No love lost in Columbia

This is one brutal assessment:

… Unfortunately, the motivational ploys used by Spurrier for four years have fallen on Garcia’s deaf ears. It was clear at Saturday’s spring game that Garcia’s progress in becoming the quarterback Spurrier desires has been stunted.

Spurrier said Garcia still has mechanical issues with his throwing motion. At times, the quarterback throws a better sinker than any of Ray Tanner’s pitchers. That can be corrected, as can his decision-making with dedicated film study.

What was more disturbing while watching Garcia was his lack of confidence. Backup freshman quarterback Connor Shaw looked more comfortable under center on Saturday than Garcia.

Why would Garcia be so lacking in self-assurance despite heading into his fourth season of college football? My guess is that it has something to do with constantly being told publicly by his coach that he has few redeeming values as a quarterback.

Hard to believe that the outcome of a minor bowl game would leave a scar on the OBC’s psyche, but it sounds like that’s the case.

… Give Spurrier credit for bringing in quarterbacks coach G.A. Mangus a year ago to work with Garcia. During games – and maybe in practices as well – Mangus played the role of “good cop” to Spurrier’s “bad cop” when dealing with Garcia. It seemed to work.

Then an embarrassing performance by Garcia and USC in the Papajohns.com Bowl loss to Connecticut shook Spurrier. He has said often he might never rid himself of the bad taste left from being humiliated in that game.

Spurrier appears to be taking out some of his frustration on Garcia. Yet, Spurrier recognizes he enters next season with Garcia as his best – and maybe only – option at quarterback. Shaw might someday develop into an outstanding quarterback, but he is not likely to lead USC into SEC play as a freshman.

I don’t see it either, but then again, I’m not a visor-wearing head coach who’s already said it’s part of his job to be a bigger jerk this season.  I wonder how many Gamecock fans were expecting to go along for a ride in the SEC with a true freshman quarterback this season.  Not to mention how much they want to…

Stacking ’em up on the depth chart

Marc Weiszer has some depth chart news – not from Richt about the quarterbacks, but from Grantham about some of the defensive positions.

… During an appearance this morning on Athens sports radio station 960 The Ref, Grantham updated some of the positions on defense.

–Nose: “Right now our nose is DeAngelo Tyson. (Kwame) Geathers is behind him. That could change down the road but that’s how we’re stacked one and two.”

–He mentioned Nick Williams as the top strong safety and Bacarri Rambo as the No. 1 free safety. Jakar Hamilton, he said, also “has shown ability.” He said “those guys are really battling it out there. We’ll see how they shake out in the fall”

–When talking about the cornerbacks, he listed Brandon Boykin, Branden Smith and Vance Cuff in that order. “Those guys are doing a good job of rotating in there.”

Sounds like there’s still some shaking out to come in the fall.

Thursday morning buffet

Grab and go, folks.

• Spurrier as broken record:  “You will have to wait and see with the Gamecocks.”
• Statistically speaking, Oregon’s and Southern Cal’s respective Pac-10 finishes were no fluke.
• My love for Phil Steele is as much as any college football fan’s, but this comes off as one pointless exercise.
• It’s times like this – Tech’s baseball team scored more runs than its football team scored points against Georgia – that I’m glad I host a football-only blog.
• Thought-provoking post from Spencer Hall:  how much football do you expect your average pundit/blogger/journalist to know?
• Aaron Murray promises to work hard to get (insert Ray Goff accent here) buttah and buttah.
• You can call him Josh, or you can call him Joshua.   You just can’t call him a quarterback who completes more than half of his pass attempts.

This year’s Arkansas…

looks like it’s going to be Florida State.  Here’s Ivan Maisel’s pronouncement:

Because the head coach is Jimbo Fisher and, for the first time since 1975, not Bobby Bowden, there are still more questions than answers at Florida State. But keep in mind these numbers about the Seminoles: they have 18 returning starters, including one of the top quarterbacks in the nation in Christian Ponder, and an astounding 142 career starts on the offensive line. If new coordinator Mark Stoops’ defense stops anyone, watch out for Florida State.

Every year there’s this team that gets all sorts of buzz from the pundits that I frankly don’t grasp.  In 2009, it was the Razorbacks, mainly because Petrino is a certified offensive genius (at least by the pundits).  Of course that meant ignoring the rather sizeable flaws that team had on defense and special teams.

This year’s love seems to be flowing in the direction of Tallahassee, and, again, I’m not sure why.  First off, Steele says FSU brings back 14 starters, not the 18 that Maisel lists.  Second, while I like Christian Ponder, it’s worth remembering that he missed the last four games of 2009 with an injury, and for a QB with a high completion percentage, he sure throws a lot of interceptions and takes a lot of sacks.

But mainly it’s that defense that I can’t get past.  We bitch about where Willie’s defense wound up last year, but compared with FSU’s, Martinez looked like Nick Saban.  Georgia finished 38th in total defense in 2009, yielding 338+ ypg.  The Seminole defense of 2009 yardage of 434+ ypg was good for 108th nationally.  So while “stopping anyone” can’t hurt, I don’t see how that’s going to be enough to move FSU back into the ranks of the elite.

Yes, all of those returning starts on the offensive line are impressive.  But FSU wasn’t exactly shabby in that department last year.  For all that, Florida State finished 59th nationally in rushing offense and 40th in sacks allowed – certainly not horrible, but not that great either.

All in all, I don’t see it adding up to as much as he suggests.  I guess I’m wondering if Maisel will be warning his readership to watch out for Georgia this season.

The sweet smell of fail

I’m a big fan of Michael Elkon’s musings on college football, but this just ain’t right.

I expect that the response from most Georgia fans will be something along the lines of “are you f***ing crazy!?!,” but do we have a slight desire to see the Florida offense do well under John Brantley?

I mean, yeah, count me in his “most Georgia fans” grouping there, but exactly why would the typical non-Gator fan have a rooting interest in Brantley’s success?  Michael chalks it up to Tebow envy.

… Tebow was a great player and I’d be an idiot for claiming otherwise, but the credit he received was disproportionate. So wouldn’t it be a pisser if the Florida offense doesn’t miss a beat when Tebow is gone? Admit it, in your heart of hearts, the idea of watching Brantley put up big numbers against Tennessee and Alabama while Gary Danielson tries to make sense of the world will be entertaining.

Not buying it.  If things click, Danielson and Uncle Verne will be too engaged in pumping the “he’s been waiting for three years” narrative that they try to make sound so unique for a given player (isn’t there always somebody each year who’s been waiting?) to worry about how that might affect the perception of Tebow’s legacy.  Besides, I can already hear Danielson offer up Brantley’s success on the altar of Meyer’s genius (repeat after me, Danielson fans:  “he can coach a little, ‘ya think, Verne?”).  Barf.

Give me Tebow not starting in the NFL, Brantley’s passing not leading the conference and Florida having trouble converting those tough third-and-twos that were Tim’s specialty any day over that.

Trust me here – if you’re not looking at the world through orange and blue-tinted glasses, there’s far more upside in the Gator offense sputtering a little this year than John Brantley being a raging success.  A little suffering is good for the soul – especially if it’s somebody else’s.

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UPDATE: Mr. Hall plays the spoilsport, damn it.