The Clowney Effect

Bill Connelly’s tongue goes in cheek for a description of what that is:

Issue: South Carolina returns only one of its top five running backs, and the ground game was really only above-average at best, even when Marcus Lattimore was healthy.

Response: Jadeveon Clowney.

Issue: South Carolina also returns only one of its top four receiving targets from a passing game that was explosive but not incredibly efficient.

Response: Jadeveon Clowney.

Issue: South Carolina must also replace its top five linebackers, not to mention stud safety D.J. Swearinger and stud end Devin Taylor from a defense that was perilously thin last year.

Response: Jadeveon Clowney.

That’s how you garner a #3 preseason ranking from The Sporting News.  Bill isn’t quite so convinced that such a case has been made.

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“I’m kind of an eight-team person.”

Count Texas AD DeLoss Dodds as another person who doesn’t think a four-team playoff is big enough.  Why? Well…

… He argued that an eight-team playoff would lessen the controversy over teams not included in a four-team field.

“I think there’ll be a lot of conversation about the fifth team and who didn’t get in and an 11-1 team that didn’t get in because somebody’s 12-0 that maybe wasn’t quite as good as 11-1,” he said. “If you take eight, you’re not going to have that. The ninth team is going to have a concern, but it’s not like the fifth team.”

I wonder if Mack Brown will agree with that the first time Texas is sitting at Number 9.

There is no way the four-team format is going to make it through the entire term of the new contract.

“But there’s a cost associated with that.”

It’s a darn shame there’s not a national championship in thriftiness, because Georgia could retire the trophy.