I missed doing a post last week because I didn't feel especially inspired to write one, but it is great to be back in college football season with full crowds and non-conference games and upsets. Jacksonville State stunning Florida State last night via a Hail Mary is emblematic of what we missed last season with only conference games. As home openers go, EIU was about as easy as you could possibly get. They are a terrible, and I mean terrible, FCS team. Not that anybody cares, but EIU is now 0-3 on the year and it wouldn't surprise me if they won 0-2 games on the year. Obviously, the Gamecocks took care of business, and didn't pull a Florida State, winning 46-0, but there just wasn't much you could read into that one, so I won't harp about it.
East Carolina was the first true test for this team. I'm not going to hype them up either. They are 20x better than EIU, but they are still a pretty bad group of 5 team. People that had visions of the East Carolina of the 90's that gave Carolina all they could handle and then some probably didn't realize that they failed to win more than 4 games in the entire Muschamp era. That being said, you know they had this game circled in the offseason. An SEC team (a very beatable one at that) was coming to their stadium for the first time this century. They wanted this one bad. So with that in mind, I thought the Gamecocks would still need to play decent to come out of there with a win. So did they? Well....
Offense:
The offense was abysmal. Theres just no sugar coating or getting around it. The O-line, which many pointed to as struggling in the EIU game and was supposed to be one of the stronger units on the team, is just not playing good football right now. The running backs have no chance; by the time they even get handed the ball, there are at least 2 defenders breaking through to tackle them. Sometimes Kevin Harris would do what Kevin Harris does and get about 3 yards more than he should have after he got hit, but because he was getting hit immediately, that meant a gain of 3. To put it bluntly, if it doesn't get fixed, we can probably still hope to beat Vandy and Troy, but not anybody else. We will get abused by SEC defenses if we can't figure it out. That's just as plain as I can put it. If its because these teams are stacking the box, then we need to punish them for that by throwing the ball deep. But I'm not convinced that it's not just that the unit isn't playing good football.
Ironically, while the O-line (which people thought would be good) is the biggest concern, our wide receivers haven't been half bad. Josh Vann finally seems to be getting it as far as catching the football, and he made some nice plays (fumbling the ball through the end zone not withstanding). Dak Joyner had a really good catch on the touchdown. I think Vann caught 2 good deep balls. I've been impressed overall with this unit considering we thought we had no good receivers coming into it.
On to QB. The truth of the matter is that Zeb is just not a starting SEC quarterback. We should have all known this immediately when it was announced. There is a reason he was a grad assistant. I'm not saying that to knock the kid, but he is just not going to win us that many games if we have to depend on him. Thankfully, Doty should be back, if not next week, then for Kentucky. Zeb was absolutely terrible on shallow passes. The interception was awful. He had several passes to the flat that should have been easy throws that were way off. He got an intentional grounding penalty that I honestly think he was legitimately trying to complete a pass but it was so far off that the refs thought he was throwing it away. But, credit where its due, he threw some great deep balls that were right on the money. He threw 2 good passes to Josh Vann on the would be TD that Vann fumbled. He threw another great one to Vann on the TD drive in the 3rd quarter, followed up by a fantastic fade ball to Vann that was overturned, another fantastic fade ball to Joyner that drew a PI, and a final fantastic throw to Joyner for the TD. He's just not consistent enough to win many ballgames, but I am very grateful to him that he won us these 2. Excited to get Doty back though.
Defense:
I really like this defense. Don't get me wrong, both EIU and ECU don't have very good offenses. However, and I am dead serious about this, Will Muschamp would have absolutely lost that game yesterday. His defensive style of "bend don't break, allow 6 yards but don't allow 20" would have allowed ECU to completely control the clock and exhaust our defense, and combined with our offensive performance, we likely would have gotten blown out. Instead, the defense did everything you could expect them to do. They gave up 1 TD on the trick play (eh, it happens). Then they gave up a TD on the short field due to the "turnover". And then only a field goal near the end of the game. Damani Staley's pick 6 at the end of the half in all likelihood saved the game. It was a bit of a luck play, but really good awareness by him to catch the ball when it came to him. Considering how often they had to be on the field, I was ecstatic by that defensive performance. It'll be interesting to see how they perform against SEC competition, but color me impressed so far. I really like our D-line and I think Cam Smith is playing really well at corner.
