So I was perusing the story about Blake Mitchell being suspended for the first game on ESPN.com tonight, and I noticed something.
You'll see that the ESPN headline, "Gamecocks QB Mitchell Appeals One Game Suspension". However, look to the right, and it becomes more comical. The first ESPN college football subheadline of stories to the right is: BC will not discipline players charged with assault."
Holy f*&$.
Blake Mitchell skips a class, presumably in "History of Rock & Roll 101" and he misses a game...the tuneup before Georgia. But up at BC, a school with a better academic reputation that SC, and two players charged with assault will not miss a game.
Isn't this a bit of a contradiction from a week ago when OBC was complaining that USC wasn't admitting kids of a less-than-admirable academic pedigree? Now he's suspending kids for missing a summer school class? Steve, make up your mind buddy!!
Listen, agreed, these kids should be going to class...what else could they have to do in Columbia in the summer besides melt like the wicked witch of the west in the heat. But you can't have it both ways, buddy.
Either you admit the smart students and make them go to all classes....or you accept the less than mentally gifted ones and look the other way when they sleep through a few summer school classes.
This is not how I enjoy SC making the front page of ESPN.com. Let's make up our mind here!
8.23.2007
8.12.2007
GoVolsXtra.Com: SEC Schedule is Hard (really!?!)
If you haven't seen this Michael Vick skit from SNL, then you have no appreaciation for the tone of that "really?" in the title for this post...so watch that first:
Now that you fully appreciate it...read this article from John Adams (the college football writer, not the former president) over at GoVolsXtra.com:
http://www.govolsxtra.com/news/2007/aug/05/adams-scheduling-provides-big-edge-sec-chase/
Really, John Adams!?! SEC teams that play a lot of tough teams in a row are at a disadvantage? Cutting edge stuff right there.
Of course certain teams are going to have it tougher from year to year. Any South Caolina fan starts to sweat when anyone mentions the words "Orange Crush" simply because for many recent years, our schedule ended with Tennessee, Florida and Clemson. I mean, thank Mike Silve (or God, or whoever you pray to) that the SEC saw fit to at least move Tennessee up on our schedule and replace them with...Arkansas. Just in time for Arkansas to have a Heisman candidate at running back. Thanks for that one, Mikey.
Adams does make a valid point that some teams have scheduled easy non-conference opponents during the middle of the conference schedule to gain almost another bye week. And I guess, Mr. Adams would find South Carolina guilty of this because they scheduled the battle of the Carolinas in the middle of the SEC schedule. But if SC was trying to gain an advantage by doing this, man, did they sure screw up.
The opponent the week before?? Kentucky. The opponent the week after?? Vanderbilt. Man, I almost feel like we're cheating by sandwiching a nonconference game inbetween those two. Not to mention the fact that the nonconference game is against a team from the ACC, not (insert mid-major conference here).
If you need better (IMHO) reinforcement that SEC teams face the toughest schedules each year, try this article from SI.com:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/football/ncaa/06/19/schedules.top25/4.html
In their list of the toughest schedules for 2007, 5 of the top 10 are SEC schools. 8 of the top 25 are in the SEC.
South Carolina comes in at #2 in this college football (read: unscientific) poll. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure this is one poll in which we don't want to be ranked in the top 10.
Now that you fully appreciate it...read this article from John Adams (the college football writer, not the former president) over at GoVolsXtra.com:
http://www.govolsxtra.com/news/2007/aug/05/adams-scheduling-provides-big-edge-sec-chase/
Really, John Adams!?! SEC teams that play a lot of tough teams in a row are at a disadvantage? Cutting edge stuff right there.
Of course certain teams are going to have it tougher from year to year. Any South Caolina fan starts to sweat when anyone mentions the words "Orange Crush" simply because for many recent years, our schedule ended with Tennessee, Florida and Clemson. I mean, thank Mike Silve (or God, or whoever you pray to) that the SEC saw fit to at least move Tennessee up on our schedule and replace them with...Arkansas. Just in time for Arkansas to have a Heisman candidate at running back. Thanks for that one, Mikey.
Adams does make a valid point that some teams have scheduled easy non-conference opponents during the middle of the conference schedule to gain almost another bye week. And I guess, Mr. Adams would find South Carolina guilty of this because they scheduled the battle of the Carolinas in the middle of the SEC schedule. But if SC was trying to gain an advantage by doing this, man, did they sure screw up.
The opponent the week before?? Kentucky. The opponent the week after?? Vanderbilt. Man, I almost feel like we're cheating by sandwiching a nonconference game inbetween those two. Not to mention the fact that the nonconference game is against a team from the ACC, not (insert mid-major conference here).
