Mississippi vs South Carolina: One minute left

Mississippi vs. South Carolina: One minute left

Ok, so I am blogging this on the idea that South Carolina wins this game 16-10, and a game that exposes a few things about both teams….

Wait, it’s official, the #4 team, Mississippi, loses to South Carolina 16-10.

So what have we learned? Several things.

First, we see that neither team has a really potent offense, but both have some pretty good defenses. For awhile we wondered if anybody was going to score a touchdown.

For South Carolina, the win is HUGE, but there are some very glaring problems with the offensive. The score should have been more like 28-10 instead of 16-10 because of their inability to get in the end zone. Folks, when you are first and goal, you simply MUST punch that in and cash in.

South Carolina failed to do that many times, either because they can’t run the ball or because Mississippi is good on defense. I think it’s a little of both, because last year South Carolina showed that they don’t run the ball all that well.

We also saw how Mississippi plays, and it seems that the hype about their quarterback seems to be just that…hype. Not that he did a terrible job, because every college quarterback is going to have off days, but the great ones have to be able to take the team on his shoulder and move forward…something the Rebels just were not able to do.

What we also saw was that South Carolina does not have the offense to finish an opponent, while Mississippi refused to give up, credit given to their defense. At one point the score was 16-3 and I remember saying to somebody that if South Carolina could get one more touchdown, they would ice the game…this was in the third quarter.

But was it me, or did it seem like South Carolina seemed to put it on “cruise control” after they scored 16 points? This is very unlike a Steve Spurrier coached team, who was well known for running up the scores while at Florida. It just seemed that this Gamecock team had just enough to win the game…no more than that.

Yet this also speaks of Mississippi, which some questioned the ranking at #4. To be sure, they benefited from other teams losing, allowing them to slide up the rankings, but in the end, they proved that they were not the 4th best team in the nation…not playing like that.

So Mississippi will drop in the polls, losing to an unranked team, one I feel they will see a few more times before the year is out. Let’s not forget that they did lose to South Carolina last year, and although they won a host of games late last year, the jury is still out on their greatness. As one guy on ESPN said, the last game Miss played against Texas Tech seemed to be one that was given to them. Some say that Texas Tech gave up on the game because they felt they should have gone to a bigger bowl…maybe there was some truth to it.

In any case, Mississippi is now off the ranks of the unbeaten, making room for other teams to take their place….could this be the beginning of a weekend of upsets? Or was it that South Carolina beating Mississippi was never an upset to begin with…

Time will tell. But for now, the final score rests at 16-10, South Carolina Gamecocks.

South Carolina vs NC State

South Carolina vs. NC State

In about 5hours the college football season will…well…kick off, and one of the first games for the college football championship series is a neighborhood brawl between South Carolina and NC State. A good ole’ clash between the ACC and the SEC.

Now if this battle was based on conferences, then the ACC would be severely lacking in power, meaning NC State would be in for a world of hurt, but South Carolina wasn’t exactly on the top ten list last year either. This is a key game, even though the first of the year. Lets look at both and see what they’re about:

The South Carolina Gamecocks finished last year 7-6, just a sliver above the .500 mark, which is indeed an accomplishment in the SEC. Let’s face it folks this was one of the two toughest conferences in the nation, and Steve Spurrier did a good job to come out with a winning record. They won conference games against Arkansas and Tennessee, but some may argue that those were home games…you are supposed to win those. But they also had away games vs. Mississippi and Kentucky.

And oh by the way, they beat NC State last year, 34-0.

The knock on the Gamecocks was that they were one of the worst rushing teams in Division I and was near the bottom in scoring, averaging about 20 points a game. In fact they seemed to be doing pretty well, beating Tennessee by 21, then followed it up with a win over Arkansas by 13, but the bottom fell out when they lost big to Florida 56-6, then to Clemson 31-14, and ended the season in a bowl, losing to Iowa 31-10. The fans down in South Carolina expect a better record from the old ball coach.

The NC State Wolfpack comes off a rough season, winning only 6 games last year and losing 7. This is a team that has been trying to “turn that corner” for years, and has not had a lot of success doing so. What’s interesting is that they won’t be playing ECU, as it has always been a huge matchup in the state. But you look at they schedule they had last year and you wonder if they can turn the corner this year as well.

They lost the first game last year to South Carolina in a shutout, 34-0, then ran into some problems after beating William & Mary. But they salvaged the season by winning 4 straight games. Beating Duke, Wake Forest, UNC and Miami in good form helped them to a bowl, where they lost to Rutgers in a close game. Some say the Wolfpack just might be the team to watch. With their schedule including Murray State and Gardner-Webb after the South Carolina game, it’s quite possible they could be 2-1 before they see Pittsburgh. With a lot of home games, and games inside North Carolina, this could be in interesting team to watch.

So having said all this, who has the advantage?

All things being equal, to me the edge still stands with South Carolina, but I won’t put that much on that. True, South Carolina crushed the Wolfpack last year, and I will not argue the strength of the SEC to the ACC. But the Gamecocks had one of the weakest offensive units in Division I, not that the Wolfpack was so much better. It’s going to come down to coaching power, and Steve Spurrier is one of the best. Granted Tom O’Brien is good, having coached at Boston College, but NC State still has some work to do in order to be considered a legit top 25.

I think this will be an interesting game to watch (and I will be watching) but I see South Carolina winning this by 10 points. I have to imagine that SC knows they need to work on offense because it will make or break their season. Both teams would love to see the post season, and tonight is the first step in seeing that.

Hope you guys enjoy the game!