National Boards Part 2

East Carolina vs. Virginia Tech

The #9 ranked Hokies begin their journey to an ACC Championship this weekend by hosting the East Carolina Pirates. The gamblers are keeping the spread around -27.5 points in this debut and I'll be honest: it has me more confused than a Miss Teen SC contestant.



I usually avoid taking teams favored by such heavy odds. But Virginia Tech has always been able to put points on the board. They put atleast 27 points on the board in 6 games last season. They beat their season opener against Northeastern 38-0 last year and then blanked Duke 36-0 two weeks later.

Then there are the intangibles..

The Polytechnic Institute has had several tragedies in the news over the past few months. A campus shooting, a carbon monoxide leak, and a black sheep have hurt a campus that, from the few of its alumni that I know, have a pride and loyalty that rivals the marines. Their home game on September 1st will be more than just a season opener, but will be a chance for a following to come together.

So what's Skip Holtz to do?

Luckily, he brings back every starter on both sides of the line and most of their 2nd string.

Unfortunately, Holtz had to suspend his projected starter Rob Kass for blowing a .19 blood alcohol test this past Saturday.

Dev's pick: The Hokies cover 27.5 in a game that begins their path to the BCS and Frank Beamer reconfirms that he's one of the best football coaches in the nation.

The Real USC

It looks like the answer to the time old question of who is the real USC is about to be answered. But, before I reveal it, let's do a little research.

-California became apart of the United States on September 9th, 1850.

-The University of South Carolina (South Carolina College) was founded December 19th, 1801. We waited until 1892 to play our first football game, which we lost against Furman 44-0.

-Our alltime football record against the University of Southern Cal is 1-1. We lost to them 23-13 at their place in 1980. But in 1983 when the men of Troy entered Williams-Brice, they were outplayed 38-14.



So it seems that the University of South Carolina was founded before California was even a state. Also, even though our head to head record is a tie, Carolina was the better team the last time we played. Don't count on a rematch anytime soon, as it looks like our athletic department can only sign contracts with powerhouses like ECU and S.C. State.

Now don't yall start supporting these arguments, because the University of South Carolina athletic department has already hired a marketing team to help us. My insider in Gamecock sports tells me that this team (which consists of a few Texans and other Westerners) has taken a national survey and found that few people in the nation or in South Carolina associate the University of South Carolina with the initials USC. They have decided to relinquish all athletic ties to USC. Their decision will be going into effect shortly. So if anyone ever really wanted to own the domain uscsports.com, don't worry.. it'll be available soon.

Good People, Good Times

So I was driving home from buying a Members Only jacket the other day when my car nosedived into a speed bump.

'What was that?' I wondered. I fly through this school zone all the time. Surely, the slow leak that I had patched last week hadn't fallen off.

-flashback to last week-

'Sure, we'll patch that tire up for ya at no charge.'

'Thanks. Know how long the wait is?'

'It'll be about 90 minutes.'

'I'll be at the bar across the street then.'

So 9 games of pool, 7 losses, 4 shots, and 3 buckets of beer later I had the best set of tires ever.

-end flashback-

Maybe I just hit the speed bump at the wrong angle? Two miles later I noticed I was driving on my rims. So I get out and take a look... yep, that's a flat tire.

Most people would get down about this, but not me. I actually like changing tires. Maybe it's because I like saying changing tires in that Cole-Trickle-Change-My-Tires-But-Cole-The-Race-Is-Over kinda way. The only downfall (besides the obvious flat tire) was that I had to take a leak so bad I could taste it. My dog 800 yards away probably did too.

So there I was ignoring nature's call while stuck in the middle of the street between a cop's (who recently became a father) house and a house for rent. Now I know what you're thinking, but forget it! I didn't have any water balloons in the trunk. So I decided to just change the tire.

Before I could finish slightly loosening the 4th lug nut before raising the car on my jack, a passerby pulled up next to me and asked if I needed anything. Got a fluorescent jacket, I wondered (watch the following video).

'Oh, I think I got it. Thank ya though.'

I raised the car up, removed old flat tire, placed spare tire, slightly tightened lug nuts, and was about to lower when passerby #2 stopped by asking if I need any help. He got the same response. It was when I finally lowered the car that I realized that my spare was flat too. Well, 'relatively flat' is what my urine-laden bladder diagnosed it as.

