According to Barrett Sallee,
Could they push Georgia, a team the Gamecocks stuck close to last year?
“People at Georgia will tell you, and they’ve told me, that was a game where they felt threatened,” Sallee said. “I was wildly impressed by South Carolina. I think Will Muschamp and that crew are building something pretty darn solid.”
I give Muschamp credit for managing a relatively close result, but the idea that South Carolina threatened in a game that featured the following statistical edges for Georgia…
- Time of possession: 38:22 vs. 21:38
- First downs: 26 vs. 14
- Total yards: 438 vs. 270
- Rushing yards: 242 vs. 43
… seems a stretch.
Also, Boom bragged after the game that, “We made Jake Fromm play quarterback.” Well, maybe so, but he played it to the tune of a 177.57 passer rating, so I’m not sure how well that strategy worked. (And again, the Dawgs rushed for 242 yards, so…) By comparison, Bentley managed a passer rating of 109.36.
That isn’t to say you can’t make a decent case for the ‘Cocks being the second-best team in the East in 2018. Getting Deebo Samuel back is a big deal for an offense that didn’t do much after he went down with an injury last season and from what I saw last Saturday, Bentley looks comfortable in the new offensive scheme. But being “wildly impressed” after SC’s spring game? I dunno.
Get The Picture 
Ah, the eternal delusion of South Carolina homers. This reads like The Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail was the HBC at South Carolina last year. At the time of the game, I never felt threatened. I felt like Kirby eased up a touch so as not to humiliate his old pal, Boom, and to keep things safely in hand without going for 50.
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The Garnet & Black Knight. Hilarious. 😆
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if only the Garnet and Black Knight had a Taneyhill-style mullet hanging out of his helmet, he’d be perfect.
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South Cackalacky could have a great season (by their standards) in 2018, this much is true. But Coach Boom took Florida to a BCS bowl in his second year, and look how that turned out.
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Without the onside kick try, it wouldn’t have been as close as it appeared.
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or our only RedZone turnover
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All in the 1st quarter and still won by 2 TDs
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I like Barrett more than a lot of people here, but I agree that “wildly impressed” is a stretch.
However, I do think it’s more than being able to make a decent case that they are the 2nd best team in the east – I think it’s pretty clear cut in my eyes. Last year was typical SC in that their starting 22 could play tough against most anybody but there was a big drop off after that. Now they seem to have a reasonable amount of the depth to go along with it.
Don’t get me wrong, if we don’t win the East, something has gone terribly wrong, we’re better than them up and down the roster. But I do think they’re clearly #2 in the east.
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They were one conference win better than Kentucky, who beat them soundly. If not for one bizarre absent minded moment leaving only 10 men on the field on a late play against Florida, UK finishes above SC in the standings. So I really don’t think it’s that clear cut. SCe just happened to end up on top of a pack of mediocre teams.
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Kentucky did that TWICE in the FU game. A td was scored both times.
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You’re right. But they could have even afforded one of those breakdowns, because that’s how soundly they had handled Florida. The Gators in no way deserved to walk out of there with a win, that was just inexplicable.
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so, that makes them the livestock with the freshest breath. Number 2 is exactly what South Carolina football is most every year since Teddy Roosevelt almost outlawed the game.
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Muschamp is learning the Gamecock Way. Brag about absolutely meaningless moral victories.
I think we go to Columbia this year and take them behind the woodshed.
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I prefer this:
https://goo.gl/images/NvbrgS
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I was just having this conversation on Twitter with a fellow UGA fan. The notion that the SoCar game was a tight affair is based on fool’s gold IMO. If Godwin hangs onto the ball on the opening drive it’s 31-10 and no one is talking about being pushed. The game was close in score, sure, but did anyone ever feel truly threatened? I think if they’re being honest they’d say no.
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Additionally, UGA had a drive that took up half of the 4th quarter that only resulted in a FG.
Additionally additionally,
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That was a thing of beauty. They can’t score if we never give them the ball.
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UGA’s 2nd drive was 5:30 and open the 2nd half with another 5:30 drive. UGA in 3 drives controlled the ball over a 1/4 of the game. The game plan was clear control the clock, grind it out, if it is a quick score it is a broken play, not a home rum ball.
SC’s biggest accomplishment was really limiting the UGA RB’s to a longest run of 27 yards. Muschamp can claim what he wants with forcing Fromm to play QB but Sony and Chubb still average 5 yard and Fromm went 16 of 22 for 196 and 2 TDs. He may have forced some balance which actually pushed UGA into a more pro style box score of a sound win rather than option numbers on the ground attack.
