Yeah. I saw it last night. I'm jumping on the bandwagon that this is Spurrier's last year at South Carolina. He was probably the most frustrated that I've ever seen him. At least on national television. Vandy's got a decent defense, and Chris Nickson is actually living up to his billing as a playmaker. Yeah, he made a couple of boneheaded decisions, but for the most part, USC had trouble stopping him. Definitely made for an interesting game.
And for those keeping count, that makes me 1-0 so far, since I had Vandy +10 last night.
Tonight it'll begin...the startup for Football in Tuscaloosa. They'll setup the road blocks and start setting up in the quad, etc. It's gonna be awesome. Read up on what you can and can't do here, if you're tailgating and looking for free parking.
Leigh Tiffin maybe could have been our MVP last Saturday, hitting on 4 out of 5 field goals, with his only miss being from 52 yards. Read up on his thoughts of his performance.
Now, for a weekly segment with our buddy Faimon from Pelican State Sports. This segment is called THE BONEHEAD CALL OF THE WEEK, and it will typically be from an SEC team...but if there's something just too moronic to not post, we'll have that too. Haha.
First off...Faimon.
Congratulations, Sly Croom, you went from being a preseason darling for your surprising run last year to a week one dog for laying an egg at Louisiana Tech. I put the onus of this loss squarely on your large, deep-voiced, round shoulders. You got out-coached by Derek Dooley, and your team was outplayed by a team with far less depth in front of a daunting crowd of 25,000. Your bonehead has two elements:
1) Agreeing to play the game in Ruston in the first place. That was a bad call from day one. Ruston is a dangerous place for opponents, a place they go thinking it is going to be a cakewalk and get surprised when they find out it isn't. Just ask Hawaii from last year, who barely escaped with a 1-point overtime win. While Tech fans like myself were ecstatic to have you come to Ruston, you, as a big-time coach should know better.
2) The second element is even greater than the first. You have a running back who is a 240-lb horse. On a night like that, with the heat forcing Tech to rotate "even some scout teamers" (according to Dooley) into the game, you manage to only give him seven carries in the second half. He ended the first half with 11-67, and he was wearing Tech out. He had only one carry for negative yards, and mixed in a 12-yard run and a 31-yard run. Instead you went with Wesley Carroll, who is well known as a really great passer.
And what you got in the end is a humiliating 8-point loss to Louisiana Tech and a solid last place in the SEC Power Poll at garnetandblackattack.com.
and now, for me....
My bonehead call of the week goes to Tennessee head coach Phillip Fulmer, and offensive coordinator Dave Clawsen. There wasn't one play inparticular that made Monday night's loss just ridiculous, and normally I would call out John Chavis for not being able to stop a 3rd stringer and a whole team of backups, but their coach is Norm Chow, so I'm letting him slide.
Throughout the game, it was obvious that Crompton is about as inconsistent as John Parker Wilson has been over the last couple of years. And rather than taking complete control of the game, and dominating their defense, you instead try to pass the ball as often as you can, which was obviously not working.
Now...what was working was the running game. You were picking up at least 5 yards every time Foster or Hardesty touched the football up the middle, but instead you tried to "spread the field." You know why the SEC is the best conference in football? Power. Strength. Your boys were bigger and stronger than theirs, and rather than going with what works, you tried to trick them and it backfired on you.
I hope you guys lose all 12 ball games. Go blazers.
¶ 8:40 AM
