Get ‘yer drinking game ready!

Georgia – South Carolina draws Herbstreit and Musburger for the call.

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… and turning towards South Carolina.

First thoughts on Georgia – South Carolina, or, as I like to refer to it, the “hasn’t seen” game.  As in, Georgia hasn’t seen as good a defense this year as the Gamecocks’ D.  As in, South Carolina hasn’t seen an offense remotely in the same class as Georgia’s.  As in, the Dawgs haven’t seen a running back of the caliber of Marcus Lattimore.  As in, the ‘Cocks haven’t seen as good a quarterback as Aaron Murray.  As in…

I think you get my point.  Anyway, a few specifics:

• Very different challenge for Georgia’s defense this week.  Gone is the scary downfield passing attack, to be replaced by a quarterback who’s been as efficient as Murray throwing the ball and is also an effective runner.  Not to mention a tough son of a gun.
• Oh, yeah.  There’s that Marcus Lattimore fellow.  He’s not bad.  Matt Hinton had a good piece about Lattimore that he posted before the Kentucky game in which he pointed out that Lattimore hasn’t been dominating South Carolina’s offensive numbers this season because Spurrier hasn’t needed him to.  Cue the Kentucky game – the ‘Cocks are down 17-7 at the half and what does the OBC do?  He dials up a heavy dose of his stud running back (10 carries for 61 yards in an 81-yard touchdown drive in the third quarter that put South Carolina up 28-17) to fuel a 31-point run and an easy win.  Basically what Spurrier’s done is keep Lattimore in second-game shape even though the season’s five weeks old now.
• So what does that mean for Grantham?  Well, for one thing, he won’t have his safeties lined up halfway to Watkinsville this week.  For another, unlike the last two seasons, he’ll have a full quiver to shoot from, with no players out due to suspension or injury.  The goal this week will be containment – controlling the zone read play and the intermediate passing game which Shaw has executed well.
• Another thing to keep an eye on is that South Carolina ran out of the I-formation a good bit against Kentucky.  It’s a smart way both to protect Shaw’s shoulder and to pound on the defensive front to wear it out to enable Lattimore to control the fourth quarter in the way we’re all too sadly familiar with.  In other words, it’s a big test for the new strength and conditioning regime.  Also, I hope Grantham backs off from playing Jenkins and Geathers together so much; keeping them fresh for the inevitable strikes me as a good strategy.
• What is Bobo going to do about those defensive ends?  Throw the kitchen sink at ‘em, I expect, in hopes of keeping them off-balance.  One thing I know is that he can’t expect Theus to handle Devin Taylor by himself all game.  I do think the Dawgs will have some success moving the ball on the ground, but I’m scared to death of a couple of Murray turnovers coming by way of a fierce pass rush.  Aaron’s got to be smart about not holding the ball too long.  Also, expect lots and lots of max protect.  Which may be fine, as I’m not as impressed with the ‘Cocks secondary as I am with their front seven.  And I’m not forgetting that Georgia moved the ball on these guys throughout last year’s game.
• I’m not sure I really want to talk about special teams.  Moving Mitchell out of punt return duty should help, but we can’t be sure until we see McGowan in action.  I keep thinking that a game is going to come along where the extra point adventure is going to come back and bite Georgia in the butt.  It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if this week’s game proved to be that point.  On the other hand, I keep thinking Ace Sanders on punt returns is a turnover waiting to happen if the right guy times the right hit.
• Oh, and that silly Spurrier tiff with Ron Morris?  I’ve seen someone suggest it’s the Evil Genius’ brilliant strategy for taking attention away from the game.  (Question not addressed:  why would he care about that?)  Andy Staples thinks it was a distraction in the Kentucky game.  Me, I just think Spurrier is a little bored.  His team is functioning well and is in a post-Garcia era with no real major distractions.  He’s got no players who need messing with, so the media makes a convenient target.  Will any of that make a difference Saturday night?  I don’t think so.

Mike Slive claims his second scalp.

And unlike the first time, there’s no doubt South Carolina’s D.J. Swearinger earned his suspension for this hit.

Oh, and this is nice:

According to Josh Kendall of The State, Swearinger had posted a video clip of the hit on his Twitter feed a half hour before the SEC announced its decision.  The video has subsequently been removed from the player’s Twitter feed…

Stay classy, ‘Cocks.

Scheduling complaint

I don’t think it’s fair that South Carolina plays Arkansas and Georgia doesn’t.

Random observations from last night’s SEC opener

Is this the quintessential Vanderbilt moment, or what?

Of course, let’s keep that in perspective:  even if the official had flagged Carolina on the play, it still meant Vanderbilt had to cover about half the field in about 100 seconds.  That was anything but a given for a team that amassed less than 300 total yards on the night.

