Does South Carolina look beatable now?

Spurrier is one of the best to ever coach the college game. USC will get better. They just may not be as good as thought going in.
 
TAM is improved. They're a good team. From just one game, it is difficult to tell how good they are.

USCe did NOT play like a good defensive team tonight. Their O may not be bad if Davis plays... but their D does not look talented at all. TAM physically beat them.

Aren't they (SC) making a defensive switch to 3-4? Could be a season for them like 2012 was for us.
 
I think Spurrier is starting his retirement a bit early. That was the most unprepared South Carolina team I've seen. Their defense is absolutely awful.
 
Look TAMU is a pretty good football team. They're doing things on the field that I would not expect our team to do this year so yes they're obviously beatable but no I don't think we're magically favored suddenly.



Just imagine if "Hamilton decided that Kevin Sumlin had better organizational skills and he had hired Sumlin rather than Dooley"

Can you believe that Hamilton actually used the reason for not hiring Sumlin was due to his organizational skills, yet he hired Dooley?
 
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I think we are seeing the last grasp for the golden ring from the " old ball coach". no doubt he will have his defense playing better by the third or forth game but I predict after this year he replaces "tebow boy blunder " as SEC commentator . All I could think of last night is how weak his visor throw has gotten , it's more of a drop now than a throw . :)
 
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Just imagine if "Hamilton decided that Kevin Sumlin had better organizational skills and he had hired Sumlin rather than Dooley"

Can you believe that Hamilton actually used the reason for not hiring Sumlin was due to his organizational skills, yet he hired Dooley?

Stop. I can't take this anymore. I almost forgot that the Hambone Experiment ever occurred. Thanks. :eek:k::cray::p
 
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They didnt replace an ENTIRE line though.
OK... let's play that. Do you expect Vereen to be a better rush end than Smith? I do. How about Barnett compared to Miller and Walls? Remember J Williams was taking PT away from those guys last fall and they've moved him inside.

I'll answer DT for you and let you disagree if you like. It cannot get worse than what it was after Couch and Salisberry were out of the mix. McCullers was mediocre to horrible. I truly appreciate Hood's heart but he just wasn't very good. So... why should I believe there is going to be a major drop off on the DL? Why should I NOT expect improvement?

As for the OL, again, I don't expect a major drop off. The guys who left were very good athletes. By Jones' claim, the guys replacing them are stronger. At various times, Crowder, Kerbyson, Jackson, and Gilliam have been praised for "finishing". That is something Jones complained about constantly with last year's group. There comes a point with OL's when talent begins to matter a little less... and aggression matters more. Last year's group was too passive. They didn't finish.

and sumlin has been recruiting high end talent there a little lnger than butch has been for us.
A year and the first two weren't that great.

they have studs all over the place. sure they might be young in spots but overall they have much better quality depth than we do.
That may be true... but you are STILL assuming facts not in evidence. The common assumption going in was that TAM would still be weak on D. And for reference purposes, UT's D held the same USCe O with a much better QB to less production last fall.

You are just assuming the negative for whatever reason. I'm not saying you are wrong so much as pointing out that you are jumping to conclusions that we don't know are true yet.

All im sayin is sc is no slouch and mike davis is a heck of a player and exactly the type of runner many on here who are more highly regarded than i have said we will struggle against.
How do you know USCe is no slouch? Davis is a great player. No question about that. By Thompson isn't that great. He pretty much laid an egg last year vs Mizzou before Shaw came in still hurting to pull it out for them. I was frankly surprised when he won the job. I believe they only lost a couple of OL's but for much of the game they looked porous and certainly weren't opening holes.

That may be a function of TAM being that much better than people thought. It could be a function of USCe being worse than most thought. It is probably a combination of the two but IMO skewed toward the later.
 
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Did anyone else recognize how many times the commentators were talking about a play made by a true freshman for A&m? It seemed like they had freshmen all across the board. If they can be good with freshmen, why not us?
 
Aren't they (SC) making a defensive switch to 3-4? Could be a season for them like 2012 was for us.
Could be. That doesn't help but at the same time the just looked outmanned.

