Gamecock Football: It was the best of times: It was the worst of times!
Sunday, The State‘s Neil White wrote on Facebook, “There’s nothing like writing stories in the Arkansas press box after the game and the counter-tops and windows start to shake due to the earthquake in Oklahoma. It felt like a scene out of a disaster movie.”
Earthquake, disaster: Things that describe Carolina’s game in Fayetteville and USC’s late-season prospects. If you didn’t see the game — there was a heavyweight title bout on CBS — the following gives an adequate view of the Gamecocks’ night.
- USC | Leading Rusher: QB Connor Shaw, 14 carries for 24 yards, 1.7 yards-per-carry, two touchdowns
- USC | Punts: Four for 148 yards
- ARK | Punts: Zero
- FINAL | Arkansas 44, USC 28
That sort of play led former Gamecock and State Rep. Anton Gunn to tweet, “#91 has been coming off the edge the whole game and WE haven’t chipped him once! THAT is a failure of coaching! #Gamecocks.”
Gunn knows from bad coaching in Columbia, having experienced it first-hand. A lot of other Gamecock fans took to social media to demand some coaching changes, eschewing their epidemic early-season, media-hyped “less-than-reality-based” predictions for November resignation. Pirate Cap’n Mike Leach is still in port, and his name was bandied about as a possible replacement for the Head Ball Coach.
At the same time, Carolina is in — as its website trumpets — its winningest decade ever.
Representative Pat “a/k/a ‘Mister Pat’ Harris” (D, Anderson) and I served together in the South Carolina General Assembly for years. We even shared the same Birthday in April. We also shared a political truth in it’s simplest of forms: “There are two sure-fire winning slogans in politics. One is, ‘It’s never been better.’ The other is, ‘It’s time for a change.’” Well my friend might be spinnin’ in his grave this year because BOTH slogans are the case for USC, or so it seems. Today’s recruits were small children when Spurrier last won an SEC championship, and thanks to Mark Richt’s behind-saving at Georgia, the age gap is likely to grow. The program is like a car that can only go up to third gear. Fourth is necessary, and every once in a while, you need fifth.
Could it be time to bring in the buccaneer. Because Carolina fans have a taste of what it’s like to consistently win, and they and the Gamecock players deserve better than Saturday’s Hog-tying.
by J.L. Mann Cromer, Jr., an Attorney licensed to practice in South Carolina, California & The District of Columbia. He received his BA in 1985 from Clemson University and his JD in 1988 from the University of South Carolina School of Law.
with Wes Wolfe. He’s written for 11 publications in five states, and is the proprietor of The Five Points Flood.
I really don’t think that the problem is coaching. Spurrier took over a program from Elmer Fudd, AKA Lou Holtz, with absolutely no winning tradition. He has turned that into the best decade in Carolina football history, while only coaching for only half of those years. he brought in Alshon Jeffrey, Marcus Lattimore, and Jadaveon Clowney to a program with not much recruting upside compared to all other schools that were going after them. Jadeveon Clowney himself said that he would have chosen Alabama if they ran a 4-3 defense. He got Alshon to commit after he had already committed to the other USC. The problem with this years team is that we lost our starting quarterback, running back, now our backup quarterback to a concussion, and we have a mediocre O-line that spurrier took care of by recruiting one of the best OT’s of last years high school class. The biggest problem we have had is that our only once has our opposing team been called for holding since the georgia game, and that was with 2 minutes left in the Arkansas game when the game was already out of reach. We have 3 future 1st round picks on our line. Something doesn’t seem right there.
However there is a difference between recruiting & coaching. Its great to have great recruiters to bring in the talent like Spurrier and Ellis Johnson do, but you have to develop the talent you bring in. When your team constantly makes similar mistakes over and over again it needs to be fixed. If you don’t fix the problems then its bad coaching.
While I agree that everything that could go wrong has gone wrong this year, Spurrier has still brought in the talent for us to be 7-2 at this point with a strong case to be made to finish 10-2 which would be a good season. People are just peeved because with the talent we have we should have beaten Auburn and given Arkansas a much better challenge. For being a “quarterbacks coach” Spurrier certainly hasn’t done much in his tenure to develop a star-qb or develop a good line to protect the qb.
Oh, my, I so wish my Gamecocks could be more consistent for an entire season. They make my heart skip beats. Come on guys…..Play your best, we will still support ya no matter what, just a few bad breaks can cause doubt…don’t play to it…….GO GAMECOCKS!!!
