For the glass half full crowd...

[Blitzer]

Let me start by sating that I am not satisfied with where this team finished this season, but I wanted to point out some things that I have not seen mentioned that show that we are headed in the right direction.

This senior class has been eligible every season at USC (not counting their redshirt year). They may only get to go to 2 bowls, but they are the 1st class in recent history to not have a losing record in any of their season.

In the 3 years of the Spurrier era, we are 3-6 against UGA, UT, and UF- an average of beating one of them per year. In the previous 13 years of being in the SEC we went 4-35 against those teams- an average of 1 win in every 3.25 years.

Now some can say these are the same old Gamecocks that will break your heart, but those two facts say a lot about to me about where the program is now relative to where we were. I wanted to win the SEC as much as the next guy, but the way I see it we are finally learning to walk in our conference. The next step is learning to run.

I watched the highlights of the Auburn celebration after their 6th straight win over Alabama in the Iron Bowl. 25 years ago Auburn had not beaten Ala in a nearly a decade. They had lost 63% of the Iron Bowl games. Since that time they have decreased the gap to a mere 5 games. I'd bet some of the Auburn fans gave up on their team back then and missed out on the sweetness that was this stretch. I am am not going to miss our time in the sun when it comes and it will come.

[bigun]

POINTS SENT!! GREAT POST!!:thumbsup:

[The Yancey]

We are definately headed in the right direction. We may go 2 steps forward and 1 step back for a bit but we will most certainly arrive!

[Ga_Gamecock]

SOS had some interesting comments about the dreaded "third year" when a coaching change occurs. He said that for some reason - player turnover, sys transition, growing pains, bad luck, whatever - the third year is usually when a team hits the low point. He even made reference to Weiss & ND as well as his 3rd year UF team.

I guess it makes sense. We only have 6 Srs ths year. Most of the top players Holtz recruitred have moved on and most of SOS' guys are very very young ...

go cocks

[Spurrier_Superior_One]

Great posts

[willy]

SOS had some interesting comments about the dreaded "third year" when a coaching change occurs. He said that for some reason - player turnover, sys transition, growing pains, bad luck, whatever - the third year is usually when a team hits the low point. He even made reference to Weiss & ND as well as his 3rd year UF team.

I guess it makes sense. We only have 6 Srs ths year. Most of the top players Holtz recruitred have moved on and most of SOS' guys are very very young ...

go cocks



What's your point?

[Ga_Gamecock]

uhhh ...


we are going on to bigger and better thing from this point forward, thats the point.


but i wouldnt expect you to see that.


just hang in there and back away from the ledge, sunshine ;)

[tomtomusc]

somebody start a thread for willy called "for the glass half empty crowd"

[COMPLETE 2 RICE]

BLITZER im with you bro.:clap:

[PyroPepper]

SOS had some interesting comments about the dreaded "third year" when a coaching change occurs. He said that for some reason - player turnover, sys transition, growing pains, bad luck, whatever - the third year is usually when a team hits the low point. He even made reference to Weiss & ND as well as his 3rd year UF team.

I guess it makes sense. We only have 6 Srs ths year. Most of the top players Holtz recruitred have moved on and most of SOS' guys are very very young ...

go cocks



How about that 3rd year LSU team?

[garnetgolfr]

That was an AWESOME POST. PTS SENT BIG TIME!!!:clap: :clap:

[Ga_Gamecock]

How about that 3rd year LSU team?
Look, im not trying to make excuses for our slide, just repeating what SOS said.

Comapring LSU with USC at this point is like a ford and a ferari ... LSU has been est for quite some time ... roll the closk back 3 years and switch Miles and Spurrier. I would love to see where each winds up ... my guess SOS has a few division titles and 3 BCS bowl wins

and doesnt LSU have 25 srs this year - 7 Srs and 4 Jrs on their D? what do we have? 2 on D?

*sigh* sometimes i dont want to even post a positive comment about where the team is heading, since the haters come out of the woodwork to piss on my parade. im optimistic. sue me

LOL

[PyroPepper]

Hey dude, I was sort of half kidding. I heard that thing about it being Miles 3rd year yesterday, so it struck a chord with me. They definately had much more in the tank than we did 3 years ago.

[TheGuitarCock]

Nothing wrong with being optimistic

[deenerbug]

I'm a glass half full person. I think things are going to be better next year and much better the year after that. We have a lot of young talent and a great coach!

[Blitzer]

Hey dude, I was sort of half kidding. I heard that thing about it being Miles 3rd year yesterday, so it struck a chord with me. They definately had much more in the tank than we did 3 years ago.
You think? The won the whole thing the year right before Saban left.

[U-Dub Gamecock]

It could always be worse.. Hell.. we would have killed for 6-6 in 1998 or 1999

[PyroPepper]

You think? The won the whole thing the year right before Saban left.

