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I'm up 24 units on the year, looking for a big day with a big card. Meanwhile, it's back to the field for South Carolina after a bye week. Not real sure why we scheduled a bye week before playing Furman, maybe our AD Ray Tanner had an idea how much we would struggle on defense this year and wanted to make sure we win this game to hopefully make it to a bowl game this year.
Kent St +4 2 units
TCU -10 1 unit
Tulsa +2 4 units
New Mexico +10 4 units
Georgia St +20.5 1 unit
Western Mich +2.5 4 units
Tennessee +16.5 2 units
Appalachain St +7 1 unit
Georgia Tech Pickem 3 units
Louisville -17 3 units
Wyoming +2.5 1 unit
Kansas +13.5 1 unit
Miami/Northern Illinois over 56.5 2 units
Ga Tech/North Carolina over 69 2 units
NC State/Louisville over 48.5 2 units
Kentucky/LSU over 52 4 units
Tulane/Central Fla over 43.5 2 units
UTSA/La Tech over 45.5 3 units
Ball St/Cent Michigan over 53.5 3 units
Washington/Oregon under 65 1 unit
South Carolina/Furman
I fully understand why we schedule games like this out of conference. While the SEC West is certainly the stronger of the two divisions in the SEC, it wasn't that long ago that the East was the toughest division in college football. It wasn't that long ago that we played against a Top 5 Florida, a Top 10 Tennessee, a Top 10 Georgia every year. Throw in a Top 10 Arkansas under Bobby Petrino (they used to be our permanent rival in the West), and we had a stretch of 10-15 years that our schedule was in the Top 5 toughest schedules each year. Throw in the fact that South Carolina has historically had a mediocre at best history in football, and games such as this Furman game (and South Alabama later this year) were necessary to hopefully make it to a winning season/bowl game. If we have to play games like this, I would much prefer to pay the million dollars to an in state 1/AA program instead of an out of state one. Even though I don't bet them, I enjoy watching the FCS playoffs at the end of the season, and if an in state program such as Furman, Wofford, SC State, The Citadel, or Coastal Carolina make a deep run, it makes it more interesting for me.
In 1982 as an 8 year old boy, I was in the stadium when Furman beat South Carolina. I was also in the stadium in 1990 when The Citadel beat us. Neither are very good memories for me. While I don't mind paying these schools a big sum to play us and hopefully pad our win total, we should never lose to one of them. We won't tomorrow.
I had to dig to find a line on this game, and I found that we are favored by 39. I predicted earlier in the week that we would win 52-14, so I guess I am picking Furman to cover by a point. I fully expect Dylan Thompson to be finished for the afternoon sometime in the 2nd quarter. With the exception of a few plays out of the wildcat formation by Pharoh Cooper (WR), Dylan Thompson has taken every snap for us this season.
Steve Spurrier has forgotten more about coaching college football than I will ever know. But in my opinion, Thompson has been asked to run an offense that his skill set is just not suited for. For the last 3 years, we have lived on Connor Shaw and his ability to move the ball with his legs. The spread option worked great when there was the possibility that the QB can run the ball. We have not had that luxury with Thompson, as running the ball is just not in his skill set.
Please don't think that I am bashing Dylan by saying this, he is a great kid and represents EVERYTHING that is right about college athletics. I 250% guarantee you that I will never wake up and read a local newspaper article about him getting into a fight, beating up his girlfriend, being accused of sexual assault, accepting money from someone for autographs, or anything like that. I can ALMOST guarantee you that I will hear more stories of him visiting sick kids in a children's hospital more times than I can count on two hands. In fact, I hope that both of my young sons grow up to become the kind of young man that Dylan Thompson is.
Connor Mitch will be the first QB to enter the game tomorrow after Dylan Thompson has seen all of the action that he will see against Furman. Mitch is a redshirt freshman that is supposed to be the first "typical Spurrier quarterback" that we have had since Spurrier has been in Columbia. Supposedly, Spurrier told Mitch that he would not retire from coaching as long as he was in school if Mitch came to South Carolina. I am looking forward to seeing him play, and firmly believe that he will see much more playing time this season after he gets his chance tomorrow. Our offense has been effective in most games this season, but has been somewhat one dimensional. I expect that to begin to change tomorrow afternoon. As frustrated as I have been this season, I expect us to have a bright future with Mitch at the helm for the next 2-3 seasons. Our defense is still more than questionable, and that WILL NOT be fixed this year (as I first said after we were blown out by Texas A&M). Major recruiting needs to be done on the defensive side of the ball, but our offense is going to be in good hands.