As much as I love the Gamecocks, the pre-season talk about them playing for the National Championship was a bunch of BS. As old as I am, I will never see that in my lifetime. I would hope that the younger people in my family may see that in the future, but I don’t think so. We will give Florida a good game and we can beat them, as well as The Citadel, but the Clemson game will be a toss-up. If Taz and Sammy are “on”, it’s going to be a LONG game for the Cocks.
Hmmm not really sure about this one…maybe it’s because they have gotten bigheaded and it is distracting all the players. It could also be that with all the media frenzy going on they are trying way too hard to win and totally bombing in the process. Their egos are out the window, a breather is probably what the gamecocks could use so they can get there damn heads screwed on back the right way! Oh well not really a huge spots fan just helping a friend out! So if you don’t agree oh well nothing I really have to say about it, because I don’t keep up with sports.
Just want my hometown team to get it together! The Tarheels had a bad week too, and thank God the Panthers didn’t play!
I remember when Coach Holtz was asked if Fayetteville was at the end of the Earth. He replied, “No, but you can see it from here.” Go Cocks !
as my fake cuban father says: OH NO DEY GAMECOCKS! DAY ARE A BUNCH OF LOOSERS!
Gamecock athletics is just like SC public schools, underachieving and low scoring. What can I say that hasn’t already been said. We let that one slip away….
BUT all hope is not lost! Cause we are still in the hunt for an SEC EAST TITLE!
NEVER SURRENDER NEVER GIVE UP!
Hey Bubba, lets sit Boyd and several other key players down for the rest of the year and you tell me how your out look for the Taters would be.
I got nothin’.
Except…..
Go Gamecocks! Beat Florida!
imagine this… Clemson loses their current #1 QB, RB, OT, Tackler and senior defensive leader, major member of secondary, and has to play a ranked SEC team on the road….
USC is one field goal away from being 8-1 in the #1 FB conference in America. We have not lost to an unranked team.. yes, Ark took us down, probably worse than the score, but we have and still have major first string players missing. Don’t worry, we’ll be waiting for the pussy cats Nov. 26, and show them what an injured SEC contender can do to a Southern Conf team…. oh, sorry ACC. How many ACC teams are in the BCS top 20, huhhhh
congrats to Clemson on their sucess so far, but they are not even in the same league as the Gamecocks… refer to 2010 and 2009. All the best to Bubba
JC
Well, there’s only way way to go from last week….UP!
Nothing will help. The Chicken Curse always prevails!
Enjoying the blog…but I don’t think the that “Sakerlina” fans and players deserve better. I rather enjoy their suffering….and hope the Tigers add to it in the most excruciating way.
Jim Carr speeks for me too! Well put!
Oh how “Sakerlina” fans love to live vicariously through the SEC. Hilarious!
One more observation: ahem, to the poster above who seems to be out on the ledge a bit – you are aware it took 40 years for your powerhouse sec member team to beat the lowly “taters” two years in a row? Maybe not in the same league, but certainly a better team than the cooties for most (if not all) of your life. You may now return to your SEC programming.
Two words, “chicken curse.”
Injuries are really “hurting” us and if our quarterback doesn’t recover sufficiently we’re gooing
to look like a bunch of baby chicks Why do we keep repeating the same mistakes over & over. I’m a strong Gamecock supporter but even I couldn’t bare to watch the whole game.
When you consider the fact that as of the week of November 7, 2011, there are only five unbeaten teams in the BCS (formerly Division I-A), it puts in perspective how difficult it would have been for the Tigers to run the table without a loss. The five teams, LSU, Oklahoma State, Stanford, Boise State, and Houston still have some work to do.
The good news is that the Tigers no longer have to deal with being compared to the 1981 team (the 1977 team maybe). The focus is and always should be on (1) beating the Gamecoks (2) winning an ACC championship and of couse (3) beating the Gamecocks. Okay, let’s be honest, it’s really (4) beating the Gamecocks.
Saturday’s game against Wake Forest will measure the degree of disappointment hangover the Tigers still have from losing to Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Good teams learn to deal with setbacks and move on. Let’s hope that this is case Saturday at noon when the Tigers run down the hill to Frank Howard Field.
You can depend on them, Carolina, you really can. Just when it looks like they’ve turned the corner fate drops another pothole square in the middle.
“Chicken Curse”, exactly. But I must also ask, how is it that the Shamecocks are the best two-loss team in the nation ranked at 13 according to the BCS Standings? Oh I know, since the BCS uses a computer selection method to determine its standings, the Shamecocks must have stolen their laptops and influenced these rankings.
Go Tigers, Beat Weak Forest!!!