Other notes:
Another thing to note is that the officiating in this one was really bad. They called 3 targeting calls that weren't. Then, Joyner clearly was down and they called a fumble which led to 7 points for ECU. There was probably targeting on that play as well and they didn't even look at it. I also thought the Vann catch in the end zone was a TD. Just a poor game for the refs I thought. Special teams also did ok. The kickoffs were a little weird in that we sorta counted on them to roll to the end zone, but as long as it works I wont complain. That long Kickoff return near the end of the game that allowed us to tie it up was huge. Pete Lembo may end up going down as the best hire Shane as made, you can easily imagine us losing that game if that kick return didn't happen when it did. Also, you could feel it in the air that this meant a lot to the ECU fans. I went to the game, and I have never been treated so horribly at a football game. Numerous fans flipped me off and yelled "F*** you" and "F*** Carolina" and numerous jokes about cocks that I'm sure were really hilarious in their heads while I was walking to and from the stadium. But, as I told one especially rude fan, my team is 2-0 and his is 0-2, so I guess that's all there is to it.
Final Thoughts:
People, the Gamecocks are 2-0. Some of you need to hear that. Did it look pretty? No. Florida State didn't look pretty yesterday against Jacksonville State (a bad FCS school) at home and they lost. Ditto for Georgia Tech (who lost to Northern Illinois) and Washington (who lost to Montana), not to mention teams that are pretty good also struggle in these games sometimes (Notre Dame struggled with Toledo yesterday, they honestly should have lost. And Texas A&M almost lost to Colorado). As I was leaving my apartment on Friday to head to the game, my fiance told me to bring home a victory, and I told her "well, we're certainly due for one like this". How many games have we played against teams that "aren't that good", that we "should probably beat" have we wound up losing or worse, getting blown out, the past few years? App State in 2019, Tennessee in 2019 and 2020. UNC in 2019, Virginia in 2018. Finally, we won one of these games, and we did it in come-from-behind fashion in which the team never quit and showed some real grit on the road. You can be worried and point out areas for improvements, but enjoy the moment. The Gamecocks have taken care of business in these first two games. Now on the Georgia.
East Carolina was the first true test for this team. I'm not going to hype them up either. They are 20x better than EIU, but they are still a pretty bad group of 5 team. People that had visions of the East Carolina of the 90's that gave Carolina all they could handle and then some probably didn't realize that they failed to win more than 4 games in the entire Muschamp era. That being said, you know they had this game circled in the offseason. An SEC team (a very beatable one at that) was coming to their stadium for the first time this century. They wanted this one bad. So with that in mind, I thought the Gamecocks would still need to play decent to come out of there with a win. So did they? Well....
Offense:
The offense was abysmal. Theres just no sugar coating or getting around it. The O-line, which many pointed to as struggling in the EIU game and was supposed to be one of the stronger units on the team, is just not playing good football right now. The running backs have no chance; by the time they even get handed the ball, there are at least 2 defenders breaking through to tackle them. Sometimes Kevin Harris would do what Kevin Harris does and get about 3 yards more than he should have after he got hit, but because he was getting hit immediately, that meant a gain of 3. To put it bluntly, if it doesn't get fixed, we can probably still hope to beat Vandy and Troy, but not anybody else. We will get abused by SEC defenses if we can't figure it out. That's just as plain as I can put it. If its because these teams are stacking the box, then we need to punish them for that by throwing the ball deep. But I'm not convinced that it's not just that the unit isn't playing good football.
Ironically, while the O-line (which people thought would be good) is the biggest concern, our wide receivers haven't been half bad. Josh Vann finally seems to be getting it as far as catching the football, and he made some nice plays (fumbling the ball through the end zone not withstanding). Dak Joyner had a really good catch on the touchdown. I think Vann caught 2 good deep balls. I've been impressed overall with this unit considering we thought we had no good receivers coming into it.
