While waiting for the first game of the Final Four (and if you haven’t taken in some of the Barner post-game reactions, you really, really should), I spent some time watching chunks of the spring games for South Carolina, LSU and Ole Miss. You want three bullet points? Okay, you got three bullet points:
- South Carolina. Goodness, are the ‘Cocks a bland team. They’re not untalented, but they’re not elite in that regard, either. Bentley didn’t play much, but given that the offense appears to be the same as it was last season — a lot of short passes and not much of a power running game — minus Deebo Samuel, I’m not sure how much it mattered. I have no idea where they think they’ll get explosive plays from, but I’m not sure that matters much to Boom. They’ll go as far as turnover margin takes ’em.
- LSU. If I needed any reinforcement of the talent gap facing Muschamp versus the conference elites, I sure got it in Baton Rouge. Noticeable athleticism all over the place, with a few more talented youngsters coming in the summer. Joe Burrow looked comfortable running the offense. Biggest takeaway with regards to personnel is that LSU doesn’t look as strong on either of the lines as it has in the recent past. Because of that, I don’t know how they expect to overtake Alabama. That also may explain why they claim they’re moving away from a power offense. (They did run almost exclusively all game out of four- and five-receiver sets, but, yeah, it was a spring game.)
- Ole Miss. Oh, mama, are these guys in trouble. If there’s a noticeable personnel gap between LSU and South Carolina, there’s a bigger one between South Carolina and OM. A slight clue as to that was that the game wasn’t scored between two squads, but between the offense and defense (with the defense being spotted 27 points going in). The studs they had on offense are almost all gone. There’s a total of four games of experience at quarterback on the roster. They’ve replaced both coordinators and RichRod is changing the offense. It’s going to be a long season in Oxford.
Anybody else watch?
Get The Picture 
Yes, Senator, I watched all three also. None of them offered much to see, but LSU looked “pretty good”. I was distracted with laughter when they showed all the pretty much empty stadiums . There were a smattering of peeps but not anywhere near what Sanford is going to look like, which is so awesome. Go Dawgs!
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Yeah that Toomer’s Corner thing was awkward. Bless their hearts.
WDE = Way Damn Early
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A lot can happen with a second left on the clock. Kinda thought Auburn folks would remember that. 🤷♂️
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That picture in your link is something. Someone in the comments said “is he crying about the loss or because that he left the house dressed like that”. LOL
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dang it. “because he left” not “because that he left”.
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I totally missed that Rich Rod was rehabbing in Oxford this season.
Man, what a weird world.
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Just watched bits and pieces of the spring games on the ESPN site.
My takes:
LSU was the most physical and tightly run of the scrimmages – Up tempo offense appears to suit Joe Burrow well. He looks more mobile, but that may have to do with the missing pieces on LSU’s defense. RB Chris Curry looks like a man among boys. LSU should score more, but also give up more points. Give Coach ‘O’ credit for recognizing a problem and making big changes…unlike:
South Carolina, which was the most loosely run of the scrimmages. It looked like a Spurrier scrimmage. Lots of players in non-contact jerseys and goofing around. The whole two-hand touch thing was weird. Not a focused effort at all.
Ole Miss – A Rich Rod offense with no QB to run it. Defense still looks undersized.
Arkansas – Investing your scrimmage time around Jerry Jones’ grandson is probably a good way to raise money, but it isn’t a path to success on the field.
Florida State – Nothing stood out, except their poor tackling.
Clemson – Gawd, Dabo is annoying. Trevor Lawrence didn’t do much, but he had the least to prove. Backup QB #7 from Grayson did well with some great receiver play. Defense has a lot to replace along the front seven and it showed. ESPN having Dabo mic’ed up throughout was probably not the best thing for recruiting.
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Is any of this going to affect our QBR in the Spring Game?
Yeah, Senator, this is a good year to attend and help crank up the recruiting. We should pack in like sardines and help the kids make those big goosebumps that translate into a recruiting binge.
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Love them or hate them Auburn got screwed. And Virginia basketball is the hardwood equivalent of Paul Johnson’s triple option. CBS and their advertisers can’t be pumped about the title game match up with Texas Tech.
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Yeah, those last two Virginia games have been boring as fuck to watch. I’m sure CBS is in real despair about promoting the championship game.
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And TTech runs the exact some defense. Score will be low but both teams are really talented and really well coached. That’s there the GT comparison fails
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Talented lol? Who are the future nba players in this game?
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Seriously? Culver is a lottery pick and Hunter is projected to go in the top ten.
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Lmk if when they make it out of the G League.
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Is somone only talented if they’re professionals? Aaron Murray never played a regular season NFL snap, but I’d consider him talented. YMMV
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Sure Murray was good in college, but If you can’t catch on in the NFL, CFL or any other professional league of note then how talented are you really?
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I can hear Jim Nance now.
“Tune in live to watch 25 seconds of dribbling and a dribble drive to draw a foul. A real free throw battle coming up!!”
I feel like it’s going to be like this last Super Bowl except we know coming in it’s going to be boring.
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Boring? Man, you don’t know from boring if these two teams are your standard.
I watched UGA basketball under Dennis Felton. Now that was boring.
BTW, there were a total of 24 fouls called in the UVa-Auburn game and a bunch of those were called in the last 30 seconds of play, so you might want to work on your Nance quote some more.
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Sticking with my quote, low foul count happens when all the action occurs in the last 5 seconds of the shot clock.
Felton ran it that way out of necessity because his only offense was letting Sundiatta dribble the air out of the ball and try to make something happen off of a screen or into isolation.
Virginia runs their boring ass system by design and they recruit to it. A 24 second shot clock would end their program.
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Felton didn’t “run” anything. He didn’t have a clue on offense.
Look, man, I’m not trying to convince you of anything. Don’t watch tonight. It’s cool with me.
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We agree on Felton. Yatta dribbling while Dennis stomps the hardwood isn’t offense.
I know Virginia is your team. Enjoy it, I’m just predicting the ratings could be exceptionally bad. You have two teams who hold the ball and try to keep games in the 60’s, plus Virginia and Texas Tech aren’t exactly basketball royalty.
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If the ratings are down, it won’t be because of style of play.
It’ll be because the casual fan won’t be seeing Zion play.
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FWIW I work in college basketball, and real basketball people don’t enjoy watching Virginia’s style of play. Not that you should care. Your alma mater might win the title tonight. Enjoy.
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I’ve seen the complaints. It’s a pain in the ass to play against. Unfortunately for real basketball people, it also works.
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If it was my team I wouldn’t be complaining.
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The last 2 games? Virginia plays the worst brand of basketball in the country. I hope they don’t get rewarded with a national championship. Agree above Auburn got completely screwed.
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Good luck tonight. It has to be more exciting than watching three spring games.
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Ouch. Low bar, man. 😉
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A friend of mine on the outside looking in at Georgia’s team from G Day last year came to the conclusion that the O-Line needed work and that the pass rush was going to be nasty with all the sacks they were getting. Hard to really assess with what goes on in a spring game. At the end of the day you just need your best eleven to beat theirs. Hopefully we can get some good one-on-one action between the receivers and secondary in two weeks.
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