“Last week the Top 25 forecasts went 14-8 picking the winners of each game and have gone 184-51 (78.3%) so far this season!” That’s like Heather Dinich territory. Despite the pablum about historic trends and who has the most to play for, at the end of the day Steele is a conventional wisdom guy straight-down-the-line.

E.g., he picked us to edge UGA, and be edged by Auburn (we actually we smashed UGA in the mouth which he didnt expect; we all know what happened on the Plains). So far so good. Steele is 2-0 at the beginning of the season (he didn’t make a selection in the So. Miss game).

He picked Bama to edge us on their way to the NC game (we whipped them), he picked us to edge UK (ruh-roh). He gave us Vandy and Tennessee - but then so did everyone. He completely missed us being destroyed by the Hogs (picked us to edge 38-35) in a game most of us were (correctly) fretting over). That is a very disapointing 2-3 for Steele - almost as disappointing as the way we played over that stretch! Tough luck there.

Steele next picked Florida to whip us 31-17 in the Swamp (the Gators get their 5th str win over their former coach and head to Atlanta for the 3rd str year. ). As for Troy, he favored us but warned “SC gets the win but this will be closer than what many people think.” (Crickets chirping).

So far on the season, Steele is a very pedestrian 5-4 picking the Cocks, and in the toughest games to forecast (UGA, Aub., Bama, UK, Ark and UF) he is a woeful 2-4.

we have a better staff top-to-bottom than Clemson (though I think people are too quick to discount Napier and Steele as OC and DC due to their age - they seem quite talented to me). And I also agree that Dabo is more of an emotional leader than an x’s and o’s guy - but then I think there’s still a place for that in CFB and the man can recruit like few others in the southeast. As for last year, you’re right its apples-to-oranges, but I think its different than coaching.

Flash back - last year, after dropping early season games to #13 Tech, #14 TCU and the annual helmet-scratcher with the Terps, Clemson was riding a six game winning streak including an emotional OT win over #10 Miami at Landshark, and absolute pair of ass-whippings applied to traditional rivals FSU and NCSU, and easily dominating conference chumps like Wake, Virginia and a late cupcake game against Coastal. More people were gabbing about the duo of SR CJ Spiller and SR Jacoby Ford last year than have been talking about Marcus Lattimore and Alshon Jeffery this year - Spiller and Ford had become the greatest RB/WR pair in NCAA history. CJ was a lock for ACC player of the year and a Doak Walker finalist. People might not realize that Ford was one of the great NCAA track and field athletes last year and a rock-solid WR who was a lock for the NFL. Finally, FR Kyle Parker was also playing some really great football - looking back, he had close to 650 combined passing yards, 8 passing TD and 1 INT in late season action against FSU, NCSU and UVA in 09.

Compare that to the 09 Cocks. Another strong start with a signature win over #4 Ole Miss, we followed by double-digit losses in four of our last six (Bama, Arkansas, UT and UF), with our two wins were home edges over UK and Vandy. Hardly inspiring. Yet another Carolina late-season swoon everyone said, and people were grumbling against the HBC. Garcia was inconsistent as hell, and the running game was on life support; we couldnt play our two best offensive team FR (Jeffery and Gurley) at the same time since they’d both only been taught the X receiver position. The Norwood-led defense, especially sensational Frosh Stephon Gilmore, were good - sure, but usually were getting buried by offensive TOs or special teams mistakes and while they were dominant against the pass, we were still getting burned on the ground.

No one was picking us to beat Clemson. And Clemson thought they were going to cruise. They were on a 6 week upswing. We were on a 6 week downswing. Spiller would dominate on the ground, and if we committed too many men to the box, Kyle would pass to Ford. Plus Ford would dominate on special teams. Clemson couldn’t lost, and they didnt see the freight train coming. They didnt look past us because they were looking ahead to the ACC Championship Game. They looked right by us because they thought we sucked and they thought their s*** was squared away tight. Whoops.

Fast forward to this year. No sportswriter can resist drawing parallels between USC’s position this year (8-3, ranked, going to league championship in a rematch game) and Clemson’s positon last year (8-3, ranked, going to league championship in a rematch game). But where is the difference? It’s here … the Cocks (hopefully) dont think Clemson sucks. Clemson is 2-2 in their last four this year, and had a nice game against Wake and a close heartbreaker on the road against ranked FSU. The prognosticators seem split on this game and no one is telling the Cocks this is going to be a cakewalk (like the Tigers were told last year). Carolina knows it will take a fight to win in ‘10, while Clemson thought it was the same old, same old Gamecocks in 09, just like they’d whipped in ’08. And therein I think, lies the biggest difference. Well that, and the new guy from Duncan SC wearing No. 21 for the Gamecocks.