Best consolation prize ever

Rejoice, South Carolina.  Maybe your quarterbacks aren’t going to join the Heisman conversation any time soon, but at least your “quarterback succession plan” is one of the best in the country.

Of course there’s that Mike Tyson line about plans and getting hit in the mouth, but we’ll leave that for another day, Columbia.

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PAWWWLLL dooms Boom?

I imagine this will be an interesting call to revisit a time or two down the road:

“I don’t think anyone could argue against the following statement that South Carolina has the hardest schedule in the country,” ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum said on this week’s show. “It is absolutely brutal. There is just no getting around it. So knowing that you have Alabama, knowing that you have Georgia and Clemson. By almost everyone’s projections, those are the No. 1, 2 and 3 schools in the country.

“You also have the normal lot of Florida and Tennessee and North Carolina to begin. Florida is a potential top 10 team. A&M is not far outside the top 10. We already mentioned the other three.”

It definitely looks like a bitch, at least from the perspective of early May.

South Carolina, same as it ever was

Pete Fiutak’s South Carolina preview is fine, as far as it goes.  It serves to reinforce my impression of the team this year:  middling on offense, competent to good on defense (a less talented bunch than what Boom deployed at Florida, in other words), facing a brutal schedule.

It’s a team that’ll go as far as turnover margin takes it.  A typical Muschamp season, in other words.

Boom’s five factors

Agent Muschamp has a vision, y’all.

South Carolina’s coaching staff has identified five factors it believes are critical to the Gamecocks’ success on the field. The 2018 season proved their point, head coach Will Muschamp said.

In the seven games South Carolina won three or more of its critical factors, it won. In the six games it lost, it did not.

“That’s indicative of kind of how we were, very inconsistent at times,” Muschamp said.

Again this year, starting with the spring practice, the Gamecocks will pour their energy into coming out on top of each of these five factors — turnover margin, explosive plays, field position, red zone and the fourth quarter.

No real shock there, but if you look at Muschamp’s career, one of those factors towers over the rest.  And don’t think he doesn’t know it.

The Gamecocks’ No. 1 emphasis throughout spring practice and much of fall camp will be reversing their turnover fortunes. South Carolina was 101^st in the country last year in turnover margin, giving the ball away 21 times and only getting it back 16 times. The Gamecocks had finished in the nation’s top 25 in turnover margin the previous two seasons.

“It’s not something we don’t always emphasize, but it obviously really hurt us last year,” Muschamp said.

When his teams excel in turnover margin, they generally do well.  Those regression to the mean seasons are a bitch, though.  And since you can only do so much to control turnover margin, it makes it a little difficult to handicap South Carolina’s 2019 chances.

Boom boom

Groo has some thoughts about our ‘Cocky neighbors in response to a post of mine about the recruiting gap between Georgia and the rest of the division.  It’s a good analysis and worth a read, but I confess the main reason I mention it now is because it gives me another excuse to post this.

That never gets old.

Thursday morning buffet

Dig in, peeps.

• Bud Elliott writes about when coaches know to give up on continuing to recruit a kid.
• Boom’s cannon misfires.
• “… I’ve never represented the University of Nebraska as legal counsel, and I’ve never held myself out as doing so.”
• The rhythm of Signing Day.
• David Hale argues offseason momentum isn’t really a thing.
• Patrick Garbin takes a look back at Georgia recruiting, pre-Kirby.  His piece reaffirms two longstanding impressions I have:  Dooley was mailing it in his last two or three seasons and Donnan had the players to win a lot more than he did.
• “This is why offensive lineman shouldn’t be allowed to play high school basketball.”

Boom blinded me with science.

My favorite coaching take of the day:

Will Muschamp on signee Shiloh Sanders, son of Deion Sanders, "His genetic upside is huge."

— Josh Kendall (@JoshatTheState) February 6, 2019