From the Student Section: Meltdown in Athens

In the past when writing these pieces I usually have several ideas that I point out and then expand upon. Today, 12 hours after the end of our game, I can only come to one conclusion from last night's game. Unfortunately it's not one that we can fix here in the short term. We do not have a very good football team. And the name of the man at fault is Stephen Orr Spurrier. We were completely outclassed last night in every single phase of the game. Honestly, we should've seen it coming. We were starting a walk-on QB in Perry Orth, we had a defense that had been gashed by two lower tier teams (in comparison to Georgia) in North Carolina and Kentucky, and really no offensive threats to write home about outside of Pharoh Cooper. Long story short? Perry completed all of 6 passes, the defense, when they weren't fighting among themselves, were busy giving up chunks of yards to Nick Chubb and Greyson Lambert, and Pharoh Cooper had a very sub-par game. All of this is due to the fact that we are no where close in matching the talent of UGA, and probably every other team in the SEC outside of Vanderbilt.

In the past weeks I have been trying to convince not only people around me, but also myself, that somehow someway Spurrier would milk an 8-4 record out of this team. While there was a bright spot last night with Lorenzo Nunez, it is not going to be enough. This is not an 8-4 team. From my perspective, the only players on this team that are SEC caliber are Brandon Wilds, Shon Carson, Lorenzo Nunez, Pharoh Cooper, Isaiah Johnson and Skai Moore. That's it. That won't win you many ball games, especially against the upper echelon of the SEC. Everybody else either looks lost, apathetic, outmatched, or just straight up awful.

That being said, I'm going to say this team could easily finish anywhere from 2-10 and 5-7. If we get lucky we might win 6 games and take a trip to the Toilet Bowl, but we'll need some stuff to really go our way. However when this season mercifully ends, Spurrier needs to go. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate what the man has done for the University of South Carolina. He has proven, with a competent coach and coaching staff, that you can win big here. But that's the root of the problem. We no longer have a competent head coach and coaching staff. Spurrier has hit the ever natural obstacle of age, and he is obviously not surrounded by assistants that do their job well. The players we recruit recently regress during their four years here or, at best, stay the same.

I hate to say it, but it is time for change. Spurrier said it in his post-game press conference last night that we need to change some things up. I would have to agree with that. But unfortunately, the change now needs to come on the coaching staff before it comes anywhere else.

Go Cocks.