The Gamecocks defeated Winthrop in Columbia earlier today by a score of 86-63. While the Eagles had a decent run late in the first half to cut our lead to about 10, for the most part we dominated this game. Devan Downey led the way with 21 points, while Mike Holmes and Dominique Archie contributed double-doubles. Austin Steed continued to develop as a legitimate post threat off the bench, scoring 8 points on 4-6 shooting.

Winthrop was one of the non-con games that worried me coming into the season, so beating them in such convincing fashion is reason to be optimistic. Not that we should go booking our tickets to March Madness quite yet. For one, Winthrop is rebuilding this year and likely won't be quite the team they usually are. Moreover, we weren't perfect, only shooting 44% from the field and 65% from the line. We had a couple of dry spells that allowed the Eagles to keep it relatively close, which indicates that we're still prone to being a streaky team offensively.

However, we scored 86 points against a team that is known for its defense. Another bright spot was our performance on the boards. We had 22 offensive rebounds and 44 total, far better than the Eagles 13 and 32. That's not bad for a team that has been criticized for it's problems on the front line. All in all, this was a good victory.

What can you say about this loss? The Gators destroyed us in all facets of the game. The final score was 56-6. They had 519 yards to our 173. They did everything right, and we did everything wrong.

The one good thing you can say about our performance is that the defense did its part in the first half. The final score may show a 28-3 halftime margin, but we giftwrapped 21 of those points and the other seven came on a long passing play when a Florida receiver got away with pushing off of Carlos Thomas. (I would complain about this and other instances of biased officiating, but what's the point--we were never in the game.) The defense slowed down the Gators' powerful offense and even caused a couple of turnovers. They wore out in the second half, but that happens when your offense goes three-and-out everytime they get the ball. This defense was good enough to help us win this game and is good enough to help us win our remaining two.

However, our offense is not good enough to beat the Gators and gives us reason to worry against Clemson and in whatever bowl we end up in. Our quarterbacks both have problems. Garcia is a great athlete but likes to take off running every time he's under pressure. That might work against UAB but it won't work against a defense like Florida's. Smelley understands the offense better and knows how to spread the ball around a bit but doesn't throw the ball accurately and is prone to bizarre brain farts. His first interception, when he basically threw the ball straight to Brandon Spikes, was beyond inexplicable. Our line can't block. Our receivers, other than Kenny McKinley and Jared Cook, either drop the ball or just look confused. On one forgetable play, Smelley threw a nice pass to Moe Brown.  Brown was in position to make the catch but didn't turn around to see that the ball was coming to him. Again, inexplicable.

Spurrier's rotating system compounded the problems. Spurrier claims that sending plays in with his quarterbacks helps solve some of the confusion problems that have hurt us and maybe he's right theoretically. However, in practice the system seems to do nothing but cause more confusion. Smelley has performed a little better over the last two games, so I think he should start against Clemson. However, the rotating has to stop. Start Smelley and if he plays well let him go the distance. If he comes out and throws a couple of interceptions early, let Garcia give it a try. I'll have to admit that my confidence in Garcia is not very high right now, though. He's a very gifted player, but when you look back on the last few games, he's only played well in spots. Spurrier is obviously right about him not being prepared mentally. He needs a year to better learn the offense.

I don't even want to talk about the lateral on the kickoff return. The call was foolish, especially on a wet field. Moreover, it reeked of desparation. Not much else to say about it, other than that Gary Danielson and Verne Lundquist's response to the official review of whether the guy who recovered the fumble scored or not proves yet again that these two are among the most biased, unprofessional pricks in broadcasting. As I said after the Georgia game, I really can't stand these guys. Lundquist also several times referred to our first series as a three-and-out even though we gained a first down on the first play. At least Danielson noticed that the refs missed an obvious call when Tebow horsecollared Eric Norwood during Norwood's fumble return.

