Can you guess which Bulldog said this?
“We’re definitely 180 degrees away from where we were last year, and the team camaraderie is on a whole different level. Since I’ve been here, I have never seen the togetherness of the team the way it is right now.”
That’s actually South Carolina wide receiver Moe Brown, who’s explaining why 2009 will be the year that his team doesn’t crash and burn in the second half of the season. I’m too lazy to look it up, but I’m guessing it wouldn’t take Woodward and Bernstein to dig up similar quotes from his teammates from prior seasons. The point being that until his Gamecocks prove it on the field, that sentiment and five bucks will get Mr. Brown a steaming hot latte at his neighborhood Starbucks and little more.
Which is why, as practice opens in Athens today, we should take similar conceits coming out of there with a little grain of salt. Don’t get me wrong – it’s certainly admirable that the team taking the field today has managed to avoid a single brush with the law. But aside from affecting Ed Tolley’s pocketbook and Mark Richt’s piece of mind, that offseason discipline and team bonding doesn’t translate into anything more than a good starting point, at least not yet. You have to hope that these kids have the good sense and growing maturity to realize that they’ve merely taken the first step in a tough journey to regain their mojo.
Get The Picture 
Well, the one thing we do know that they don’t. We can do it, we have before.
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for uga: less togetherness, more toughness.
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Along similar lines, I’m worried CMR and our players have taken the same 180 degree approach this year. The thinking seems to be that since expectations were so high last year surely we’ll be in a better position to win this year just by virtue of our lower ranking and less hype. Frankly, I’m not buying it. Yes, expectations were high last year but I refuse to believe that the total meltdown we experienced a few times last year can be attributed to our over confidence or lofty expectations alone. We simply got our butts whipped a few times. I want to see improved play/consistency from our players. Whatever mental edge we gain from the togetherness/underdog sentiment doesn’t mean a whole lot until it translates into a difference on the field.
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i expect sc to be even tougher this year, the dawgs have the talent edge by far but with the new strength coach sc has, i expect a mean nasty tougher game when we get back from ok than we imagined
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