The OBC’s really gonna do it – or so he says.
With South Carolina’s opener less than two weeks away, it’s not a matter of if true freshman quarterback Connor Shaw will play in that game, but rather how much he’ll play.
Shaw opened the Gamecocks’ scrimmage Thursday with the first team, and coach Steve Spurrier said afterward that Shaw would definitely play on Sept. 2 against Southern Miss.
Spurrier went on to say that Shaw had outplayed junior Stephen Garcia in the scrimmages this preseason, but the Head Ball Coach still isn’t ready to name a starter.
A quarterback controversy in time for Georgia’s SEC opener? Fine by me.
Get The Picture 
Is this the first time at SoCar he’s had the luxury of two decent QBs? At FU he always had a couple top-end subs waiting in the wings for pressure.
Maybe ol’ Stevie can finally put something together there.
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At UF he usually had two or three NFL-caliber receivers also.
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I agree with two QB’s and taking shots at UT, SOS is feeling his oats. We better look out. If he starts hiting us with zinger we know he’s back.
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Somebody better warn Richt to stay away from pickle juice.
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So, by all accounts* this is the best South Carolina team SOS has had, yes?
Is South Carolina a legitimate contender for the east?
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My Opinion: Yes & Yes.
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They’ll go 7-5 at best – even in a rebuilding year for the SEC east. Couldn’t even beat Connecticut in their bowl game. By far their best D-player Norwood is gone. They have maybe one player who could crack the Dawgs lineup – Matthews. Tough schedule – maybe 4 sure wins, 8 opponents as-good or better.
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Give me a break. Over half of our defensive starters would start for you. Where you guys have us beat is in depth and on the offensive line. Unfortunately for us, those are pretty important.
Every year, I hear from some UGA fan that this will be the year that UGA waxes USC because Syvelle Newton / Sidney Rice / Kenny McKinley / Eric Norwood is finally gone.
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I agree with you. SC loses good players every year and we almost NEVER beat you soundly. It is always a struggle, no matter if we are eventual SEC Champions, or middle of the pack. I hate to play South Carolina – it is rarely a comfortable win.
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An UGA fan told me last year that because Kenny McKinley was finally graduating, we were going to be back to where we were in the late 90s, losing all of our games and getting trounced by the premier teams. The result was what it usually is: close loss in the UGA game and a 7-5 record for Carolina. Back in 2007, shortly before we upset you guys, it was someone telling me the same thing because Syvelle and Sidney were gone. It doesn’t make any sense. Sure, we’re less talented top to bottom than you guys and some of the other more successful SEC programs. But we are competitive, and it’s not just because we have some one player that’s managing to keep us in games. You can’t be a bowl-caliber team in the SEC with only one or two SEC-caliber players.
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gamecock man – You failed to name ONE (1) starter on ‘cocks (other than Matthews, which I named already) that would start for the Dawgs.
Half your D could start for the Dawgs? Now that’s funny.
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Matthews, Ladi Ajiboye, Stephon Gilmore, Chris Culliver, Akeem Auguste, and Shaq Wilson definitely. Rodney Paulk and Devonte Holloman possibly.
Your total and scoring defenses were respectively ranked 38th and 62nd (I’ll grant that your TO problems led partially to the bad scoring defense). Ours were 15th and 24th. We return more starters than you. Your new DC is probably a step up, but ours is a proven commodity. You do the math; it shouldn’t be any mystery why most pundits believe we’ll have the better defense. I’m not saying you don’t have significant advantages over us in other places, just that your comment about Matthews being the only defensive player that would start for you is a bit silly.
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I was going to say that any Georgia fan who wouldn’t take Gilmore doesn’t watch enough SEC football.
I don’t think Shaq’s big enough to play in a 3-4, though.
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You may be right about Shaq. I think he’s going to have a big year, but he’s better fitted for Johnson’s speed-based schemes than Grantham’s approach.
Gilmore is a potential All-American. I’d actually think most Dawg fans would prefer to have him over Matthews.
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UGA, 7 wins out of 8 years … Mark Richt tremendous road record and he has never lost @ The Brice … gamecock man you know what’s coming. Get ready for it.
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There’s a first time for everything.
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I think that he may well be on the way to going insane. When he did this a Florida, 15 years ago, it was acceptable because of the amount of success he had there, now it seems desperate and done more to mess with his players and get the team in the news than to motivate his quarterbacks. I personally like our chances against a true Freshman than against Garcia so hopefully he’ll play.