If you need better (IMHO) reinforcement that SEC teams face the toughest schedules each year, try this article from SI.com:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/football/ncaa/06/19/schedules.top25/4.html
In their list of the toughest schedules for 2007, 5 of the top 10 are SEC schools. 8 of the top 25 are in the SEC.
South Carolina comes in at #2 in this college football (read: unscientific) poll. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure this is one poll in which we don't want to be ranked in the top 10.
20 days until it's 2001 all over again...
Oh, Steve, how far we've come.
The first time I had a chance to see you coach live was in 2001. November 10, 2001, to be exact.
You may or may not remember it. It was a pretty big game, at least in Carolina football fans' recent memory. I mean, for you, it turned out to be just one more of many blowouts against an SEC team that thought they stood a chance against you.
But hey, this one may stick out...you remember? Chris, Lee, and Kirk showed up? Oh yeah, and everyone wore black. In fact, you even joked that it was "real nice everyone wore black so our receivers could pick the ball out of the sky..."
Oh, Steve, it's those quips that made me absolutely despise you after that game. I'd never had much reason to hate you in the past...see, I grew up in Big 10-leven country and hadn't experienced a Spurrier-ass-whooping in person--let alone against a team I rooted for.
There are some things that you really need to experience to know exactly how bad they can feel. Take getting shot. Look, unless your name is Jason Borne or Chuck Norris, I'm sure it hurts. But I've never been shot, so I can't tell you on a scale of 1 to 10 how much it hurts exactly.
In terms of fan-related pain, that 54-17 loss to Spurrier's Gators was a 10 in my book. And I can't overexaggerate that. I left the game early--a first in my Gamecock fandom career. I couldn't stand to watch Florida's 3rd string score any more points. I kicked strangers' dogs on the way home from the game. I couldn't bring myself to go to class for a week--well, I mean, more than usual.
I vowed to hate Steve Spurrier for the rest of my life.
Funny how one sentence can change so much..."I'd like to introduce the next head football coach at the University of South Carolina, Steve Spurrier."
So when I say "vow," it's more of a guideline instead of a hardfast rule...that should go over well with my future wife.
In 20 days, I'll be riding a wave of high hopes and great expectations with the rest of Gamecock Nation. Hopes and expectations raised by a man I used to despise, and now have the utmost respect for.
Steve, on your first day on the job, you asked the rest of the country, "why not us?" On behalf of the believers of Gamecock Nation, we're behind you, and we're asking, "why not now?"
Go Cocks.
The first time I had a chance to see you coach live was in 2001. November 10, 2001, to be exact.
You may or may not remember it. It was a pretty big game, at least in Carolina football fans' recent memory. I mean, for you, it turned out to be just one more of many blowouts against an SEC team that thought they stood a chance against you.
But hey, this one may stick out...you remember? Chris, Lee, and Kirk showed up? Oh yeah, and everyone wore black. In fact, you even joked that it was "real nice everyone wore black so our receivers could pick the ball out of the sky..."
Oh, Steve, it's those quips that made me absolutely despise you after that game. I'd never had much reason to hate you in the past...see, I grew up in Big 10-leven country and hadn't experienced a Spurrier-ass-whooping in person--let alone against a team I rooted for.
There are some things that you really need to experience to know exactly how bad they can feel. Take getting shot. Look, unless your name is Jason Borne or Chuck Norris, I'm sure it hurts. But I've never been shot, so I can't tell you on a scale of 1 to 10 how much it hurts exactly.
In terms of fan-related pain, that 54-17 loss to Spurrier's Gators was a 10 in my book. And I can't overexaggerate that. I left the game early--a first in my Gamecock fandom career. I couldn't stand to watch Florida's 3rd string score any more points. I kicked strangers' dogs on the way home from the game. I couldn't bring myself to go to class for a week--well, I mean, more than usual.
I vowed to hate Steve Spurrier for the rest of my life.
Funny how one sentence can change so much..."I'd like to introduce the next head football coach at the University of South Carolina, Steve Spurrier."
So when I say "vow," it's more of a guideline instead of a hardfast rule...that should go over well with my future wife.
In 20 days, I'll be riding a wave of high hopes and great expectations with the rest of Gamecock Nation. Hopes and expectations raised by a man I used to despise, and now have the utmost respect for.
Steve, on your first day on the job, you asked the rest of the country, "why not us?" On behalf of the believers of Gamecock Nation, we're behind you, and we're asking, "why not now?"
Go Cocks.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)