Maybe, just maybe, if Connor Mitch is what I am expecting him to be, I will be predicting an upset next week on the plains against Auburn. We'll see.
South Carolina 52
Furman 14
Best of luck to all of you this weekend.
Kent St +4 2 units
TCU -10 1 unit
Tulsa +2 4 units
New Mexico +10 4 units
Georgia St +20.5 1 unit
Western Mich +2.5 4 units
Tennessee +16.5 2 units
Appalachain St +7 1 unit
Georgia Tech Pickem 3 units
Louisville -17 3 units
Wyoming +2.5 1 unit
Kansas +13.5 1 unit
Miami/Northern Illinois over 56.5 2 units
Ga Tech/North Carolina over 69 2 units
NC State/Louisville over 48.5 2 units
Kentucky/LSU over 52 4 units
Tulane/Central Fla over 43.5 2 units
UTSA/La Tech over 45.5 3 units
Ball St/Cent Michigan over 53.5 3 units
Washington/Oregon under 65 1 unit
South Carolina/Furman
I fully understand why we schedule games like this out of conference. While the SEC West is certainly the stronger of the two divisions in the SEC, it wasn't that long ago that the East was the toughest division in college football. It wasn't that long ago that we played against a Top 5 Florida, a Top 10 Tennessee, a Top 10 Georgia every year. Throw in a Top 10 Arkansas under Bobby Petrino (they used to be our permanent rival in the West), and we had a stretch of 10-15 years that our schedule was in the Top 5 toughest schedules each year. Throw in the fact that South Carolina has historically had a mediocre at best history in football, and games such as this Furman game (and South Alabama later this year) were necessary to hopefully make it to a winning season/bowl game. If we have to play games like this, I would much prefer to pay the million dollars to an in state 1/AA program instead of an out of state one. Even though I don't bet them, I enjoy watching the FCS playoffs at the end of the season, and if an in state program such as Furman, Wofford, SC State, The Citadel, or Coastal Carolina make a deep run, it makes it more interesting for me.
In 1982 as an 8 year old boy, I was in the stadium when Furman beat South Carolina. I was also in the stadium in 1990 when The Citadel beat us. Neither are very good memories for me. While I don't mind paying these schools a big sum to play us and hopefully pad our win total, we should never lose to one of them. We won't tomorrow.
I had to dig to find a line on this game, and I found that we are favored by 39. I predicted earlier in the week that we would win 52-14, so I guess I am picking Furman to cover by a point. I fully expect Dylan Thompson to be finished for the afternoon sometime in the 2nd quarter. With the exception of a few plays out of the wildcat formation by Pharoh Cooper (WR), Dylan Thompson has taken every snap for us this season.
Steve Spurrier has forgotten more about coaching college football than I will ever know. But in my opinion, Thompson has been asked to run an offense that his skill set is just not suited for. For the last 3 years, we have lived on Connor Shaw and his ability to move the ball with his legs. The spread option worked great when there was the possibility that the QB can run the ball. We have not had that luxury with Thompson, as running the ball is just not in his skill set.
Please don't think that I am bashing Dylan by saying this, he is a great kid and represents EVERYTHING that is right about college athletics. I 250% guarantee you that I will never wake up and read a local newspaper article about him getting into a fight, beating up his girlfriend, being accused of sexual assault, accepting money from someone for autographs, or anything like that. I can ALMOST guarantee you that I will hear more stories of him visiting sick kids in a children's hospital more times than I can count on two hands. In fact, I hope that both of my young sons grow up to become the kind of young man that Dylan Thompson is.
Connor Mitch will be the first QB to enter the game tomorrow after Dylan Thompson has seen all of the action that he will see against Furman. Mitch is a redshirt freshman that is supposed to be the first "typical Spurrier quarterback" that we have had since Spurrier has been in Columbia. Supposedly, Spurrier told Mitch that he would not retire from coaching as long as he was in school if Mitch came to South Carolina. I am looking forward to seeing him play, and firmly believe that he will see much more playing time this season after he gets his chance tomorrow. Our offense has been effective in most games this season, but has been somewhat one dimensional. I expect that to begin to change tomorrow afternoon. As frustrated as I have been this season, I expect us to have a bright future with Mitch at the helm for the next 2-3 seasons. Our defense is still more than questionable, and that WILL NOT be fixed this year (as I first said after we were blown out by Texas A&M). Major recruiting needs to be done on the defensive side of the ball, but our offense is going to be in good hands.
Maybe, just maybe, if Connor Mitch is what I am expecting him to be, I will be predicting an upset next week on the plains against Auburn. We'll see.
South Carolina 52
Furman 14
Best of luck to all of you this weekend.
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