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Ah yes, the annual reciting of Gamecock moral victories. That sure is a rosy picture they’re painting of last year’s game.
I don’t know what Georgia fans they talked to. Myself, I never felt “threatened” in any way during that game. I felt like we were close to really pulling away quite a few times and frustratingly not doing it, but at no point in that game did it ever feel like we were in danger of letting them take the lead.
But if they want to hold themselves up over Florida and Tennessee and beat their chests about it, by all means, have at them. I’m good with sitting at the top watching the peasants fight.
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They spoke to Skeptic Dawg haha.
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Woo hoo! Sackerlina SEC East preseason champs!
I remember after that game feeling a little disappointed, but then I looked again and saw a 2 TD win over an SEC opponent, with statistical dominance like you described. The best Sackerlina can say is that they didn’t get Kirb-stomped like most other teams.
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Let’s not forget also that the back judge effectively tackled Nick Chubb in the 4th quarter or the final would have been 31-10.
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I’d rank the SEC East last year this way: 1. UGA; 2. USCe; 3. Mizzou; 4. Vandy; 5. UK; 6. UF; and 7. UT.
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Vandy was 1-7 in conference play. Kentucky finished 3rd in the division, they beat Mizzou and Vandy.
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And SC, for that matter …
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UGA
SoCar
UF
Mizzou
Tenn
Kentucky
Vandy
UF has talent, guys. Do they have UGA talent right now? No. But Mullen can coach and they have a base level of talent. I could see someone having Mizzou above UF, but I think the UF talent and proper coaching will come to the surface this year over Mizzou.
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I was ranking by how they played Georgia, sorry I realize I didn’t make that clear. Vandy gave us a better game than UK did I thought. Vandy’s QB is somewhat dangerous.
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Neither team gave Georgia much of a game, ultimately, but Kentucky did cut Georgia’s lead to 8 early in the third quarter. Vandy was never closer than 21-7 at the half.
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I hear you, it’s subjective, but Vandy’s QB was a decent passer, that seemed more threatening to last year’s team to me than a team like UK whose best player was their RB.
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What’s subjective about it? You said you were ranking them by how they played Georgia, not based on which team theoretically posed more of a threat. Kentucky, objectively, gave Georgia a better game than Vandy.
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Everything’s got a be a damn federal case on here these days. I stand by the proposition, that there is little, if any, meaningful objective difference between a 31 point ass whooping and a 29 point ass whooping. Yes, UK kept it closer
for longer but they were a running football team. Our defense had the most trouble with guys who could throw pretty well from the pocket, Shurmer, Lock, Bentley, Stidham, and obviously Mayfield and Tua. Neither game was ever really in doubt but Shurmer could make some throws that could take advantage of some of our weaknesses in the secondary, the UK QB less so. Fortunately our offense got going early and we made them one dimensional.
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Not to mention that this game was sandwiched between UF and AU, 2 highly emotional games. This was always a “get through it” game and we got through it.
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Agreed. With full attention on them this year, I expect a full ass-whipping by the Dawgs.
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Agreed and looking at ESPN’s page on the game my confidence was about even with the win probability. I knew a blow out like Miss St was unlikely but I wasn’t ever exactly worried UGA wouldn’t Win. Just get the W and move on to Auburn.
I am not sure about a blow out this year. It is early and UGA has new starters on the defense, again get the W, get the kids some experience getting ready for the road trip to LSU and the meat of the schedule.
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Sallee says: “building something pretty darn solid.”
I hear: “7-9 wins a year with no championships.”
Sounds about right.
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They likely have more depth, leadership and talent than Florida, but they won 9 games with a depleted roster much which were injured guy’s who are all returning. Its a team to take serious enough that Kirby needs to have us ready for that 3:30 hot, early, SEC road game. The concern is Dan Werner /McClendon installing the Ole Miss hurry up spread offense that 1.) beat Bama twice; 2.) that we will have zero game film on; and 3.) Will be playing at warp speed.
Gotta coach’em up!
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This is the right approach. We should win this game, but it will require a lot of young defensive players to play their position competently and adjust as needed.
South Carolina absolutely can win this game if they catch up flat-footed, but I’m doubtful Kirby will allow that to happen.
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I’m worried about the game! They will absolutely give us their best shot and not like the best shot everyone else gives us–but the besetest, best shot ever shot best! After all we gave up a million kajillion points and a trillion kajillion yards on every single play, every single second to Mizzou!
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In all seriousness: the headline reads: “They’re loaded.” It honestly reads like an April Fool’s piece. I believe showing a healthy respect to that squad from the UGA side might be a disservice.