While it's depressing to lose this way, we should remember that what happened yesterday was no different than what happened to LSU, Kentucky, Georgia, and Vandy. The Gators are peaking right now, and while we've proven that we're a decent team over the past few weeks, we're clearly not on their level this year. We can still top off a successful season by beating Clemson. We should be favored in that game, but not by much: the Tigers are down this year, but they still have a number of talented offensive playmakers and they will play for pride when we come to town. Our goal over the next two weeks is to find some sort of answer on offense. We need to get back to basics, figure out which quarterback to go with, and go to the Upstate with a plan to limit turnovers and put 30 points or so on the board. That should be enough to win if our defense holds up its end of the bargain.

Check out more info about Saturday's games at the SB Nation Race to the BCS page:

South Carolina beat Jacksonville State last night by a score of 89-76. While the final score doesn't indicate complete dominance, this was a better performance in some ways than we put in against Kentucky Wesleyan. 86 points is a pretty good offensive night for in a college game. We shot for over 50% from the floor, a promising performance considering that one of this team's problems last year was poor shooting.

The game wasn't all roses, however. Giving up 76 points to a team like Jacksonville State isn't ideal and reminds one of some of the defensive meltdowns we experienced under Odom over the past two years. JSU's points came in bursts--we were actually up 58-32 at one point in the middle of the second half before letting JSU go on a spree--which indicates that this team could be prone to spells of mental lapse on defense.

We also suffered a significant injury. Brandis Raley-Ross left the game late in the first half, and reports say that he has a sprained knee and could miss up to a month. His absence will be a big blow to a team that already lacks depth. We can hope, though, that he'll be ready to go by the time the meat of the season begins, although as Kentucky learned last night, any SEC team is only one game against a hot-shooting mid-major away from getting embarrassed during the non-con slate.

As always, Gamecock Man gets the Game Thread up first. That is where you should go to discuss the game. Here is where you go to laugh at what dumb-looking prediction I made.

1. Tim Tebow. Yeah, yeah, he's not scoring eight touchdowns a game like he was last year, but Tebow has still been surprisingly effective, especially in that stat we actually keep track of: Wins.

This is really incredibly, awe-strikingly efficient. That's an 8.5:1 TD-to-INT ratio, for those of you keeping score at home. Oh, and he's rushed for 10 TDs, so you can almost call that a 13.5:1 TD-to INT ratio. And while a 65 percent completion rate for 193.3 ypg is not Colt McCoy-esque, it's what something like 90 percent of the quarterbacks in the country would call a good day. There are three priorities for any defense facing Florida:

(1) Stop Tim Tebow
(2) Stop Tim Tebow
(3) Stop Tim Tebow

Do that, and South Carolina has a chance.

2. The other guys. A chance will only take you so far, though. Even if Ellis Johnson and Co. manage to slow down Tebow, they have to figure out a way to deal with Percy Harvin, Jeffrey Demps and Chris Rainey. When Urban Meyer talked about building the fastest team in America, he wasn't just trying to keep the fans happy. I remarked a couple of weeks ago during the LSU-Florida game that it was the first time I'd ever seen anyone make the Bayou Bengals look slow. But that's exactly what the Gators did, particularly on offense. Trying to stop Florida is like playing whack-a-mole. There's some skill involved, but you have to be lucky enough to have your mallet in the right place at the right time.

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Darrin Horn's squad begins their season tonight against the Jacksonville State Gamecocks. Yes, you heard that right: another school uses the Gamecock as its nickname. Last year, these counterfeit Gamecocks went 7-22 overall and 5-15 in the Ohio Valley Conference. They lost their second- and third-leading scorers from a year ago and have only two seniors on their roster. They do return talented shooting guard Nick Murphy, who led last year's team with 13 ppg. They also have a dangerous big man, 6-11 Amadou Mbodji, who hails from Senegal. Mbodji could cause problems for  us, as we lack a post player of equal size.

All in all, JSU shouldn't be too much of a threat to us. They were a cellar dweller in a low-major conference a year ago and probably won't be much better this year. However, they should prove a better gauge of how good we are than Kentucky Wesleyan, so this is a game to pay attention to.

