Friday News and Notes: Phil Steele on the Gamecocks and More

A happy weekend to everyone from GABA. Here's some news and reading:

Phil Steele talks Carolina football. Notable lines here are that we're a "sleeping giant" under Spurrier and that we're a "dark-horse national title contender." Both of those are probably a stretch, particularly the last one. This program is moving forward, slowly but surely, but I seriously doubt we're about to win more than 9 or 10 games, even under the best circumstances, and a ceiling of 8 or 9 is probably more likely.

I do think Steele is on point in tabbing us to have a better year than last season. The bowl loss and media swirl around Stephen Garcia's spring play have causes other commentators to shy away from us, but the fact remains that this should clearly be Spurrier's most talented team in his time here. If Garcia and the offensive line get their acts together, neither of which is out of the question, this could be a very successful year by Carolina standards. Don't forget that Steele predicted the 2000 turnaround after 0-11 and that he predicted a strong year in 2007, which would have probably come true is we had fared better with injuries. That's not an excuse for the 2007 season--injuries are a part of the game--but it is a defense of Steele's generally accurate prognostications.

A non-offensive performance from USC | GoGamecocks. Auburn defeated USC 3-1 in 12 innings Thursday afternoon at Regions Park, which meant the Gamecocks managed to score one run in 21 innings at the tournament. Wow. Read that again. Wow.

Campos/Cubas Advance in NCAA Doubles Championship - SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS.
South Carolina seniors Pedro Campos and Diego Cubas won their first-round match at the NCAA Doubles Championship at Henry Field Courts at the University of Georgia. The nation's 25th-ranked doubles tandem scored a 7-6 (5), 6-4 win over No. 30 Jonathan Dahan and Pedro Zerbini of California to advance to the round of 16, becoming the first Gamecock duo to do so since the 1989 event. There's still hope for post season glory somewhere!