How do you like them now?

A great win for South Carolina. (Hooray for the OBC!)

Now – what happened to Snead in the off-season? And what happens to Ole Miss the rest of the way? (After the inevitable tumble in the polls, of course.)

This game reminded me why I’m glad Houston Nutt isn’t the head coach of my favorite team.

I like the skeptic in you.

But it’s not time to splice this question. This is the best Carolina team we’ve seen in a long time. Will it matter? This is the SEC; maybe not. But this is a football team.

GO ’COCKS!!!

The media trys to cover their asses when their stupidity is exposed. Rather than admit that Ole Miss just wasn’t all that good, they’d jump on the South Carolina bandwagon. This happens with nearly every huge underdog win and it’s ridiculous.

As a Georgia fan, I now feel much better about our offense (South Carolina’s defense is as good as advertised) and much worse about our defense (Georgia never should have given up that many points to the Palmetto State Poultry).

I hope this also gives Gamecock fans a little more perspective on Tyrone Nix. He may not be Ellis Johnson, but he’s a good defensive coordinator.

I would quibble with a couple of your points, however. How many years does Stephen Garcia have to have in the program before he ceases to be described as “a relatively green player just beginning to grasp his offense”? Through his own idiocy, he hasn’t seen the field as much until this year, but he’s been in the system for quite a while. His problem isn’t inexperience, and it certainly isn’t youth, it’s the Steve Taneyhill mentality that could have cost South Carolina the game.

After a big play gave the Gamecocks a first and goal, Garcia was shown running down the sideline, jumping and gesticulating like an epileptic cheerleader or a fan who’d had way, way too much to drink before the game. It’s one thing to do that when you’ve scored, but it was first and goal. There was football left to be played. Garcia’s next three plays? Bad option pitch, sack, incomplete pass that hit an Ole Miss defender in the gut. Think about playing football before showing us your moronic dance moves, son.

The other quarrel I have is with the description of Georgia as “surprisingly good.” The Bulldogs are ranked lower today than they were in the preseason polls and their defense is significantly worse than anticipated. Every problem the Red and Black had at the end of last season (penalties, turnovers, poor special teams play) persists this season and the offense is only just starting to find its feet after losing its top quarterback, running back, and wide receiver. In what sense is Georgia “surprisingly good”? I found that characterization absolutely baffling.

Was Ole Miss overrated? Clearly, and it seems all of us knew it going in; we all voted the Rebels in the top ten because we thought we were supposed to, but I never heard anyone defend that placement, and, when I picked South Carolina to beat Mississippi, I actually drew some criticism for making the “safe” pick. As I believe this site asked when everyone (correctly) expected Ole Miss to beat LSU last year, does it count as an upset if everyone predicts it?

Nevertheless, it counts as a signature win. Even though SEC teams should never be playing regular-season games on Thursday nights (unless it’s Thanksgiving), it was on the national stage, and the Rebels were ranked where they were ranked. South Carolina proved that its defense is as good as it’s usually been, if not better, and, for the first time in the Steve Spurrier era the last 20 years our lifetimes upon this planet forever, the Gamecocks appear to have something vaguely reminiscent of an offense, at least between the 20s.

Keep up the good work, guys. I hope y’all go 11-1.

but it was a epic FAIL for Ole Miss…freakin hilarious…

Well-coached teams do not call a timeout before a crucial fourth and long at the end of a game, then come up to the line and and trot a player off the field, incurring a substitution infraction, making it even harder.

Houston Nutt is way overrated as a coach.

I sold South Carolina short when I picked them to miss a bowl game this season. As I explained here, I saw a 1-3 start as a real possibility. Flipping that record around, and the weakness that some of the other SEC teams have shown (looking in your directions Volunteer State teams) make me think that the Gamecocks will need a major collapse (or a couple of major injuries) to fail to bowl.

This is the first acknowledgement of mistake that I’ve had to make from my pre-season picks. I’m sure it won’t be my last.

And by the way, South Carolina really shows how narrow the gap is between any number of teams. They are one play from being 4-0 and knocking on the door of the Top 10. They are two plays away from being 1-3 and negotiating Spurrier’s buyout.

USC defense is very VERY GOOD.