…it is amazing how quickly fortunes can change… the balance of football power once again resides in its rightful place in the NW corner of the state… GO TIGERS!!
It’s like a bad dream…. all over again! lol
Hey “Sakerlina” fans, look on the bright side: at least you have good chance of your qb being sober for this years Music City Bowl.
I am perplexed as well. But you know what “they” say, whoever “they” are: “The sum of the whole is only equal to its parts.” Yes, I know that is very loosely paraphrased, but surely you get the point Also apt, is “you can’t lose what you never had.” Read together these apply, because South Carolina cannot seem to get all its moving parts together to add up to one team pulling as such. That seems to me a problem of leadership. Someone has to pull the parts, i,e, the players together Second, I don’t think Carolina ever was the stuff of champions, this year. They have been held together by some thin glue. Having said that, I hope for the sake of the state and the team, that I am proven to be wrong, AGAIN.
P.S. Should have prefaced this by confessing I don’t know much about football. Reader puhleeze, beware.
some games simply don’t need a comment, watch out Florida, here we come to the swamp with winning on our agenda.
don’t think the record is always the coach… more the situation… 2 top players gone and on the sec late season grind against a good team…
did particularly like the link over to the bulldog richt thing about gabmasters having to talk about someone else… great find
Suppose, what if, imagine… I heard none of this from the Lamecocks before the Auburn game. Recruiting, coaching, whatever the issue may be – the record is still the same and every team has an opportunity to lose key players throughout the course of the season. Suppose the Shamecocks win another game…what if they lose the rest…Imagine if they had beat the Tigers this year. Go Tigers!
It is all so simple to explain: Chicken Curse. That’s it, no further conversation is necessary. Sad, but it would seem all too true.
GO CITADEL BULLDOGS!! (GET READY FOR US ON NOVEMBER 19TH, GAMECOCKS!)
To the true Gamecock fans out there, I say, “don’t give up.” Despite missing major key players, the Gamecocks played well against a very strong ranked team. I believe the score could have been much worse. I believe despite all the major changes within the organization itself, the team stuck together and played hard. We have a strong winning record and are in the top fifteen of the BCS Standings. Years ago, we would have been ecstatic! Let’s band together and show our support for a team who still has a great chance of ending with a wonderful season. We were simply out-played last week by a stronger team.
What I have failed to understand since Spurrier came to Carolina is when he was at Florida he had a bunch of real studs at quarterback and lots waiting to prove themselves if they were called to play. He also recruited some great receivers to go with them. We have some great receivers at Carolina and have for a few years, but where are all the stud quarterbacks that should be in the pack? You mean to tell me this is all Carolina can recruit in this area? The O line struggles and does improve, but we consistently fail at the QB position year after year. The defense is strong up front but weak covering the pass. Lots of work to do, but they need to start recruiting better in the skill positions if they want to move the program forward.
I guess the Gamecocks just got outplayed last week….it happens. All I can say is better luck next week.
How can anyone doubt Spurriers ability to develop talent? Lattimore exceeded exprectations as freshman after being the number one running back in the country. Alshon is better than anyone expected him to be. Not to mention Brandon Wilds ran for over 100 yards in his first career start as a true freshman, and he might as well have been a walk-on with how much incoming hype he had. Not to mention USC always get’s the most out of their talent on the defensive side, including players such as Ingram, Devin Taylor, Antonio Allen, D.J Swearinger. You can blame Spurrier for our QB dillema as much as you want, but I find it hard to blame an old football coach for wanting a kid with so much talent to succeed. Did he deserve to get kicked out of school much earlier than he did? Of course. That kid is an absolute punk with no future unless he smartens up real quick. But I can’t blame someone for having faith in a kid. The fault lies on Garcia, because he’s the moron who broke the rules every single time he was given another opportunity. Remember, this is the coach who made Danny Wuerffel look like Peyton Manning
same old same old
Reading these Gamecock reasons (excuses) for their loss is hysterical. It’s the same thing they have said for years: injuries! – if not injuries – officiating, if not officiating, other team is cheating somehow. It really is amusing.
In my view, the strength of a team (all of the players, not just the starters) is its depth as well. If the Lamecocks can’t still win with the loss of some key players, then they simply aren’t as good as they think. I promise you that Bama, LSU, or even the lowly (keep believing it) GT or VTech could handle lost players better. Come one Gamecocks, you’ve only beaten two teams with winning records.
The facts is that your team is not as good as you think and it is being exposed. Period.