On to QB. The truth of the matter is that Zeb is just not a starting SEC quarterback. We should have all known this immediately when it was announced. There is a reason he was a grad assistant. I'm not saying that to knock the kid, but he is just not going to win us that many games if we have to depend on him. Thankfully, Doty should be back, if not next week, then for Kentucky. Zeb was absolutely terrible on shallow passes. The interception was awful. He had several passes to the flat that should have been easy throws that were way off. He got an intentional grounding penalty that I honestly think he was legitimately trying to complete a pass but it was so far off that the refs thought he was throwing it away. But, credit where its due, he threw some great deep balls that were right on the money. He threw 2 good passes to Josh Vann on the would be TD that Vann fumbled. He threw another great one to Vann on the TD drive in the 3rd quarter, followed up by a fantastic fade ball to Vann that was overturned, another fantastic fade ball to Joyner that drew a PI, and a final fantastic throw to Joyner for the TD. He's just not consistent enough to win many ballgames, but I am very grateful to him that he won us these 2. Excited to get Doty back though.
Defense:
I really like this defense. Don't get me wrong, both EIU and ECU don't have very good offenses. However, and I am dead serious about this, Will Muschamp would have absolutely lost that game yesterday. His defensive style of "bend don't break, allow 6 yards but don't allow 20" would have allowed ECU to completely control the clock and exhaust our defense, and combined with our offensive performance, we likely would have gotten blown out. Instead, the defense did everything you could expect them to do. They gave up 1 TD on the trick play (eh, it happens). Then they gave up a TD on the short field due to the "turnover". And then only a field goal near the end of the game. Damani Staley's pick 6 at the end of the half in all likelihood saved the game. It was a bit of a luck play, but really good awareness by him to catch the ball when it came to him. Considering how often they had to be on the field, I was ecstatic by that defensive performance. It'll be interesting to see how they perform against SEC competition, but color me impressed so far. I really like our D-line and I think Cam Smith is playing really well at corner.
Other notes:
Another thing to note is that the officiating in this one was really bad. They called 3 targeting calls that weren't. Then, Joyner clearly was down and they called a fumble which led to 7 points for ECU. There was probably targeting on that play as well and they didn't even look at it. I also thought the Vann catch in the end zone was a TD. Just a poor game for the refs I thought. Special teams also did ok. The kickoffs were a little weird in that we sorta counted on them to roll to the end zone, but as long as it works I wont complain. That long Kickoff return near the end of the game that allowed us to tie it up was huge. Pete Lembo may end up going down as the best hire Shane as made, you can easily imagine us losing that game if that kick return didn't happen when it did. Also, you could feel it in the air that this meant a lot to the ECU fans. I went to the game, and I have never been treated so horribly at a football game. Numerous fans flipped me off and yelled "F*** you" and "F*** Carolina" and numerous jokes about cocks that I'm sure were really hilarious in their heads while I was walking to and from the stadium. But, as I told one especially rude fan, my team is 2-0 and his is 0-2, so I guess that's all there is to it.
Final Thoughts:
People, the Gamecocks are 2-0. Some of you need to hear that. Did it look pretty? No. Florida State didn't look pretty yesterday against Jacksonville State (a bad FCS school) at home and they lost. Ditto for Georgia Tech (who lost to Northern Illinois) and Washington (who lost to Montana), not to mention teams that are pretty good also struggle in these games sometimes (Notre Dame struggled with Toledo yesterday, they honestly should have lost. And Texas A&M almost lost to Colorado). As I was leaving my apartment on Friday to head to the game, my fiance told me to bring home a victory, and I told her "well, we're certainly due for one like this". How many games have we played against teams that "aren't that good", that we "should probably beat" have we wound up losing or worse, getting blown out, the past few years? App State in 2019, Tennessee in 2019 and 2020. UNC in 2019, Virginia in 2018. Finally, we won one of these games, and we did it in come-from-behind fashion in which the team never quit and showed some real grit on the road. You can be worried and point out areas for improvements, but enjoy the moment. The Gamecocks have taken care of business in these first two games. Now on the Georgia.
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