Biggest Problem on Defense?

[Cockfucius]

Friends and Cocky Talk Colleagues, please weigh in on this question for my edification:


What did in our defense this year?

1. lack of experience (young players)
2. lack of talent (other teams too good for us)
3. lack of size (other teams too big for us)
4. lack of speed (other teams too fast for us)
5. lack of senior leadership (see #1 above)
6. lack of healthy starters (injuries)
7. lack of effort / hustle / heart
8. inadequate coaching as follows:
a. inadequate schemes / allignments overall
b. lack of proper in-game adjustments

Next question: What should SOS do to rectify whichever situation you identify as the main problem?

Please note I am not soliciting any coach-bashing. Please, if you think one person is the problem, express your opinion respectfully toward him and those who love him. I can't make you do this, just asking.

Thanks

[purebredcock]

Friends and Cocky Talk Colleagues, please weigh in on this question for my edification:


What did in our defense this year?

1. lack of experience (young players)
2. lack of talent (other teams too good for us)
3. lack of size (other teams too big for us)
4. lack of speed (other teams too fast for us)
5. lack of senior leadership (see #1 above)
6. lack of healthy starters (injuries)
7. lack of effort / hustle / heart
8. inadequate coaching as follows:
a. inadequate schemes / allignments overall
b. lack of proper in-game adjustments

Next question: What should SOS do to rectify whichever situation you identify as the main problem?

Please note I am not soliciting any coach-bashing. Please, if you think one person is the problem, express your opinion respectfully toward him and those who love him. I can't make you do this, just asking.

Thanks1,2,6, 8 a&b.

[IHateOrange]

Friends and Cocky Talk Colleagues, please weigh in on this question for my edification:


What did in our defense this year?

1. lack of experience (young players)
2. lack of talent (other teams too good for us)
3. lack of size (other teams too big for us)
4. lack of speed (other teams too fast for us)
5. lack of senior leadership (see #1 above)
6. lack of healthy starters (injuries)
7. lack of effort / hustle / heart
8. inadequate coaching as follows:
a. inadequate schemes / allignments overall
b. lack of proper in-game adjustments

Next question: What should SOS do to rectify whichever situation you identify as the main problem?

Please note I am not soliciting any coach-bashing. Please, if you think one person is the problem, express your opinion respectfully toward him and those who love him. I can't make you do this, just asking.

Thanks

1, 3,5, 6, b

[TalkingHead]

7 caused by 8a and b

[TheGuitarCock]

1-8 + A&B

[uscnoklahoma]

All of the Above. With heavy emphasis on 8a and b

[Flameout12]

7 caused by 8a and b
Shack! On the money.
Obvious apathy on defense....something really went wrong.
And I'm not so sure the OL probs were not similar. We still can't effectively run the ball.

Cory Boyd didn't deserve this. :thumbs:

[McNasty]

1, 5, 6, 7 (excluding some players of course), 8a, 8b

[USCfanlivingnKY]

I am not sure you have these letters but I believe it was N, I, and X.

Thanks

[Dr. Cock]

1 - We were a young football team on Defense. We return all starters but Casper.

5 - See above.

6 - We lost our best LB, CB, and DL. Our backups were young, so this ties in with 1.

7 - The team morale on defense seemed to be dead after the loss against UT. Perhaps another product of youth, and it's important to crush this attitude while the players are still young so it doesn't develop into a habit.

8 - Both A and B. Again, this ties back into #1 again, because I would be willing to guess that youth attributed to the inability to pick up the approriate schemes and make the correct adjustments during the game, although some of the blame must fall on the coaches as well.


Over, the ultimate factor is #1. If we are lacking heavily in any other areas in 2-8, it will become increasingly evident next year as the youth excuse won't hold as much weight.

