You make it hard for me when you say things like that.

You know what’s worse than a Gamecock fan?

A reasonable Gamecock fan.

I mean, how am supposed to attack something like this?

But the fact of the matter is also this: If South Carolina had defeated an Auburn team that Georgia defeated last year, the Gamecocks would have gone to Atlanta. Yes, the loss to Arkansas hurt, but Georgia went 5-0 against common opponents last year and South Carolina went 4-1. That’s why the Gamecocks didn’t go to the SEC Championship Game.

Seriously, and for the record, I don’t see Georgia running off a 12-0 regular season.  But I think cocknfire’s right about one big thing – if Georgia wins the East this year, it won’t be because of the schedule.  It’ll be because it turned out to be the better team.

Advertisement

Kiffin watch: he twists the knife again.

I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this kind of stuff.

Lane Kiffin just plucked the top player out of Tennessee. Also said "Vanderbilt was the top competitor" #Vols #AnchorDown #FightOn

— SB Nation Recruiting (@SBNRecruiting) July 16, 2012

Junior really is the gift that keeps giving.

The opposite of Michael Adams

West Virginia’s athletic director is contemplating the addition of a “party deck” to the football stadium.

Fire up the telly

… the SEC has released its early season broadcast schedule.

No prime time for Georgia:  Buffalo kicks off at 12:21;  Missouri is the ESPN2 7:45 game; and (somewhat surprisingly) FAU starts at 7:30.  I guess the bright side to that if you’re a Georgia fan is that you won’t fry too much in the summer sun.

Florida has a 3:30 slot, but it’s not against Tennessee.  It’s against TAMU the week before.   For the first time, CBS passed on the meteor game, electing to grab Alabama-Arkansas instead.  Another tradition sacrificed for scheduling’s sake.

Monday morning buffet

Here are a few nuggets to get your week started:

• Richard Samuel, tailback again.
• But who’s going to be the #1 tailback?
• It’s not painting over the halo that makes you wonder about this story.  It’s painting the halo over the head of a football coach in the first place that does.
• A.J. McCarron on Zach Mettenberger:  “Zach’s a crazy head,” McCarron said. “He’s as wild as they come.”
• Here’s the schedule for SEC Media Days.  And if these are the best burning questions the media can come up with, it’s going to be a pretty tame session.
• Edward Aschoff says the seat under Richt has never completely cooled off.
• And Joe at Coaches Hot Seat Blog claims it’s going to get much warmer after this season.
• Here’s an extremely tortured analogy in support of Paul Johnson’s recruiting you won’t want to miss.

How versatile can they let Malcolm Mitchell be?

I know there’s a touch of the tongue in cheek in this exchange about Malcolm Mitchell between Bobo and Grantham…

“We lost three linemen,” Bobo said. “Still trying to find those five to seven linemen that are going to play and help us. We lose our top two tight ends. We lose our top fullback. One of our running backs is now gone and (defensive coordinator Todd) Grantham’s trying to steal one of our receivers.”

Grantham can understand if Bobo is upset.

“He should be,” Grantham said. “I would be upset if I was him, too.”

… but underneath it all, I wonder if both coaches aren’t doing some real turf staking at the same time.  What happens if Mitchell emerges as a shut down corner in the Missouri game and the offense does struggle to move the ball in Mitchell’s absence?  Do things change once all the suspended players in the secondary return?  And what if Mitchell simply isn’t durable enough to put in the 80-100 snaps a game that would leave both coordinators happy?

I don’t think any of those possibilities are unreasonable.   Which means Richt may very well have some tricky waters to navigate before the South Carolina game.