Still, it helps make for a nice, warm moral victory.

On to a few specifics:

• The game was closer than I thought it would be, for two reasons, both of which should be troubling to South Carolina.  First, the injury to Connor Shaw.  It’s funny – all those years we watched Stephen Garcia run recklessly and never get hurt and Shaw, a gamer who runs with a much more organized purpose than Garcia ever did, gets banged up.  The Gamecock offense, which wasn’t exactly lighting things up before Shaw was hurt, completely shut down in his absence.  And it’s not like Shaw won’t be facing a few formidable front sevens in October.  It’s a little scary to consider how much is going to be left of him after the Florida game.
• The second reason, the shocker of the night, was how much South Carolina missed Alshon Jeffery.  Especially the threat of Alshon Jeffery.  The ‘Cocks gained a whopping 67 yards through the air.  Their leading receiver was Marcus Lattimore.  Shaw couldn’t throw anything longer than an intermediate-level pass with any authority, even before his injury.  (There was only one completion of as much as 20 yards and that was to the tight end.)
• Lattimore wasn’t 100 percent, but he was still the best player on the field.  The Vanderbilt defense keyed on him, which allowed Shaw to rack up almost 100 yards rushing, but still, when it came down to crunch time, Lattimore showed he had it in him to take over a game.  He’s got some rust to shake off, but he’ll get better.  He’ll have to.
• For all the smart-assery we’ve heard from the OBC about the schedule, I bet he’s not too unhappy right now about Georgia not being his week two opponent.
• The South Carolina secondary is definitely the weak link on the defense.  And there are some passing attacks that are going to take advantage of that.
• The “SEC – Year of the Quarterback” meme took a hit last night.  I’ve already mentioned Shaw’s deficiencies.  Rodgers looked like the same erratic passer he was last year.  He did have that nice 78-yard hookup with Jordan Matthews, but he had more than his fair share of head scratchers.
• I really, really like Vanderbilt’s coaches.  Despite being obviously overmatched on both lines, they did everything they could to scratch, claw and compensate for that.  The Vandy defense, in particular, looks like it’s going to be a pain in the ass to deal with.
• And I thought Lorenzo Ward did a competent job masking the weakness of his secondary.  Take away that one busted play in coverage that allowed Vandy’s touchdown of the night and there wasn’t a whole bunch else.  He’ll do all right this year.
• It sure looks a lot easier to kick off for a touchback.
• Who thought a Spurrier-coached team would be so boring?

For Vanderbilt, it’s going to be a year when everyone talks about grit, determination and being well-coached.  Not so much about winning, though.  For all their toughness, the Commodores held a 13-10 second half lead against a team with a one-armed quarterback… and lost.  There’s still too much of a talent gap in Nashville.  Vandy isn’t going to upset a better team without help on the turnover front, and even then, as last night showed, that’s not always going to happen.

South Carolina is a deeper team than it’s ever been and that helped last night.  But you have to wonder how far the Gamecocks can go with that passing attack, even if Shaw stays healthy going forward.  You also have to wonder if South Carolina’s front seven can do enough to compensate for the back four against a team with a more consistent passing game than Vanderbilt’s.  The OBC would seem to have his work cut out for him.

“I told the guys, ‘Next year’s team, they’ll try to win 12, because 11 already happened.’”

Paul Myerberg’s South Carolina preview (#10, and, no, Georgia hasn’t shown up yet) is solid.  I especially like the way he sums up how Spurrier has his program settled:

What you love about South Carolina is its ability to tackle these issues. For one, the system should be so simplistic in its overall goals – move the football on the ground, avoid turnovers – that every lineman on the second tier should be able to step into a starting role and keep this offense clicking. As noted, the issues in the secondary can be offset by a healthy pass rush; there’s every reason to think that Clowney and Taylor are going to give U.S.C. one of the best edge-rushing tandems in college football. That’s how you fix the sort of issues that could be unfixable elsewhere: with coaching, for one, but also talent, and the latter is something U.S.C. continues to add every February.

When you have superlative talents like Lattimore and Clowney, you don’t need to complicate things.  Special teams look a little messy (gee, where have I heard that from?) and I’m not as convinced that Clowney and Taylor are going to cure whatever might ail the ‘Cocks secondary, mainly because it looks like this year’s slate of opponents possesses more formidable passing attacks than what South Carolina faced in 2011, but if Lattimore stays healthy, Myerberg’s conclusion that another 10-win season is in the works is a reasonable one.

Spurrier on Georgia: right for the wrong reasons?

Bill Connelly’s preview of South Carolina is posted here.  It’s worth a read, even if Bill thinks the Gamecocks’ future this season is uncertain (hint:  the threat of regression to the mean rears its ugly head in an area or two).  What I’m intrigued about, though, isn’t the overall picture, but the inferences that might be drawn from certain factual points he lays out.