[USC62]

How about they

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p181/tojimhen/windowsgiveadamnbq1.gif

[puddle]

Intensity

[cockhound#]

Reduced to its simplest form, lack of player/coach talent

[pitchcock]

2. lack of talent (other teams too good for us)
3. lack of size (other teams too big for us)
4. lack of speed (other teams too fast for us)
5. lack of senior leadership (see #1 above)
6. lack of healthy starters (injuries)
7. lack of effort / hustle / heart
8. inadequate coaching as follows:
a. inadequate schemes / allignments overall
b. lack of proper in-game adjustments

Young players..to an extent. It would've been nice to have redshirted a guy like Cliff Matthews, because another year in the weight room and 20 more lbs of muscle would've benefitted him. But there are teams every year that play young guys on defense, and they do fine. It's different from a Freshman WR or QB that may have to know 100+ plays...on defense, (excluding DB's) you have a few different alignments, and the goal is to tackle everyone, and sort them out until you find the one with the ball. :woo: We struggled with that all year.

Size..I think size-wise, we measured up pretty good. We had a big DL, they just struggled fundamentally. Kenrick Ellis made a big difference at times when he was in.

Lack of talent..I think other team's OL's were more talented than ours, because our DL and LB's that supposedly looked so good before the season struggled getting off of blocks.

I think our speed was ok..it just doesn't matter how fast you are when you, the defender gets pancaked into the ground.

Senior leadership's overrated. Senior experience is helpful, but the players have to have the fire inside. Witness the UT game...I knew we were sunk as a team when it took Nick Prochak yelling at halftime to motivate players. That told me that we had guys out there half-assing it. Senior leadership doesn't fix that..putting those guys on the bench does.

Injuries definitely hurt, and not having a break until the end of the season definitely hurt.

Definitely a problem with hustle, effort, and heart. There were guys like Norwood, E Cook, and Munnerlyn that left it all on the field. There were other guys that looked purely disinterested at times. It's scenarios like that when it makes sense to make an offer to a guy like Orgeron, even if he comes just as a DL coach. Maybe the guys need a coach with fire...if it takes Coach O to scream and rip his shirt off during a game to fire guys up, then get him..I'm tired of seeing lack of effort from half of the team. If we'd recovered just half of the potential fumble recoveries that we could've had, we'd likely be sitting at least at 8 wins, and would be going to a nice bowl.

Coaching...our defense was outcoached too many times. We had to wait until halftime to make adjustments entirely too many times. We stayed on the field entirely too long. HBC's offense is drafted around the concept of getting the ball as many times as possible to keep pressure on the other team. Our "bend but don't break" philosophy keeps our D on the field too much, and puts the pressure on our O to make something happen in a short period of time, which magnifies mistakes.

We struggled stopping the run, but when we did and the opposing QB was in an obvious passing situation, we couldn't or wouldn't bring pressure on him. I've gotten to the point between Nix and Charley Strong that everytime we get someone 3rd and 20, I close my eyes, because I know what's coming.

We took way too long to identify our best players, both on offense and on defense, and I don't have the answer for that. Maybe most of the guys are so equal in talent that it was a tossup, I don't know...but between injuries and the constant shuffling of players, it seemed like we never could get any continuity.

[big cock fan]

size and speed and stength are all important, but nothing is as important as SEC experience. And a bunch of our really talented guys in there first or second year got lots of experience this year. We should be set up nicely for next year.

[SNEEZ]

we've got a bunch of big strong teddy bears up front. they aren't mean, Eric Norwood can be at times and Emmanuel cook isn't mean but he just ROCKS whoever he hits

[GeathersFan]

Friends and Cocky Talk Colleagues, please weigh in on this question for my edification:


What did in our defense this year?

