By all rights, Gamecock fans have no reason to look forward to the rest of this season. Florida is the best team in the country and Clemson is continuing its usually pattern of disappointing early but finishing strong. All reason points to an 0-2 finish from here on out. I think part of the mystique of being a Gamecock fan, though, is our ability to recognize that sometimes lightning does, indeed, strike. If I were a betting man, you can bet your ass I’d wager against the Gamecock the next two games. But I’m not. I’m a fan, and it is still possible pull the upset in both matches. So I’m not ready to declare this season a failure – yet.

As for Spurrier, I agree with your assessment that he very well may be the best coach we can get right now. Even if we finish at 6-6 I think we have to give him one more year before we dust off the University jet to interview candidates. If we don’t finish at least 8-4 next year, and I mean this sincerely, we find ourselves a new coach. I think we have to give him next year, not because we owe it to him, but because we owe it to ourselves to see what he can do with this new crop of talent and a decent offensive line.

The thing that bother’s me most about Spurrier, though, is his inability to motivate. When I hear the players say that practices need to have more urgency, as Garcia and Moe Brown did after the UT game, and the coach dismiss that notion by saying our practices that week were the same as a they always are, it gets me more than a little concerned. It’s becoming more and more clear to me that Steve Spurrier is the type of leader that operates extremely well with self-starting go-getters under his tutelage. He is not, however, the type of coach that can light a fire under a player. His take: I’ll bring the knowledge, you bring the motivation. This style isn’t working out right now. How else do you explain the false start, illegal formation, and various other brain dead penalties we’re always committing? How else to explain players commonly saying they didn’t hear which play was called? I started to notice this last year when we had a slew of early entries to the NFL. When asked about Captain Munnerlyn’s declaration to leave early, Spurrier said he hadn’t talked to Captain about it. Really? You don’t bother to talk to one of your best defensive players about leaving early and committing what turned out to be a huge mistake? What the hell, Spurrier? I’m not even saying he should have necessarily tried to convince Captain to stay, but you at least have to talk to the kid. Your players have to know that you actually care about their future and that you have their best interests in mind. That, to me, is inexcusable.

Looking into the future, you can count me in the Charlie Strong camp. This team’s greatest asset has been its defense for as long as I care to remember, and I happen to think you build off of strengths, not weaknesses. I like Mark Dantonio, but I don’t see the South Carolina job as much different from his current job. Strong, other hand, will have the motivation of a first time head coach. By all accounts, he should already be a head coach somewhere. Strong also has the South Carolina ties that so many fans covet. The only problem with hiring Strong is who will we get to make our offense competent? I don’t know. The one thing I do know is that I want Eric Hyman making the next hiring decision for this football program. If you look at his hiring track record, you have to give him an A+. From his work at TCU and the hires he’s made here, you can tell he knows what he’s doing.

by the time you play them, they will most likely have won their division and have already met the ACC-mandated 8-win cap on the season. If so, then beating you would be a violation of the ACC code of win-redistribution ethics.

Helluva coach, is he. Let’s leave him in orange and blue garb.

This is one of my favorite blogs. So well-written, so introspective, so surprisingly objective for the unusually powerful passion that goes into pulling hard for your hometown team.

So, I say this with respect, but… Spurrier’s day has come and gone. He is running, quite literally, almost the identical offense he ran in years past, albeit he now clearly gives Garcia to make plays with his feet — as he should. It’s a personnel advantage and he’s taken advantage of it.

I’m reminded of Bear Bryant re-inventing his offense at Bama after a few down years. He recognized college football was changing and that he was getting lost in the shuffle So he spent an entire off-season with Texas coach Darrell Royal and reinvented the Crimson Tide. They went on to renew their standing as one of college football’s elite programs, and won national championships again in short order. And the legend of the Bear grew ever greater.

I feel as though Spurrier’s legend dwindles every day. Remember in ’05 and ’06, when Spurrier won a few big games at USCe but sort of inexorably and steadily slipped down to where most people expected South Carolina to be — a middle of the pack SEC East team who only challenges (and almost always unsuccessfully) for an SECCG berth?

At first, the media was all over it — Spurrier! Losing! Inconceivable. Spurrier was a terror, you know. We Florida fans remember. So does the rest of the SEC. But fast forward to ‘07… ’08. Spurrier hasn’t really scared anyone in a long time. When the former Evil Genius loses nowadays, it gets very little play from the national media. No one is paying attention to Spurs anymore.

Watching Bobby Petrino — not new blood, necessarily, but certainly younger, more vibrant and harder-working — easily outwit and dismantle Spurrier in a duel of offensive wizards made me sad for the Spur-Dog.

This is Spurrier’s team, Spurrier’s coaches, Spurrier’s players. He has, for all intents and purposes, total control over his program. Unfortunately, his team’s play reflects his coaching: sloppy, predictable, plagued with errors.

It’s not what anyone expected. It’s not what Spurrier hoped for.

But I feel he’s living in the past, blindly expecting what once worked so well for him when #7 (Wuerrfel) lined up under center to work well again, 15 years later. The jig is up. Spurrier must either reinvent himself as Bryant did — a fantastically complicated, and intense effort that thoroughly tested Bryant’s willpower and resolve — and I have a hard time seeing Spurrier put quite that amount of effort in, or frankly, to really care that much.

Golf awaits Spurrier in the Palmetto State. Football has treated him well. He seems comfortable. Annoyed with losing, yes. But not distraught. Not consumed with getting better. Not fanatically committed to improving South Carolina from an also-ran, to a legitimate threat to the Floridas and Alabamas of the world.

For Spurrier’s sake, and for the Gamecocks, I surely hope retirement is around the corner.

Although I am an outsider, some alchemy has let me watch almost all of SC’s important games this year.

In my opinion, next year should be the make or break year for Spurrier. I’m going to give you five reasons.

1) Tebow graduates, along with a significant portion of UF’s defense (with some early entries). I know, Florida “reloads” etc, but 2007 was a “reload” year and it wasn’t exactly pretty.

2) Georgia is falling and shows no signs of slowing itself. A question mark at QB next year, RBs who have thus far failed to shine, and a defense that can best be described as “comical.” There could be major shake ups in the staff, but SC catches UGA early, so there will probably be some “jelling” issues.

3) UT is obviously on the rise, but there are going to be holes next year. Crompton, for all the snickers and jeers over the past few years, was always a supremely talented player. It was his incredibly awful mental facilities that made him into such a laughing stock. Kiffin has managed to mold that talent, and grow the confidence of Crompton to a point that he is now probably in the top 4 passers in the conference. Crompton is graduating, and the starter for next year will either be Stephens, who we know is worse than Crompton because he’s currently his back up (and remained so through the UCLA disaster), or a true freshman. Berry is leaving, and the OL will have questions. UT’s on the rise, but ask any Vol, it’s 2011 they’re looking forward to.

4) Kentucky isn’t going anywhere.

5) Vandy is Vandy.

If, given the incredibly low point the SEC East will be at next year, SC still can not be a serious competitor for Atlanta, then it will be time to part ways. 2011 and on, the East is going to become Murderer’s Row again, and there’s a very good chance SC could be left in the dust.

A new coach will not win you any games next year. I don’t suggest spending the best opportunity at an East crown for the foreseeable future on working in a new coach.