I think, therefore I drink!

[willy]

uhhh ...


we are going on to bigger and better thing from this point forward, thats the point.


but i wouldnt expect you to see that.


just hang in there and back away from the ledge, sunshine ;)


Oh now I see. Baseball season is almost here, then we will have a winner with Coach Tanner, then we won't have to go BEGGING for a bowl game, Coach Tanner will earn one.

[CoolCockyChick]

Oh now I see. Baseball season is almost here, then we will have a winner with Coach Tanner, then we won't have to go BEGGING for a bowl game, Coach Tanner will earn one.

Come on now, I can taste the sarcasm in that one. The thread is titled "for the GLASS HALF FULL crowd". With all due respect, no need to post in it if you're part of the glass HALF EMPTY crowd.

[U-Dub Gamecock]

Our baseball team has a very good history.. and our expectations for baseball are much higher than in football.. We basically say ever year... if we dont get to Omaha.. it was a disapointing season.. That would be like saying in football "If we dont get a BCS bid.. it was a disapointing season"

[crow0328]

Look, im not trying to make excuses for our slide, just repeating what SOS said.

Comapring LSU with USC at this point is like a ford and a ferari ... LSU has been est for quite some time ... roll the closk back 3 years and switch Miles and Spurrier. I would love to see where each winds up ... my guess SOS has a few division titles and 3 BCS bowl wins

and doesnt LSU have 25 srs this year - 7 Srs and 4 Jrs on their D? what do we have? 2 on D?

*sigh* sometimes i dont want to even post a positive comment about where the team is heading, since the haters come out of the woodwork to piss on my parade. im optimistic. sue me

LOL


I hope you don't think that we hate the gamecocks, we are just pissed and frustrated. We want answers from the coaches and team players of why we are where we are. Why did they quit? We love the gamecocks as much as you do. We spend our money and time and our lives over this team. Hell, I have a large 5" by 5" gamecock tatoo on my arm. I proadly wear my gamecock hats and shirts to work among Ga and Fla fans. I wear them win or lose and people look at my truck with the flags and stickers and they call it the cock mobile. I proudly smile. But I have every right in the world to be mad with them because they are my family. I can talk about them but no one else can. Sorry thats how I feel.

[Ga_Gamecock]

.... Why did they quit? We love the gamecocks as much as you do.... But I have every right in the world to be mad with them because they are my family. I can talk about them but no one else can. Sorry thats how I feel.


I get occasionly info from someone very close to the players. He has a much better i dea of the mindset of the student athletes who represent our school on the field ... while it may sometimes look like a lack of effort or desire, i have been told that couldnt be further from the truth ...

Just passing it along ... TIFWIW

Also, I wanted to mention that some fans feel that the guys aren't playing hard enough because they don't care. I can tell you that the players I know can't stand to lose and took each loss this year very hard. Unlike the fans, they can't afford the time to wallow in self pity. They have to get focused on the next opponent. It's especially tough after 5 straight loses and they want to show that they are better than that. Saturday was particularly hard on a number of the players.

[uscnoklahoma]

I hope you don't think that we hate the gamecocks, we are just pissed and frustrated. We want answers from the coaches and team players of why we are where we are. Why did they quit? We love the gamecocks as much as you do. We spend our money and time and our lives over this team. Hell, I have a large 5" by 5" gamecock tatoo on my arm. I proadly wear my gamecock hats and shirts to work among Ga and Fla fans. I wear them win or lose and people look at my truck with the flags and stickers and they call it the cock mobile. I proudly smile. But I have every right in the world to be mad with them because they are my family. I can talk about them but no one else can. Sorry thats how I feel.
It wasn't a lack of heart or effort and frankly I get tired of hearing that. I am as negative as you...despite what some on here may think..:rotfl: sarcasm noted...but it was as simple as us running into some real teams and not getting the lucky bounces we did earlier in the year. This is nothing new and I don't why everyone acts like it is...how many years have we only needed to win 1 going into the end of October or the first of November to go to a bowl...several years. We always fold or brawl. :thumbs:

When you combine playing the meat of our schedule with sorry defensive schemes, running instead of passing, passing insteas of running, and a sorry O-Line...well you hit the skids. It was not effort or lack of desire. We just weren't any good and anyone expecting miracles next year is asking to be disappointed as well. UGA, UF, and UT will all be as good or better..so even if we are better next year we will still face an uphill battle and need some breaks. But hopefully we can beat LSU and Clemson...8 wins including those 2 and I am as happy as a pig in slop....I hate the Tigers..any Tigers.

[Ga_Gamecock]

Plus the injuries. by the 1st of nov hadnt we lost about 40% of our starting D lineup? and thats when we needed them most.