1. lack of experience (young players) Agree
2. lack of talent (other teams too good for us) LB
3. lack of size (other teams too big for us) We will not play The big guys becasue we want them to loose weight.
4. lack of speed (other teams too fast for us) Disagree. We are as fast as anyone.
5. lack of senior leadership (see #1 above) Agree
6. lack of healthy starters (injuries) Agree
7. lack of effort / hustle / heart DisAgree. It appears this way when you are not in the right position or scheme.
8. inadequate coaching as follows: 100% Agreement
a. inadequate schemes / allignments overall
b. lack of proper in-game adjustments

Next question: What should SOS do to rectify whichever situation you identify as the main problem? I hope Nix gets the head coaching job and we get a DC that will play 315lbs DT and not get mad at their weight. A coach who would play DE at DE and not put a LB at DE. A coach who would stack the box to stop the run not switch to a three man front. A coach who attacks and not sit back and wait for the other team to make a mistake!

Please note I am not soliciting any coach-bashing. Please, if you think one person is the problem, express your opinion respectfully toward him and those who love him. I can't make you do this, just asking. Note I like Nix also but come on!

PS Geathers is 6'8" 275 lbs. He might can help stop the run.

Thanks

:football: :woo:

[Zee]

We lost Jasper Brinkley and Nathan Pepper. I know people say that losing one or two players isn't a big deal, but losing Jasper was the worst thing that could have happened to our team. THE WORST. On top of that Nathan being hurt. Check out the stats, our slide started after they got hurt.

In fact, there was only one touchdown scored against us when Jasper was in the game, and that was during the second half of LSU. Remember, he was out for most of the first half, and returned in the second half hurt. SO you could say that with a healthy Jasper in the game, our defense gave up zero touchdowns. That's not a coincidence. And if you are wondering, he was out of the game for ULL's touchdowns and of course we didn't give up any agaisnt UGA or SC State. (both games he played the whole time)
One player can and does make a difference.

[Dr. Cock]

We lost Jasper Brinkley and Nathan Pepper. I know people say that losing one or two players isn't a big deal, but losing Jasper was the worst thing that could have happened to our team. THE WORST. On top of that Nathan being hurt. Check out the stats, our slide started after they got hurt.

In fact, there was only one touchdown scored against us when Jasper was in the game, and that was during the second half of LSU. Remember, he was out for most of the first half, and returned in the second half hurt. SO you could say that with a healthy Jasper in the game, our defense gave up zero touchdowns. That's not a coincidence. And if you are wondering, he was out of the game for ULL's touchdowns and of course we didn't give up any agaisnt UGA or SC State. (both games he played the whole time)
One player can and does make a difference.

Unfortunately, that is the case for us. For other teams like Florida and LSU, they have the depth to overcome those kind of injuries on their football team. Depth is a major factor that has held us back for so long and has led to so many late season collapses and close losses in our history. Spurrier knows this, and I have no doubt he is striving his hardest to solve that problem. The optimistic outlook on it is that if he DOES end up building that solid foundation of players that we need, we have one of the best offensive minds in football on our side.

[crowcutta]

lack of help from the other areas of the team would be another option. the offense didnt really give much help the first half of the season and the 5 game losing streak the defense was put in a big hole every game.
the fumble recoveries that we didnt get in the tennessee and arkansas games werent lack of effort, the first guy was there and should have secured the ball but somehow let it squirt past him 10 yards downfield. maybe its the under armour jerseys.

leading up to the arkansas game we had 3 solid games against the run. north carolina, vandy, and tennessee didnt really hurt us and maybe we got a little more content than we should have. but even at the start of the arkansas game we did a decent job against the run, maybe we got wore down as the game went on or we broke down after giving up some plays.
we put them into two 3rd downs where they passed the ball but couldnt get the stop either time. 7 of mcfadden's first 8 carries went for 3 yards or less. then the infamous forced fumble occurred where we had the first shot at the ball and missed it. felix jones had a loss of 8 yards on the next play then on 2nd and 18 they run it again and at this point guys started making mistakes that allowed big plays to happen.
emmanuel cook came down in the box on the next play to make the tackle on felix jones and missed it, then another couple guys didnt really take the right angle and he scored the 40 yard td. the next drive it was kinda the same thing, i think they were in the wildcat and felix jones went off the left side and we strung it out all the way to the edge then we made the crucial mistake, captain didnt keep contain on the outside and darian stewart and somebody else allowed themselves to be sucked in behind captain effectively taking themselves out of the play and jones was gone again for 72 yards.
there were a few things i would have done differently but i dont think the coaching was ever the biggest problem. we ran into two great offenses and they made us look bad, it happens to even the tenutas, chavis, and pellini's.
1,2,3,5,6

[mjmiller]

Friends and Cocky Talk Colleagues, please weigh in on this question for my edification:


What did in our defense this year?