Anywho, the moral of the story is that everyone should know how to change a tire. Even you female readers of the SoD should know. If you're a guy and don't know how, then there's a good chance you probably enjoy Kevin Bacon movies. Either way, check out the following video for tips:


VideoJug: How To Change A Tyre

USC's Recruiting Class and Spring Game Information

Damn, what a good time to be a Gamecock! College football's National Signing Day was this Wednesday and USC brought in 31 athletes to be listed as the #6 class in the nation (#4 according to ESPN). Momentum is overflowing right now and I'm glad it's time that we changed our goals from winning more than we lose to winning the Southeastern Conference.

This class included the #1 ranked wide receiving corp highlighted by North Carolinians Chris Culliver and Jason Barnes. Culliver reportedly runs the 40 in 4.37 seconds (to comprehend this better, know that Troy Williamson ran a 4.38 at the NFL combines). Jason Barnes comes to us from the always-talented Independence High School and towers at 6'4". I say towers, except when next to colleague Joseph Hills out of Florida who will likely end up at receiver. Suddenly the loss of #4 is a little easier.

Then there's the defensive side of the ball. I think we have finally found depth on the defensive line. Anyone who watched the national championship game should know how crucial that is and we are finally at that point. Clifton Geathers, Travian Robertson, Cliff Matthews, and redshirted Kendrick Ellis finally give us a quality depth chart.

So we beat Clemson, we won our bowl game, and we just brought in the (circa) #5 recruiting class in the nation- now what? Well, recruiting junkies can finally put their lives in perspective. But, more importantly, you can save the date for April 14th when USC holds its annual Garnet and Black Game. For the hordes of people that don't realize that this is a just an intersquad scrimmage, Hootie and the Blowfish will be performing this year.


We finished high, but still finished behind Florida, Tennessee, and LSU (all three of which are on our schedule next year). And Georgia is right behind us.

So for my two cents I'm going to go ahead and say this- With the returning starters on offense and defense, the redshirted linemen from last year, and our new immediate impact players, I'll consider it a failure for the team and Spurrier if we do not play in the SEC Championship game next year. Regardless if we're playing in Baton Rouge or Knoxville, we should be able to win every game we play next season. The culture has changed.

The Results

What a season everyone! Sorry I've it's taken me awhile, I got sidetracked a few times. Louis led the bowl game challenge with 11 correct picks. But as you recall, the race for first place was between Southern Sweetheart and Will (both of them had 85 correct picks by the end of the regular season).

Well guess what? They both had 9 correct picks during the bowl game to finish with 94 so it came down to the final score of the BCS championship game to be the tiebreaker.

As you recall, Florida scored 41 points while the Ohio State only mustered 14 points after 60 minutes of play.

So..

Will- 59
Southern Sweetheart- 67

Congrats to Will for becoming the winner of the first annual Summer of Dev College Football Pick'em Contest! Your frame will be displayed until the end of March Madness and you have also earned rights to prognosticating during the contest next season!

All the Marbles

After predicting Texas winning the big game last year, I'm gonna go with Florida winning by 3.

#4

It looks like Gamecocks receiver Sidney Rice is declaring for the NFL draft. I'll be honest, I was pretty bummed when I first heard the news. He didn't produce as much this year, but NFL scouts are probably drooling over this 6'4" receiver whose physical play and hands naturally come down with the ball. I was pumped about this kid after watching him play in the football state championship (I say football because he also led Gaffney to a basketball state championship too). I was surprised when we redshirted him, but we have coaches to make that type of decision.



Like I said, the news got me down at first. I started wondering are we going to experience another year of 'damn, I wonder how we would have been if he stayed?' similar to this season after the early departures of Jonathan Joseph and Ko Simpson. But then I figured that USC will never really have to worry about the offensive side of the ball with Spurs calling the shots. If you follow recruiting you should know that we have a stellar receiving corp about to enroll, and a few of them are of similar height. Will they have the same type of hands? Who knows? My .02 is just that if they are ready to play, then let them. There isn't much sense is wasting a redshirt year on a skills player that will probably leave after their sophomore or junior year. Anywho, as long as Spurrier doesn't take the joint Miami Dolphins/University of Miami job then we'll be fine. Good luck Mr. Rice.