It didn't used to be all that easy for me to apologize. Then, I got into this whole blogging thing, with it's "record" and "accountability" and such nonsense. And it got a bit easier to apologize -- about some things, anyway -- as I found myself doing a bit more of it.

But I've never been happier to say "I'm sorry" than I am right now:

Ellis Johnson, I'm sorry for what I wrote when you were first being considered for the defensive coordinator job.

Sure, the things I said weren't all that critical or mean-spirited, but they were still much more in the "can this guy coach?" category than the "let's give him a chance" side of the spectrum.

Yes, apparently, Spurrier's list looked something like this:

Bud Foster
Ellis Johnson
Dave Odom

...

I'm just wondering how we went from one of the best DCs in college football to the DC at the one SEC school that has managed to make South Carolina look like a competent team for the last five or so years. ...

the highlights -- such as they are -- from Coach Johnson's resume ...

And on and on it went.

And I was wrong. Dead wrong.

Sure, there's nothing saying that Bud Foster, or DC-for-five-minutes Brian VanGorder, wouldn't have done as well or even better. But "as well," by itself, is pretty dang good.

This includes, by the way, a game against Georgia, one of the best offenses in the conference, and other teams that are at least marginally competent. (That's about as good as it gets in the SEC this year, folks.) Only four of the Gamecocks' 10 opponents have managed more than 17 points.

I bring this up now because we're going to need that defense this weekend more than any other game on the schedule. Tim Tebow, the guy who annihilated South Carolina's already crumbling defense last year, is waiting in the Swamp. Chris Rainey, Jeffrey Demps, Percy Harvin -- they should be there as well.

But I trust you. I trust you to have a plan that will at least slow the Gators down, at least keep the score respectable and preserve our hopes of being ranked at the end of the year.

It won't be easy. But there's no one I'd rather have leading this defense into the Swamp than you.

--cocknfire

Those of you who have been reading this site for a while are probably familiar with Gatorpilot, who is a regular commenter on Garnet and Black Attack and runs the Florida blog Orange and Blue Hue. Some of you may remember that I wrote a strongly worded reply to some negative things Gatorpilot had to say about our coach and program after we lost to Vanderbilt. However, despite our differences, Gatorpilot and I are actually pretty cool with each other. I'll have to admit that he runs a cool blog, and I guess he has a right to hate the guy who built Florida's program, even though it is kind of strange. Plus, I think we have proved Gatorpilot wrong in his estimation of our Gamecocks: Spurrier is not dead, and our future looks bright with a possible New Years Day bowl this year and a promising 2009 on the horizon.

Unfortunately, our next obstacle is a powerful Gators team that is winning against good teams by huge margins. Gatorpilot graciously agreed to answer some of my questions about this juggernaut they call the Florida Gators. My questions are in bold with his answers below. My answers to Gatorpilot's questions are here.

1. First of all, let's get the obligatory Spurrier question out of the way. You've outspokenly criticized Spurrier's choice to coach a division opponent. For his part, SOS claims that the novelty of playing his old team has worn off and that now this is just another game between two teams that need a win, Florida to preserve their national title aspirations and South Carolina to improve their chances at a premier New Years Day bowl. Urban Meyer is now calling the game a rivalry game, although some FloridaFlorida can consider a team a rival when that team has only beaten the Gators once in the past 20 years. How do you feel about Spurrier coming home for the second time? Is this still a unique, emotional game for you or did the Gators exorcise the demons by beating Spurrier the past two years, especially in last year's blowout victory? Do you think your feelings about this reflect those of the average Gators fan?

One thing I would like to make clear is that I have a great deal of respect for Steve Spurrier and his coaching accomplishments.  And my voice doesn't speak for Gator Nation when I say I'm still unhappy that he chose to coach at a school which plays the Gators yearly, but I know there are still plenty of people out there who feel that way.