Jap
Nate
Capt
Issac
Sinclair
... plus the lack of Lindseys hurt our depth this year

[crow0328]

It wasn't a lack of heart or effort and frankly I get tired of hearing that. I am as negative as you...despite what some on here may think..:rotfl: sarcasm noted...but it was as simple as us running into some real teams and not getting the lucky bounces we did earlier in the year. This is nothing new and I don't why everyone acts like it is...how many years have we only needed to win 1 going into the end of October or the first of November to go to a bowl...several years. We always fold or brawl. :thumbs:

When you combine playing the meat of our schedule with sorry defensive schemes, running instead of passing, passing insteas of running, and a sorry O-Line...well you hit the skids. It was not effort or lack of desire. We just weren't any good and anyone expecting miracles next year is asking to be disappointed as well. UGA, UF, and UT will all be as good or better..so even if we are better next year we will still face an uphill battle and need some breaks. But hopefully we can beat LSU and Clemson...8 wins including those 2 and I am as happy as a pig in slop....I hate the Tigers..any Tigers.

I agree with what you say but I cannot understand someone as good as a coach that we have speak at the beginning of the season that we are good enough to compete against the best in this conference and show such a poor showing at the end of the year. Yes we had injuries but so did everyone else. I'm not giving up on them, i'll always be a gamecock but I hope the bad coaches go and some respected ones take there place.

[SnellvilleSpur]

I watched the highlights of the Auburn celebration after their 6th straight win over Alabama in the Iron Bowl. 25 years ago Auburn had not beaten Ala in a nearly a decade. They had lost 63% of the Iron Bowl games. Since that time they have decreased the gap to a mere 5 games. I'd bet some of the Auburn fans gave up on their team back then and missed out on the sweetness that was this stretch. I am am not going to miss our time in the sun when it comes and it will come.
I had no idea the Alabama/Auburn series was so lopsided. That gives me another reason to like Auburn and to hate Alabama. It's nice to know someone else out there feels our pain.

Great point worthy post.

[Bleedin'Garnet]

Great post Blitzer.

[Cockfucius]

I see our glass as being more than half full! Man, I love Carolina football. People ask me what my hobbies are, what do I like to do, and I always say my favorite pastime is following Carolina football.

I started going to games in Columbia sporadically with my parents in about 1970 I guess. I got serious about it in 1979 as a freshman at Carolina and I've been devoted to all things Carolina football ever since, despite often living too far away to attend more than a couple of games each season. I'm way out of range now, living in Asia for crying out loud.

Even though I'm much farther removed from Columbia and W-B than ever before, I probably follow Carolina football now with more intensity and interest than ever before. It is my piece of home that I have with me wherever the Lord takes me and my laptop.

I've seen our highest highs (Rogers' Heisman, 1984 Black Magic, Lou's two excellent seasons beating Lohio State), and our lowest lows (losing to Furman, losing to the Citadel, 1-10 [which I think included losing to Vanderbilt], 0-11 [which I know included losing to Vanderbilt], the infamous Navy debacle of 1984, and the idiotic street fight at Clemzon, need I go on?).

I've seen it all for the last 35 years or so and I'm not even old. I hate the way this season went, along with everybody else. And although I'd like for us to get a few more weeks of practice in for a bowl and for us to end with 7 wins, I can tell you that if we got a bid and lost the stinkin' bowl we'd all be wishing we just hadn't gotten a bid in the first place. And with our losing streak I'd say we'd be in good shape to lose in a bowl game. And how embarrassing and demoralizing would that be?

Glass more than half full? Yeah! I would rather have SOS as our head coach than ANY other coach in the US of A, the 2007 season notwithstanding. I think we are moving in the right direction talent-wise, and that we are in the right place head-coach wise. I'd be glad for Nix to stay on if he doesn't get hired away.

This year, Arkansas mowed us down, and I was embarrassed. But they mowed down other people too. it was more a function of their offense than our defense. Florida's Tim Turbo Express mowed down many others too. I was again embarrassed, but it was more a function of their offense than our defense. I think those were the only two of our losing skid losses that were basically inevitable given McFadden and Tebow.

I was embarrassed about those losses, but they could be accepted more easily than the losses that were sickening in that they were so unnecessary: Tennessee and Clem's Son. Gonadal fortitude should have put us over both of those orange-clad herds of gelatinous brain-matter.

Which brings it down to Vanderbilt. That game is the worst of the lot because of the utter shock of it. We should have beaten them. I don't know what else to say except that game was a self-inflicted loss if ever there was one (oh, and by the way, praise ye the Lord that the UnC (Un-Carolina) Tar Eels didn't complete their come back against us at Chapel Hill).

So, with defensive injuries (which are part of the game and everybody has to deal with them from time to time) and some crucial first quarter ineptitude in five games, along with a handful of plays SOS would like to have over to call again, we crawl into the offseason embarrassed, deflated, and disappointed.