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“I think that he may well be on the way to going insane.”
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He was also good about that when he was at Florida. I had the misfortune of living down there during his time there, and whenever they lost, it was always that they didn’t execute (code for “the players screwed up”). He was never, ever out coached, according to him.
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I have said more than once on this blog that Garcia should have transferred and I stand by that. You only get one chance to play college football. SOS will screw him, bench him and start the freshman as soon as SOS thinks the freshman is ready. Might be 1st game, might be midway through the season. Anybody got Terry Dean’s phone number so we can send it to Garcia? Dean will explain it all to him in detail.
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Just because SOS – Steven Old School – uses full metal jacket techniques to motivate and inspire his QB’s?
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I still think this is all a sly game from Spurrier. I 100% believe Garcia is ready and SOS is doing this all for sure. And UGA better be ready to face a fine tuned Garcia as well
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“fine tuned garcia”
Talkk about an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one.
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It’s subterfuge and motivational tactics. I don’t doubt that Shaw will play some this year, and I do think that Spurrier may be preparing to entertain a true QB controversy in 2011, when Shaw has some experience under his belt. However, contrary to what some may believe, Spurrier wants to win and will give his best QB the meaningful downs, and anyone that thinks that Shaw, a true freshman, is about to overtake an experienced, relatively accomplished Garcia–unless Garcia really crashes and burns–is just being silly. Garcia will be the team’s primary QB, while Shaw may play a series here and there and / or do something like run out of the wildcat.
What I haven’t seen reported here is that Spurrier is very optimistic about this team’s offense. After the last scrimmage, he said that he is confident that this will be by far the best offense he’s had in Columbia, and that the defense will likely keep pace with its performance in past years. This isn’t just coachspeak; it’s not like Spurrier ever hesitates to call a spade a spade.
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One more thing: Spurrier has talked a lot about how well Shaw has played and has spun that a good bit to the media. However, as Spurrier well knows, Shaw’s stats come against the second-team defense, while Garcia’s come against the first team, which includes what should be one of the conference’s best secondaries. Read between the lines a bit, folks.
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“Read between the lines a bit, folks.” I think not. Because then what would armchair Spurrierologists do?
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Heh.
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I think denigrating your QB all off-season goes over about as well as “take my wife, please” as a motivational tactic. I’d bet a lot of the sc players are sick and tired of the fabricated controversy. It’s a diversion, and doesn’t help the QB situation at all.
The Mayor of Dawgtown is right, garcia should’ve ditched sos and found a coach who’s going to be in his corner. Life’s too short to put up with somebody trashing you in front of the media seemingly at every opportunity.
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“take my wife, please” but only the one on the right because she can’t dance worth a ….
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That was great.
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The Visor is no longer the Bull Gator he was while at Florida. He simply doesn’t have the man power that he enjoyed there. Yes he has brought some degree of respect to a program that before Spurrier had not enjoyed as much post season play as they do now….but still not ready for prime time. Lakatos did fine with his group of kids against a Spurrier inspired, Garcia lead offense and will repeat that effort as the new Dawg secondary coach. Honestly, I don’t see that big a difference in the talent level between Shaw and Mason. Their styles are different but ability probably close. Shaw is more like Gray in that he likes to move and throw on the run. Mason is a drop back passer- not blessed with blazing speed…(but neither was Greenie!) While generally not as bombastic as he use to be, that shot at Tennessee was very Spurrier-like in quality and tone. After all “you can’t spell Citrus without UT”. Right now the Vols would love that!
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Here’s what I expect: Shaw to get a couple of snaps, maybe even series, and if the game is hand he’ll play a good bit of the 4th quarter. However I’ll be surprised if Shaw gets more than 2 snaps against the Dawgs. IMO, Spurrier doesn’t want Garcia to look sharp in the first game.
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“Spurrier doesn’t want Garcia to look sharp in the first game.”
Plan sounds like the same for Garcia as last year when they trounced NC State 7-3 and scored 37 against us a week and half later.
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The Hogs made a similar statement…. yet??
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The chickens can play us close all they want as long as it is always a W for us and a L for them, for all the close games against them what is Richt’s overall record against them?
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Without looking it up, I believe CMR is 7-2. With 1 loss to holtz and 1 to sos. Mostly close games – which apparently counts as a tie for ‘cock fans who don’t seem to be able to distinguish between W’s and L’s.
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Spurrier is trashing his QB’s again…what a surprise.
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