Im watching this game tonight for anybody else who is interested, Ill be live blogging both here and on my site (billszone.com) Players to watch: South Carolina- WR Kenny McKinnley RB Mike Davis OT Justin Sorensen DT Marque Hall DE Jordin Lindsay LB Eric Norwood LB Rondey Paulk LB Jasper Brinkley CB Captain Munnerlyn SS Emanuel Cook K/P Ryan Succup OT Jamon Meredith Vanderbilt- QB Chris Nickson WR Sean Walker OC Bradley Vierling CB DJ Moore -Doubling as WR SS Rashard Langford
Early impressions: -Lou Holtz is getting more senile...called South Carolina D the best in the SEC... -Should be a fun matchup of Vandy's spread option offense with a bunch of trick plays against South Carolina's aggressive blitzing -Nickson's throw on 3rd down should of been caught -Emmanuel Cook can hit! -McKinnley makes one good catch and then a mental mistake, South Carolina goes 3 and out
Hell of a run by Davis, first contact 6 yards in the backfield and he got a 6 yard positive gain out of it.
What a catch by McKinnley!! This has been the Kenny McKinnley show! 3 receptions so far, and a TD. 8 more receptions till he's the SC all time leader.
1st Quarter over! 7-0 South Carolina My Thoughts: SC S Emmanuel Cook-Big hitter and good coverage down field SC S Darian Stewart-Read the option and delivered a huge hit for the fumble and recovered the ball SC RB Mike Davis-Tough Runner, low pad level, good leg movement- Key Play: 1st contact 6 yards deep in the backfield and got free for a 6 yard gain SC TE Jared Cook-One big catch, has good speed, and can split out wide, but did have a False Start penalty SC WR Kenny McKinnley-6 throws, 3 catches, 23 yards 1 TD, 1 drop...too inconsistent mentally at this point SC K Ryan Succup-What a leg! SC LB Jasper Brinkley-Good pressure on Nickson but dropped a very easy INT SC DT Nathan Pepper-Good penetration and two good tackles Vandy CB DJ Moore-Playing both ways CB and WR, had a really nice PR, made a deflection that led to Vandy's INT when he settled into a zone coverage Vandy QB Chris Nickson-Fast QB, who has a decent arm but his passes have looked wobbly and he threw a pass right at SC LB Jasper Brinkley Vabdy SS Rasha Langford-Good INT Vandy CB Myron Lewis-Got beat by McKinnley for a TD, but then made a good play stripping a ball free from McKinnley for an incompletion.
Halftime 10-3 South Carolina 2nd Quarter Thoughts: SC RB Mike Davis-Veyr tough runner, good leg drive, arm tackles will not take him down SC LB Eric Norwood-Sack, Stunted in from hand down LB position, good read on option, QBH SC TE Jared Cook-Good seem route pattern, can get open and had a TD if Smelley hadn't over thrown him SC WR Moe Brown-Lackluster effort, every pick against SC this year has been thrown to him. Bad routes, bad effort. SC S Emmanuel Cook-Good QB pressure on a blitz SC WR Kenny McKinnley-Done for the game and he said that he is not ok, its a knee injury SC K Ryan Succup-41 yd FG as the half expired, would of been good from over 50 Vandy SS Rashad Langford-Near pick off a good read of Succup, good run support on 3rd and short Vandy CB Darren Spead-Nice pick undercutting the WR and had a 41 yd return, left the field before the half was over has not returned. Vandy QB Chris Nickson-Better running the ball and made a good decision on the option to keep it. Made another bad throw on a 3rd and GL Vandy WR George Smith-Good run blocking on a 3rd down to get a 1st down for Vandy deep in SC territory. Overall Im still waiting on SC to step it up, if there D breaks just once Vandy could shock them again, like last year.
draftboy, enjoyed your analysis... i am a Gamecock fan, and knew after last week we were not a good team at all, and beyond a decent (not great by any means) defense are a bad football team. last night bore that out. Carolina was outcoached, and out hustled. i think our talent level was/is better than Vandy's, but coaching (of all things), playcalling (Steve Spurrier Jr. is terrible at it, no ifs, ands, or buts.), offensive scheme, and motivation are all severely lacking. who would have thought a Steve Spurrier led program would have that said about them. over on Gamecock boards, people are jumping ship, and the prevailing logic is that all SPurrier has brought to the school is the ability to get donors to write more and bigger checks, with nothing to show for it yet but one big recruiting class that was full of thugs, several of whom are already gone, or on the verge. no one realitically thought we were a BCS team going into this season, but any shot at a bowl this year had to include a win over Vandy. if you look at the rest of the schedule the wins are just not there from this point forward. UGA is going to kill us next week.
Yeah, no poise at all on D once things got tough. SC folded. They expected to dominate, and when they didn't, they were lost. SC WR's need to catch the dang ball! They have no one (reliable) at that position besides McKinley. I can't say they were out-coached, at least not by a whole lot, but they were out-hustled and out-focused. Thanks for the impressions DB, even after the fact.
SC was out coached in that the playcalling was atrocious, and the tam was not prepared to deal with adversity at all, or play offense at all for that matter. which should not come as a surprise to Steve Spurrier, after all he pretty much ignores the defensive side of the ball to supposedly focus on offense. yet we still have a ton of silly pre-snap penalties, and the like. and what was up with his clcok management in the last 3 minutes? before deciding to punt to Vandy, on the third down play he let all but ten seconds of the play clock wind down and then wasted one of the three time outs they knew they needed, if his strategy was to punt if they didn't get the first. Spurrier Sr. has handed off play calling duties to Steve Jr., yet he calls audibles out after the play is called constantly, and makes things more confusing than anything else for the QB's.
sorry, but Carolina sticking with Ellis Johnson's base hybrid defense (3-3-5) and only having 3 defensive linemen in the game on Vandy's last possession qualifies us for being outcoached. they were trapped at their own end of the field, and there was no way they were going to pass the ball! i mean for gosh sakes how do you NOT stack the LOS at that point and sell out for the run? as for expecting to dominate, all week we heard nothing but how focused the team was, and how they remembered last year being upset and derailed by Vandy, when we were ranked number 6 in the nation at the time. the local announcers even put over how the team was in no way looking ahead to the Georgia game next week, there had been no mention of it, from staff or players when they were interviewd this week.
Teams say that all the time. Doesn't mean the players believe it. It just seemed to me that the players expected to exact payback for last year. I didn't see the last 6 min. or so of the 4th qtr., just enough to see Vandy go up 24-10, so I can't comment on Vandy's last possession. I would say you are right in that toward the end of the game, they were outcoached(losing focus, bad playcalling). However, if SC had executed the plays that were there in the first 3 qtrs., we might not be having this conversation. I wouldn't say that Jr.'s playcalling was terrible (I've seen worse), but it wasn't great either. Of course, I am an outside observer with no stake either way, so I don't know the ins and outs of the Gamecock's coaching the way you do, but from what I saw it was the lack of focus and execution just as much as the poor playcalling that was responsible for the loss. JMO, though. It could be wrong.
Usually I am talking junk about SC but after the Clemson loss last week................well enough said. I think both teams need much more improvement in the coaching area.