The novelty may have worn off, but when Spurrier says "it's just another game" he's obviously glossing over reality.  This is not just another game, and won't be for as long as Spurrier is coaching in Columbia.  It's a big deal.  The Gators are vying for a national championship for the second time in three years.  Any success Spurrier enjoys over Florida destroys those hopes, and he knows that.  Personally, I think he enjoys it.  But that's just his nature.  He's a competitor, and a self-described "Old Testament" (eye for an eye) coach.  There is no doubt in my mind that he has Florida's administration and boosters in his thoughts every year when he plays the Gators.  After all, he never forgot a late field goal made by Georgia 30-something years ago, using it as a burning fire to start a dominating streak over the Bulldogs.  So why would he forget being "jilted" by Jeremy Foley and UF president Bernie Machen?

He also elevated the play of South Carolina, which -- no offense intended -- was once a team Florida didn't have to worry about too much.  The Gamecocks are now a more than competent SEC team.  Florida doesn't need any more difficult games.  The Gators have to play Tennessee, Georgia, LSU and FSU every year, and now we have to lump South Carolina in that group.
 
Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow did a lot to assuage Gator fears last year when they hung 51 points on the Gamecocks in South Carolina.  That seemed to be an emphatic statement that Florida football is still Florida football, with or without Steve Spurrier, and that was important for our collective psyche.

2. While Florida has always been good under Urban Meyer, the Gators are blowing out opponents by record margins since the stunning loss to Ole Miss. They've even done it to two former top-10 teams, LSU and Georgia. Honestly, Florida looks every bit as good as some of the best teams I've seen play, such as the mid-90s Nebraska team that blew out Spurrier's Gators in a national title game. Why is Florida peaking right now? Are they really this good, or have they feasted on opponents' mistakes? Can they maintain this level of play?

I'd be the first to tell you if I thought Florida was anything less than the real deal.  It seems fervent fans of their teams tend to focus on all their team warts.  I'm here to tell you, there aren't many warts.  Florida is playing as well as I have ever seen any Gators squad play, at any time in history, and right now are in the running to go down as possibly the greatest ever to play in Gainesville.  The defense is close to that magical 2006 season's level.  Special teams is off the charts with their blocked punts and return game.  And the offense is obviously ringing up pinball scores.  Florida could easily have scored 60-70 points on Georgia and LSU if Meyer hadn't called off the dogs.

What impresses me most is Florida's focus these past five games.  It's still a worry that they'll forget to show up for a game, like they did against Ole Miss, but they are on a different planet right now with regards to their discipline, preparation, and focus.  They seem to understand that if they win out, they will likely be playing for a crystal football, and are treating each and every game with total attention to detail.  Can they maintain this level?  I sure hope so.

See the rest after the jump.

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Still not sure if I agree with this strategy. However, it did work to some degree last week. Spurrier called a successful game from an Xs and Os standpoint, as we had open receivers all over the field for most of the afternoon. The problem was that neither QB seemed incredibly comfortable, especially Garcia, who admitted as much after the game. Perhaps after a couple of weeks of working on the system, our QBs will be better equipped to rotate.

1. Florida, 162 points (8 first-place votes)

2. Alabama, 160 (6)

3. Georgia, 134

4. LSU, 127

5. South Carolina, 113

6. Mississippi, 96

7. Kentucky, 86.5

8. Vanderbilt, 70.5

9. Arkansas, 52

10. Auburn, 46

11. Mississippi State, 27

12. Tennessee, 18

Sorry for the low turnout, but we had one slow week last year as well. Looks like this week will be it this season.

It might have made a difference. Florida, which actually split too first-place votes with Alabama, edged the Tide by two points for first. The only other change was Tennessee wresting control of the race for the "Worst of the Best" Cup with a convincing loss to Wyoming. I can assure you: When the SEC Power Poll started last year, none of us imagined Wyoming would ever alter the standings.

Voters explain more after the jump.

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