ClayNation Preview: South Carolina and Ole Miss
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Read the full column here.
The biggest, best, and most intriguing game of the college football weekend is tonight -- Ole Miss at South Carolina. There are storylines aplenty, and we'll dive in to them all in a moment, but first, let's consider just how big of a game this is for Houston Nutt's Ole Miss, the stealthy No. 4 team in the country.
Let me repeat that, Ole Miss is now the No. 4 team in the country! You're shocked, right?
That's because the Rebels have only played twice, an opener on Sunday -- followed by the always frustrating second week bye -- and then last week against Southeast Louisiana. Chances are you didn't notice either game. So this game represents Ole Miss's debut on the national stage. Will it wilt or will it prove that Ole Miss can be known for something more than women in sundresses and the civil rights movement?
Meanwhile, on the other sideline, Steve Spurrier's Gamecocks have played three games, two of them incredibly difficult road games. They won against North Carolina State by four and lost against Georgia by four. Win this game, and at 3-1, the Gamecocks' season can still be a bright and shining success. Lose? Well, lose, and the Liberty Bowl looms. Memphis is lovely in early January. Or not. Yep, the stakes are high, my friends. And we wouldn't have it any other way.
South Carolina fans have been waiting for this game. Like their long-dead hero, the Swamp Fox Francis Marion, South Carolinians have been laying in wait in the misty swamps of the Palmetto State. They've ironed the blue flag with the palmetto tree, they've washed the white visors so they'll sparkle in the bright lights of Williams-Brice Stadium, been sending double-entendre laden e-mails about the Cocks all day, hauled the oysters to the back porch and left them there to be picked up in a mad dash to the fairground. Hell, many of them are already drinking in Five Points to prepare for this game, this exact moment in the season. The oysters all boil down to this.
Game-
Cocks.
Meanwhile, nervous Rebel fans are staring at the clock. Believe it or not, this is one of the two toughest road games they'll face all season -- the other is at Auburn -- and all season long they've been terrified of this Thursday night spectacle, the game when their team finally gets introduced to the nation. I've already written about the preseason trepidation, but now they're shutting down the Magnolia State, battening the proverbial hatches, opening the lower drawer of the desk and mixing the whiskey in early with the coke. This isn't a game to be enjoyed in the Grove, those will come later, this is a game to survive. A game to make the hatefest at home against Alabama in two weeks the most magical Saturday in Oxford since any day William Faulkner strolled into town.
Hotty
Toddy
We've been critical of them in the past, but thanks a ton to ESPN for Thursday night football. Even more importantly, thank God that decent games are set to be played on Thursday night. Now let's dive into some storylines worth paying attention to tonight.
1. If this is Steve Spurrier's final year, which I thought it was before the season began, this is his last chance for a truly seismic victory in his career?
OK, OK, he gets Florida in Columbia in November, but if you really think he's winning that game your visor is on too tight. This is it, the game when Spurrier can prove he's still got that magic. That at least for a night his 29-23 overall record at South Carolina, and 15-18 mark in conference, doesn't matter.
Is Steve Spurrier a legend slinking off the football stage, or can he, football's own prince of the forward pass, stage one last stirring victory in the age of spread formation-football?
At the end of the night, will Columbia party like it's 1999?
2. Is Ole Miss's Jevan Snead up to the hype?
Last year at this time Snead was most famous for being Colt McCoy's back-up. Now he's projected as a top-10 pick by many scouts. Against Memphis he played an awful first half, but since that time he's improved. Of course, the competition has worsened as well.
Tonight, Rebel fans get their first look at the quarterback they hope will lead them to their first SEC Championship game since divisional play began and their first SEC title since 1963. Or to put that in a historical context, their first title since the year John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
Yeah, it's been a long time.
3. Remember that South Carolina won at Oxford last year.
Many incorrectly believe that after last season's victory over Florida, Ole Miss did not lose again. Wrong. The next week the Gamecocks rolled into town, withstood an early 14-3 deficit, and went on to win 31-24. For Rebels fans this was the first sign that Ole Miss couldn't withstand the hype -- the Rebels had been featured on Sports Illustrated after their Swamp victory.
So don't buy into the fact that these teams are impressed by rankings at all. South Carolina knows they can play with the Rebels, they proved it last year.
Read the rest here. Labels: south carolina ole miss preview
Posted by Clay Travis at 3:44 PM
 
Permalink
Digg this Post
Email this Post
1 Comments:
<< Home
Previous Posts
| |
Travis has become enamored of several objects, phrases or events which he frequenly references in the column. Among the most frequent:
'Bama Bangs - a term coined by Travis to refer to southern men's hairstyles that feature prominent bangs for no apparent reason. Brodie Croyle and John Parker Wilson are oft-cited violators of 'Bama Bangs rules.
Read More...
When Clay Travis, acclaimed author of Dixieland Delight, decided to spend the 2008 season up close and personal with UT football, he—and every other college football aficionado—thought he was in for a rollicking ride with one of the leading contenders for the national title. After all, when the Vols kicked off the season on September 1, the defending SEC East champions were ranked 18th in the country. As head coach Phillip Fulmer prepared for the game, he reflected upon a coaching career that included an astounding 147 victories, two SEC championships, and a national title. With 34 years at UT under his belt as both a player and coach, the Tennessee native had just signed a contract extension that projected to keep him at the university long enough to become the winningest coach in program history.
Read More...
There is no college ball more passionate and competitive than football in the Southeastern Conference, where seven of the twelve schools boast stadiums bigger than any in the NFL and 6.5 million fans hit the road every year to hoot and holler their teams to victory.
Read More...
The newly favored man is not really a man at all, but a hairless, effeminate, germ-fearing, non-meat-eating, exfoliating, wristband-wearing woman of the worst order. We as men are told that we must embrace the sacred feminine in ourselves, even if it doesn't actually exist, and become the very quintessence of woman, plus penises. This situation is untenable. This trend must stop.
Read More...
Clay Travis is the only former student manager in the history of college athletics to marry an NFL cheerleader. He managed to pull this off despite an irrational affinity for the television shows Dawson's Creek and My Super Sweet 16. While being raised in Nashville, Tenn., Travis developed a healthy obsession with college sports and Alyssa Milano. As a teenager his greatest accomplishment was taking a doo-rag wearing Luke Duke (balling as Tom Wopat) to the hole at the Nashville YMCA.
In the midst of a stellar legal career during which he specialized in rewarding the unjust and punishing the oppressed, Travis began writing for CBS Sports's SPiN section in September 2005...
Read More...
|
South Carolina can beat Florida, Clay. Their defense compares very well to Tennessee's, they have a better offense by default, and they get that game at home. That would be the perfect way for Spurrier to go out.