The State has confirmed that key Gamecock starter Brinkley McKinley will come back for another year.
Maybe you need a comma there?
And Jasper Brinkley and Kenny McKinley? They're apparently coming back, too.
Middle linebacker Jasper Brinkley and all-SEC receiver Kenny McKinley confirmed their intentions to return to USC for their final seasons Thursday when reached by phone. ...
Brinkley, an all-SEC selection in 2006 who missed most of this season after tearing the lateral collateral ligament in his right knee against LSU, considered following Tyrone Nix out of Columbia when the former defensive coordinator took the same post at Mississippi last month.
But Nix, who coached the Gamecocks' linebackers, called Brinkley shortly after accepting Houston Nutt's offer at Mississippi and told Brinkley he would be better off getting his knee healthy and playing a fifth season in college. ...
Brinkley never filled out the necessary paperwork to be evaluated by the NFL's underclassmen advisory committee, saying he was more concerned with rehabbing his knee.
McKinley, an all-conference selection after setting a school record with 77 receptions for 968 yards and nine touchdowns, said the advisory committee projected him as a late fourth-round pick. ...
"I told Jap, 'We need to start working like that now,'" McKinley said. "I'm going to be pushing everybody. We're going to be a force to be reckoned with next year. If I was a betting man, I'd bet on us next year."
Hopefully, that comment isn't a sign that McKinley has already taken one too many shots to the head from SEC defensive backs.
But it's certainly a great sign for next year that J-Brink and McKinley are coming back. Brinkley is the heart and soul of the defense, and while his injury isn't the reason for the late-season collapse, it certainly didn't help. And McKinley will give an inexperienced QB, whether it's Stephen Garcia or Chris Smelley, someone to lean on -- as long as Dion Lecorn or someone else is a solid No. 2.
This is still a South Carolina blog. As the last note showed. I know I've done a lot of bowl previews and such lately, but I'm also working on the season review stuff, which should go up sometime next week. Then, a bit of basketball, recruiting and baseball to go along with some of the college football content.
Even Terrence Moore occassionally has a point. As he does here, when he speaks truth to Dawgdom.
It wasn't the BCS that lost to mediocre South Carolina at Sanford Stadium and then later to sputtering Tennessee in Knoxville.
It was Georgia.
So put a muzzle on this silly BCS bashing and save your anger for what the Bulldogs should have done regarding their national championship hopes. They should have taken control of their destiny. ...
If the Bulldogs beat South Carolina, Tennessee or both, they are preparing right now for a Superdome date on Monday night in the title game instead of whining after playing and prospering Tuesday night in New Orleans during the Sugar Bowl against overmatched Hawaii.
Many Georgia fans have argued that their demolition of Hawaii somehow showed that the BCS got it wrong. All this despite the argument of many on the Georgia side of the aisle, before they started puffing up Hawaii when word came that the Warriors would be the spelling-challenged Dawgs' postseason opponent, that 12-0 Hawaii was woefully overrated.
The BCS did get it wrong. Hawaii never should have been in that bowl. They were physically overmatched in every sense -- they were not fast enough, not big enough and not strong enough to compete with Georgia. We knew that, but we couldn't know how bad that mismatch would be until we saw the two teams on the field.
To interpret this game as some sort of validation of the "Georgia is No. 1" argument would be like the Cleveland Browns -- a good but not Super Bowl-ready team -- destroying Missouri and arguing that it showed they were better than the Patriots.
Is Georgia a much better team than it was at the beginning of the year? Absolutely. Did they beat both teams that defeated LSU? Yes, but LSU also beat both teams that defeated Georgia.
Besides, that shouldn't matter to someone who ranks by resume. Georgia's two losses were worse than LSU's losses and their wins were not better -- and certainly not so much better that they overcome the other LSU wins.
All that said, I agree with something else Moore said: Georgia is going to be a horrifyingly good team next year. I see very little that could happen between now and August that would dissuade me from placing the spelling-challenged Dawgs atop my preseason poll, which means I might need copious amounts of liquor -- and I rarely drink -- to fill out my ballot. (Not that my ballot would suffer any from intoxication.)
Next year, I expect Georgia to be in the title game after having earned it -- something they didn't do this year.