Take this bit about South Carolina’s great running back:

South Carolina rode Marcus Lattimore to a huge win over Georgia, and he saved them in an upset bid by Navy. Then they got incredibly average totals from him for four weeks and struggled. Then they lost him for the season and, in terms of overall quality, didn’t regress at all.

This, about Alshon Jeffery:

The Gamecocks saw significant regression from their No. 1 receiver, Alshon Jeffery, whose games generally fit into three categories: 1) Dominance (he caught nine of 12 passes for 233 yards against Georgia and Nebraska), 2) Short Stuff Only (he caught 13 of 19 passes versus Mississippi State, Tennessee, Arkansas and Florida, but for only 77 yards), and 3) Disappearing Act (he caught four of 13 passes for 63 yards versus Vanderbilt and Clemson).

And, finally, this about the defense:

The uncertainty does not stop on offense. Despite a mediocre run defense (49th in Rushing S&P+, 88th in Adj. Line Yards), South Carolina fielded a wonderfully successful defense primarily because nobody could throw the ball on them. The Gamecocks ranked fourth in the country in Passing S&P+, and they were absolutely devastating after the first couple of weeks of the season.

That’s not an understatement.  A look at last year’s game log of SC’s defensive passer rating reveals only one game all season where the Cocks didn’t show up:  Georgia, which posted a 175.98.  All the slagging Aaron Murray took for his turnovers in that game obscures the fact that he was the only quarterback who ripped that defense (South Carolina held nine teams under 100 last season; check out Kentucky’s passer rating).   It’s the mother of all outliers.  Honestly, the Georgia game colored my perception of the Gamecock defense.

Bottom line – the Dawgs played the Bizarro ‘Cocks last season.  The question I’ve got is how much of that was due to suspensions (“I sort of always liked playing them that second game because you could always count on them having two or three key players suspended.”) and how much of it can we chalk up to timing?  Georgia fans have always felt that playing South Carolina early in the season meant Georgia was getting its best punch, although to Spurrier’s credit, his team has played more formidable late season ball in the past two years.  Lattimore’s and Jeffrey’s numbers would seem to suggest that factor was still in play.  Is it reasonable to wonder if a game later in the season might tone the offensive numbers down somewhat?

Ah, you say, but it’s the opposite story with the Carolina passing defense.  The low point was in that second week Georgia game.  True.  But, first, it’s still an effort that’s seriously out of line with what was accomplished the rest of the year (although you can argue the ‘Cocks didn’t see many above average passing attacks besides Georgia in 2011) and, second, a few things have changed since then.

Consider it a red flag, then, that a defense so reliant on its pass defense must replace its best defensive end (Melvin Ingram: 15.0 tackles for loss, 10 sacks), its best defensive tackle (Travian Robertson: 8.0 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks), its most successful attacking linebacker (Antonio Allen: 9.5 tackles for loss, three interceptions, four forced fumbles), and its top three cornerbacks, including star Stephon Gilmore (four interceptions, seven passes broken up). Is there star power returning? Absolutely. But when you have a rather one-dimensional defense, and you lose a lot from that dimension, it is cause for concern.

I’m like Bill in one regard; I don’t know exactly what to expect from Spurrier’s team this season.  As Bill points out, for all the ups and downs, South Carolina’s story in 2011 was that it was able to keep on keeping on.  But I’m wondering if the move to the sixth week of the season might give Grantham’s defense a leg up and wind up being the real scheduling story of the 2012 edition of the SEC East.

Some better special teams play wouldn’t hurt, of course.

Coaches make the best doctors.

Call this a self-inflicted wound.

The Gamecock program announced Monday that senior cornerback Akeem Auguste underwent a “procedure” on an injured right thigh muscle Sunday and is out indefinitely. He will be re-evaluated in four-to-five weeks, but there is no timetable for his return.

Auguste had already missed much of fall camp with what had been called an injured groin muscle, but was cleared to return to practice Friday. According to The State reporter Josh Kendall, after initially saying he would hold Auguste out until Monday even after his clearance, defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward OK’d Auguste to take part in Saturday’s scrimmage.

Auguste aggravated his injury during the scrimmage, leading to Sunday’s procedure and minimum of four weeks off. Auguste will miss at least the Gamecocks’ season opener at Vanderbilt and September home dates vs. East Carolina and UAB, and very likely their SEC home opener against Missouri.

Oops.  My momma said to always trust your first instinct.

Any bets on whether they get him back for the Georgia game?

Five words of snark

So, what do you think is meant by this header?

“We’re going to move him all over the place.”

Yeah, on one level this sounds all clever and mad-scientisty, but I can’t help but wonder how good Jadeveon Clowney is in pass coverage.