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The only reason USC has a prayer is because they are catching UGA so early. It might take the ‘D’ a little time to come around. With that said, I do not think the South Carolina Defense will have much luck stopping the Georgia Ground or Passing game. They might hand around through the half; but Georgia’s physicality (especially on the O-Line) and over-all talent gap will wear them down. It’s either that or Georgia just blows them out of the water in the first half. This team is going to be ‘very-very’ good.
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Hmm, the article is dreamy but to be honest, the sec is at its best when the league is solid. It’s supposed to be a meat grinder season and the east needs to get buttah. I’m glad spur is gone and I’m glad chump is building something and I’m glad the orange schools are vulnerable. I’m also glad we’ve got Kirby to lead the way.
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“…wildly impressed..”? Wow, just wow.
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“We made Jake Fromm play Quarterback.” could be positioned right between quotes like “We will build a wall and make Mexico pay for it.” and “The FBI and the DOJ are sad.”, but for me it brings up the question of QB training that I’ve long meant to ask.
Whatever became of STRIVR used for QB training; do we use it? Some college teams use it along with the NFL in general, but I never heard anything about our buy-in for training UGA QBs using the new and improved VR. Fromm’s improvement into areas where he wasn’t known for proficiency had my antennae up long ago as to whether he was trained with STRIVR. If so, it certainly could be used for continued improvement at that position while using it to hone up new QBs. Would think it would be a boon to our new D secondary for recognition of O patterns as well.
Since this is is on the subject of claims by Muschamp for training our QB during games, it didn’t seem to be off-subject too far ….. or am I just fiddling Bluto’s patience strings? Anyway, it may be a subject of a future blog if others have curiosity or info concerning such training.
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“We made Jake Fromm play Quarterback.” on the Ottometer truth indicator rates at 4 out of 5 trash can champions of life.
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Rest assured, none of the spring statistics matter until the injury, drug test, and arrest reports come out and the Total Quarterback Ratings are computed.
#COMMITTOTHEG
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In my lifetime, South Carolina has always been a mythical national champ, with heavy emphasis on the mythical part. 😉 The more things change, the more they stay the same. I’ll believe it when I see it.
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I’ve got a secret for Barrett Sallee: Georgia is going to beat the crap out of everybody in the SEC East. Shhhhhhh
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Is there anything more quintessentially gamecock than bragging that they “only lost to Georgia by two touchdowns!”
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Exactly. If our best eastern opponent is two touchdowns our lesser, then the East will be a breeze. We would have to lose to Auburn and LSU to give an eastern opponent a chance for the championship.
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I felt that was the ultimate compliment towards us in that they came within two 2 tds of the team that played for the NC.
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South Carolina….where coaches come to get died & buried…#WillMuschampain’tnoSteveSpurrier….. 50-18-2…DAWGS!
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Barrett was really the only person that had the Dawgs pegged last year. Said we’d lose to Auburn, but make it to the SECCG and were potentials to make it to the playoff.
So, while I discount Boom and the Cocks ability to beat us and be some great power of the SEC East, I am listening to what Sally says.
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I will say this for SC’s chances, if they get by UGA the season is there for a SECCG appearance, they draw Ole Miss and A&M out of the West which is much easier than what UGA faces.
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If CMR was still coach i would be worried! Thankfully he is not!
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Bless. Their. Little. Hearts.
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Alabama mouth, Vanderbilt trophy case
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Vanderbilt is actually much more decorated in football than is SCU. This is from their website. Of course both schools have the same amount of SEC Championships.
Football
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association Champions: 1897, 1901, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1915
Southern Conference Champions: 1922, 1923, 1927
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Carolina will never change. At least they have those cool tailgate railroad cars
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Sides hasn’t chimed in on this one yet? Where he at?
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WarD has been conspicuously inconspicuous as well.
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WarD is good people.
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Speaking of Auburn fans, one had the nerve to rib me the other day about the Dawgs not finishing. Saying it was typical for us not to finish. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t there a minor conference team running around out there claiming a national title because Auburn couldn’t finish? Typical indeed.
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Not really much to say. It is a waste of time to project next year based on a spring game. I expect the defense to be at least as solid as the past two years and I expect the offense to improve. Most of the offense was forced to start as freshman and now they are juniors, plus they get Deebo back. The schedule is as easy and favorable as it gets in the SEC. It helps playing UGA early and at home…
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I am more worried about our game at USCe than I am our game at LSU this year. So there’s that.
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That’s about as rational as fear of clowns.
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…..or The Donald.
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