I hope your team is ready for 11/26 because Clemson’s passing game is even better than Arky. There is a very good chance that a lot of Humble Pie will be sold at Willy B. Go Tigers!!!!
To quote an old, dear friend, “I am NOT a ‘fair-weather fan’” Sorry folks, but I am of the FIRM belief that you “root for the home team.” So what! A bunch of teenagers and very young 20 year olds lost some games. Heck, they are younger than a couple of my kids!!! Words like “disappointment” don’t belong in anyone’s thoughts. Does anyone realize how hard football has gotten on these very young bodies? How so many have had to have such aggressive surgery at such a young age (when the chance to play for the “big bucks” in the NFL is NOT a guarantee)? You think having an ACL repair is like a tooth extraction? Have you ever seen the older, former football players walk, crippled with arthritis and several either having or soon to have knee and hip replacements??!! Not to mention the neurological damage that happens every time a player has a concussion. Sure, many have had one. But, there is clear evidence of future long term impairment with each successive concussion. How anyone can look at the Gamecock football season and NOT be so very proud….is totally beyond me.
I have enjoyed EVERY game they played, even the “heartbreakers” when they lost. They played hard and strong. As for the “why we can’t win,” the answer is so clearly obvious. You want to win in the SEC (and in the BCS…a “natural” progression), you MUST have a NFL-caliber QB who plays that way as a freshman. Look at Georgia. Matt Stafford is doing great in the NFL. Aaron Murray too has been playing that way since a freshman, as did Colt McCoy, and others. Stephen Garcia had the stats out of HS but unfortunately could not transition into a higher level of play. The great ones are capable of that.
As for WRs, we’ve had great ones: Sterling Sharpe and Sydney Rice. Remember them? Rice left as a sophmore. Wouldn’t you? No way you could get great stats when your QB can’t get the ball to you. I have no doubt Alshon Jeffery would have “destroyed” ALL college records had he had a great QB. The man has done amazing things with “junk” thrown his way. That he stayed for his Jr. year, risking career ending injury before he could make some decent money in the NFL is a credit to his loyalty as a Gamecock (and probably his mother…if not for GREAT SC mothers, there would be NO way we would presently have Marcus Lattimore or Clowney….they had to be taught the value of playing for “home”).
Any talk about coaching changes, is ridiculous. Spurrier has done a great job (and he’s obviously in a lot of pain when he walks because he’s in dire need of either a hip or knee joint replacement). Let’s not be like the fans of the past, who wanted a coaching change every other year. Heck, I remember a time there were at least 2 or 3 coaches whose contracts were bought out within 5 or 6 years in the 80s. In this economy, there is NO money for such actions.
Let’s just be happy that we got such great national air time. I have no doubt that it will greatly help recruiting for the years to come.
Not to take away from the Warriors on the Grid Iron. However, I could not let today pass without spreading a little knowledge about my favorite team
A committee of the Continental Congress met at Tun Tavern to draft a resolution calling for two battalions of Marines able to fight for independence at sea and on shore.
The resolution was approved on November 10, 1775, officially forming the Continental Marines.
Back in 1775 Our Marine Corps came alive. Happy Birthday my Brothers and Sisters. Marines die that’s what we do. However, The Marine Corps lives forever therefore we live forever. Always remember God was here before the Marine Corps. So we can give our heart to Jesus. But our asses belongs to the Corps
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Marine+corps&aq=f
South Carolina is done they are going to get Sandusky’d in their final games especially if they make it to the SECCG.
As a former Gamecock of the late 90s, now living in the UK, I have to be a die-hard fan to stay in touch. Thanks to the digital and social web, it has never been easier.
I get really annoyed that our program that boasts some of the most amazing facilities, but cannot break the barrier of mediocrity. OK, so we have won our division, but who is in it that is worth anything?
We need to be consistantly crushing the smaller teams 60-0 and running up stats the make your eyes water, but no, we usually play to the level of our competition and that is not the making of a strong program.
Teams don’t fear ‘us’, they fear individuals on our team. Almost every single player that comes to our program are talented athletes in their various positions, come from winning programs in high school ,but when they arrive in Columbia, we are too grateful for their arrival and continually take 2nd best play as acceptable.
What are we not doing off the field that can harness our boys on the field? I think that it is totally in their heads and up to our coaches and fans to not take 2nd best any longer…
Gamecock til I die and happy to share in the good times and bad, but there is no reason why we should not be a powerhouse nationally. No excuses at all. Maybe coach Tanner should have a go at football. He has an Olympic Gold Medal, Two National Championships, and NEVER takes 2nd best. EVER!