A couple of things to me are becoming apparent. First, it takes the "right" coach and specialized personnel to run the 3-4 effectively at the college level. Those players are not a dime a dozen and are difficult to develop at the college level. Second, I think the scheme has been out there long enough for OC's to start having a better idea about how to attack it. TAM seemed to make a living last night by running off the DB's then forcing a LB to cover a TE, RB, or Slot on the perimeter.

Interestingly... TAM spread USCe out then created running lanes and prevented effective blitzes. I think you'll see some of the same thing from UT vs USU... except USU doesn't have USCe's athletes.
 
we better get our heads on straight or that will be us Sunday night! Boy, did a&m end the gamecocks party in a hurry or what! That was fabulous!
 
Did anyone else recognize how many times the commentators were talking about a play made by a true freshman for A&m? It seemed like they had freshmen all across the board. If they can be good with freshmen, why not us?

If well coached... then there's no reason you can't get great contributions from some of the Fr. HS players have never come in as ready to play as they do now.

Some here however fear having any type of expectations. I could speculate and probably come pretty close to many of the core reasons they're doing it... but it would just start another argument. People don't like to be confronted with stuff like that.
 
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we better get our heads on straight or that will be us Sunday night! Boy, did a&m end the gamecocks party in a hurry or what! That was fabulous!

UT could definitely lay an egg and allow USU to make it close or lose outright... but you aren't seriously comparing USU to TAM are you?
 
carolina has no pass rush,a mediocre front and severe secondary issues. I knew this all summer. I wondered why the media liked them so much. This is what happens when you get the ball out fast. they had no answer.
 
If well coached... then there's no reason you can't get great contributions from some of the Fr. HS players have never come in as ready to play as they do now.

Some here however fear having any type of expectations. I could speculate and probably come pretty close to many of the core reasons they're doing it... but it would just start another argument. People don't like to be confronted with stuff like that.

I agree. People here always try to lower expectations. We have the youth issue and the o and d line issue everyone seems to throw at you the second you say something positive about this year. The o-line is actually a seasoned group aside from Jashon Robertson. The oline has the potential to be very good if you ask me granted we haven't seen them play a game as a unit yet. I'm excited. The east is down, I'm hoping for another 2007 like scenario!
 
About SC running a 3-4, which I absolutely hate since the sensucki episode here, TAMU has consistently gashed it. They put up ponts on Bama, who prolly runs it better than anyone. However, LSU's 4-3 man D has been tougher on them as was UF's 4-3 a couple of years ago when they shut them out in the 2nd half in Tex Station. I think southern miss was running a four man front in Sumlins last game at Huston. Con.USA title in Huston where the golden eagles trashed the cougars and the hot shot QB I cant remember. Hard to get any preasure quick enough without blitzing when you are only bringin 3, and we saw how well zone works last night in Columbia.
 
Could be. That doesn't help but at the same time the just looked outmanned.

A couple of things to me are becoming apparent. First, it takes the "right" coach and specialized personnel to run the 3-4 effectively at the college level. Those players are not a dime a dozen and are difficult to develop at the college level. Second, I think the scheme has been out there long enough for OC's to start having a better idea about how to attack it. TAM seemed to make a living last night by running off the DB's then forcing a LB to cover a TE, RB, or Slot on the perimeter.

Interestingly... TAM spread USCe out then created running lanes and prevented effective blitzes. I think you'll see some of the same thing from UT vs USU... except USU doesn't have USCe's athletes.

Going from 4-3 to 3-4 is not an easy transition. Takes at least 2yrs to recruit and install IMO. Will be interesting to see if Spurrier has that kind of patience.

Other thing is, you CAN NOT PLAY ZONE DEFENSE against A&M's offense. They will pick you apart and they will also get rid of the ball very quickly making it difficult to pressure the QB. You have to press the WR's to throw them off their routes and slow down the QB to allow time for pressure to get there. SC's defensive gameplan was fundamentally flawed and they looked slow. I would question whether they have the DB's to play man to man.

SEC DC's better take notice from last night's game. A&M is running the same offense as Mike Leach did at TX Tech only with much better athletes. They will be tough for all but the best to stop I think.
 

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