPEN DATE
Oct. 9 Alabama L
Oct. 16 at Kentucky W
Oct. 23 at Vanderbilt W
Oct. 30 Tennessee W
Nov. 6 Arkansas L
Nov. 13 at Florida L
Nov. 20 Troy W
Nov. 27 at Clemson L
Sept. 11 Georgia L
Sept. 18 Furman W
Sept. 25 at Auburn W
Oct. 2 OPEN DATE
Oct. 9 Alabama L
Oct. 16 at Kentucky W
Oct. 23 at Vanderbilt W
Oct. 30 Tennessee W
Nov. 6 Arkansas L
Nov. 13 at Florida L
Nov. 20 Troy W
Nov. 27 at Clemson L
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NWC Report for 9/3/10
Posted by Jeff on September 2, 2010
Hello. I’m making this weekend a 4 day weekend so here’s the report, one day early.
(Note: I HATE lazy reporting on the TV. So this first report got a little windy. Sorry.)
KFSM (CBS Channel 5) reported on Monday that the University of Arkansas had eased penalties for misdemeanor marijuana possession on campus. NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND. (Can you tell I’m ready for Gameday?) The UA felt it necessary to clarify that they had NOT done so. (Can’t resist… horrible joke…) What was that KFSM reporter smoking? (**NOTE** Apparently some producer/editor/GM at KFSM decided maybe they should pull that pitiful report from the website. So they did and the link above is (happily) dead. What it said was that the UA had decided to lower the student penalty for marijuana possession to the level of alcohol. What it didn’t say is that this was just a suggestion made by an advisory group. It was derisible reporting and after a few days of people like me laughing at how something like that got missed, it was killed.)
The Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas is expanding its staff again. This college is becoming more and more prestigious and the size, breadth and salaries of its faculty is following suit.
The city of Fayetteville has decided that a planned October unpaid furlough day for city employees is no longer needed. A nominal increase in sales tax (or better: no further decrease) saved the day.
After renovations, the historic Washington County Courthouse will be reopened on September 18th.
Game Day!
Watch out for construction! Probably the most gnarling of traffic issues will be the Wedington exit on the bypass. Avoid it and thank a BlogHawg for the tip.
Coming up for the game? Bring a friend. Despite all of the hype, there are still plenty of seats available to see Ryan Mallett play for 2 quarters plus one series against Tennessee Tech.
I had only a passing interest to attend a Bobby Petrino Live show at the Catfish Hole until I learned it was All You Can Eat Buffet. I’m there…
Have a great Labor Day Weekend, BlogHawg Nation. Go Hawgs!
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