My glass is still half full, though, because I have faith in SOS. In fact, my glass is more than half full. Yeah everybody else in the SEC and Pickens Tech will have a good chance of being better next year, just like us, but I am hopeful for a great year. Well, the game wasn't on this year, but I believe it will be next year. What choice do I have? Quit? Become a pessimist? Become a whiner? Complain? I just trust that those closest to the program (coaches and returning players) are a heck of a lot more upset than I am and that they will do something about it, dadgum it, and next year will be different, better, and with a much more satisfying conclusion, say, on January 1 2009.

Pardon the rambling, you guys and gals are my partners in love for the Gamecocks and partners in revulsion at this season, and, I hope, partners in hope for better things to come, beginning with a great recruiting haul this time around and, let me say it, just wait until.......NEXT YEAR!

Thank you. Allowing me to vent and open up was great therapy. I feel better already.

Vaya con Dios.

[carolinafan81]

yea but u got understand we loss jas that nfl scouts said image ray lewis u loss captain munn best shut down corner in sec at soph and marvin sapp gd player he nothing like jas then peppers went down on fluke inj as did jas so 5 of team front seven was fresh or very green they hung in there 4 7 games then started wearing out this is sec the hardest hittin conference and most diffcult conference play in looks like back 2 back nc 4 sec

[foezopen]

Let me start by sating that I am not satisfied with where this team finished this season, but I wanted to point out some things that I have not seen mentioned that show that we are headed in the right direction.

This senior class has been eligible every season at USC (not counting their redshirt year). They may only get to go to 2 bowls, but they are the 1st class in recent history to not have a losing record in any of their season.

In the 3 years of the Spurrier era, we are 3-6 against UGA, UT, and UF- an average of beating one of them per year. In the previous 13 years of being in the SEC we went 4-35 against those teams- an average of 1 win in every 3.25 years.

Now some can say these are the same old Gamecocks that will break your heart, but those two facts say a lot about to me about where the program is now relative to where we were. I wanted to win the SEC as much as the next guy, but the way I see it we are finally learning to walk in our conference. The next step is learning to run.

I watched the highlights of the Auburn celebration after their 6th straight win over Alabama in the Iron Bowl. 25 years ago Auburn had not beaten Ala in a nearly a decade. They had lost 63% of the Iron Bowl games. Since that time they have decreased the gap to a mere 5 games. I'd bet some of the Auburn fans gave up on their team back then and missed out on the sweetness that was this stretch. I am am not going to miss our time in the sun when it comes and it will come.



Im with ya bro !!!

.....and LOOK ON THE EXTREMELY BRIGHT SIDE-AT LEAST WE AINT TATERS !!!!

[CreoleCock]

Great Post. Points Sent, I totally agree.

[Scott88]

Man, some of you guys just don't get it. It would be like demanding a raise at work, but refusing to quit if you didn't get it. If you're going to keep going on and on about how this "product" isn't good enough for you and isn't worth your time and money, then STOP FOLLOWING THE TEAM AND BREAK YOUR ALLEGIANCES. If you're going to continue to support USC, then it IS good enough for you. You'd prefer better like every other one of us, but this is not bad enough to turn you away. Some guys on this board talk a big game about how pissed they are with Hyman, the football team, and everything else, but until they stop giving money and buying tickets, it doesn't mean a damn thing. All of us here wanted more for this season, but it didn't happen. Everyone here that is continuing to support the team is saying this season was good enough to keep us from turning away in the future. Anyway, I just find some of these attitudes ridiculous.

[FoghornLeghornCock]

Bowl History:

1946 Gator Bowl - Wake Forest 14-26
1969 Peach Bowl - West Virginia 3-14
1975 Tangerine Bowl - Miami, Ohio 7-20
1979 Hall of Fame Bowl - Missouri 14-24
1980 Gator Bowl - Pitt 9-37
1984 Gator Bowl - Oklahoma State 14-21
1987 Gator Bowl - LSU 13-30
1988 Liberty Bowl - Indiana 10-34
1995 Carquest Bowl - West Virginia 24-21
2001 Outback Bowl - Ohio State 24-7
2002 Outback Bowl - Ohio State 31-28
2005 Independence Bowl - Missouri 31-38
2006 Liberty Bowl - Houston 44-36

Our best decade in the past was going to 4 bowl games in the 80s we have already reached that level already in this decade and had a chance to break it, but were not selected. Next year we should get to that bowl game and break this record. I do see this ship headed in the right direction even if right now some don't. I fully expect during the SOS era not going to a bowl game will be the exception. We just need to have some patience.

[mjmiller]

Oh now I see. Baseball season is almost here, then we will have a winner with Coach Tanner, then we won't have to go BEGGING for a bowl game, Coach Tanner will earn one.


I dont know who was begging. If you have followed anything, you will have read that most players on the team, even Spurrier said that this team didn't deserve a bowl. How you gonna diss you own team?