Final Thoughts - South Carolina Gamecocks vs Tennessee Volunteers.

Every week here at GABA we take another look at the last game and offer up unique opinions, rants and other musings. Why rehash the University of Tennessee victory? For nothing else we can all agree or disagree on why this game was Coach Muschamp’s signature win AND all the while offering some reading enjoyment to our rivals. Let’s Tennessee Waltz through this.

Well, well, well. Paybacks are hell! This was a revenge game for all the dirty hits, for hiring that dipshit Lane Kiffin, for the hit on Pharoh Cooper and the hit on Marcus Lattimore and all those Davy Crockett coonskin cap hillbillies busting into Rocky Top every time there is a first down.

The Vile Nation

Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports

The Viles came into a packed house at Williams-Brice stadium as a 13.5 point favorite. All across the digital Rocky Top frontier, arrogant UT fans prognosticated the easy path to Atlanta began in Columbia, SC. Besides, the Gamecocks were a vastly inferior opponent and a win was more than guaranteed. Tisk, tisk , tisk.

Good Ole Cocky Top!

While the 18^th ranked Vile nation had an entire week to prepare for the Gamecocks, it wasn’t enough. The Gamecocks ranked dead last in scoring offense with an average of 14.5 points per game prior to Jake Bentley. Since the last two games, we have averaged 29 points per game.

DJ Smith headshot?

Let’s see. A 6’4”receiver bends down at the waist as he is being tackled and 5’11” DJ Smith is trying to tackle at the waist and gets called for targeting. Bad penalty.

Dear Chris Lammons

Dude, it happens. I’m pretty sure the other guy (he is a Vol) started the whole thing, but throwing a punch is not a good idea especially if they’re wearing a helmet.

Rico Dowdle

Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports

I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but running it up the middle is perfectly okay with Rico Dowdle. I’ve got no qualms with it. None whatsoever. Also, he is a good blocker too.

Blocking is still pretty much a problem.

Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports

The Vols blitzed pretty much on every play and were able to sack Bentley like pretty much SIX times. Yeah, that pretty much sucks. If I were an opposing team, I would pretty much look at the UT game footage and pretty much blitz pretty much all day long.

Back to Blocking

The O-line actually did okay. Sure, a couple of linemen still look slap-ass confused at times but overall they are doing better. But ah-gain, the blocking really needs to improve. I mean everyone needs to block a LOT better! I’m tired of writing the word block or blocking but we got to block a lot better damn it! Maybe if we write it out in B L O C K letters it might get noticed but certainly block and blocking is a word you’ll continue to see and read a lot about. So block out some time when you read Final Thoughts because it’s about blocking.

Screen pass plays.

I was kidding a while back when I said someone should call Lane Kiffin and get his playbook. We executed a lot of screen passes and UT was all over it. Most of the screen plays barely got a yard or two because of (ahem) of blocking.

Deebo Samuel

I mean Daaaaaaauum! Deebo had DB’s holding, interfering, and getting piggyback rides all night long and he still made catches. By the way, does he ever blink?

Defense

Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports

The Gamecocks manhandled the Volunteer offense pretty much the same way Clemson manhandles their goats on a date. Our defense shut down the UT’s running game. The secondary played a great game and Joshua Dobbs was bottled up. Let me ask you. Is too early to call Jamarcus King a shutdown corner?

After beating 18^th ranked University of Tennessee, here is a question for you GABA readers, was this a signature win for Coach Muschamp? Either way, fans were screaming for vengeance and the Volunteers….had another thing coming.

psssst. Butch Jones is a block head.