1. lack of experience (young players)
2. lack of talent (other teams too good for us)
3. lack of size (other teams too big for us)
4. lack of speed (other teams too fast for us)
5. lack of senior leadership (see #1 above)
6. lack of healthy starters (injuries)
7. lack of effort / hustle / heart
8. inadequate coaching as follows:
a. inadequate schemes / allignments overall
b. lack of proper in-game adjustments

Next question: What should SOS do to rectify whichever situation you identify as the main problem?

Please note I am not soliciting any coach-bashing. Please, if you think one person is the problem, express your opinion respectfully toward him and those who love him. I can't make you do this, just asking.

Thanks


#7, plain and simple

[mpilot0705]

One of my friends is really really really really good friends with Cliff Matthews. He and his brother went to Cheraw together and played football and basketball with him. They talk about him coming over for dinner all the time and such. In fact after one of our Thursday games he went back to Cheraw and stayed at their house.

I said that to say this....they told me at the beginning of the year that Cliff was a "gentle giant" and I said greeeeeat. Why was Miami so good back in the day? Why are Florida, Florida St, Georgia, etc good every year. They are mean. Not saying be a thug, but on the field hit someone like you want to hurt them...bad. I'm just saying that we don't play with fire at all. No killer instinct. When we lose I want our players to cry and we we win I want them out at the 50 jumping up and down pumping the crowd up after the game and running and jumping up to the student stands, but I don't know if that will ever happen. I have watched us for years and have never seen that kind of fire from a majority of the team. You need more than one or two players (ie Cory Boyd, Norwood, etc) on each side of the ball, and that's all we have right now. I'm not going to say the players don't care but they need to play with more passion like it matters to them.

[usc91ece]

This defense was not that different than 2005, when Ko Simpson made all tackles except for maybe 3.

[Hopefultiger]

Friends and Cocky Talk Colleagues, please weigh in on this question for my edification:


What did in our defense this year?

1. lack of experience (young players)
2. lack of talent (other teams too good for us)
3. lack of size (other teams too big for us)
4. lack of speed (other teams too fast for us)
5. lack of senior leadership (see #1 above)
6. lack of healthy starters (injuries)
7. lack of effort / hustle / heart
8. inadequate coaching as follows:
a. inadequate schemes / allignments overall
b. lack of proper in-game adjustments

Next question: What should SOS do to rectify whichever situation you identify as the main problem?

Please note I am not soliciting any coach-bashing. Please, if you think one person is the problem, express your opinion respectfully toward him and those who love him. I can't make you do this, just asking.

Thanks

I think your #1 problem wasn't mentioned (althought several options touch on it) USC's number 1 problems was lack of depth on defense. To realistically compete, you have to be 2 deep at EVERY position with little drop off. You also need some people that can come in and play a few downs beyond that. When you don't have this, some of the other problems crop up. An exhausted defense can't put forth the effort they need to (7). You don't think well when you are tired leading to blown assignments especially when you are new to the system (1). It's also hard to talk it up and keep everyone fired up when you are tired(5). Tired people tend to get injured more often b/c you aren't going full speed (6).

If USC had had more depth on defense, you wouldn't have fallen apart.

[smoovecock]

I think your #1 problem wasn't mentioned (althought several options touch on it) USC's number 1 problems was lack of depth on defense. To realistically compete, you have to be 2 deep at EVERY position with little drop off. You also need some people that can come in and play a few downs beyond that. When you don't have this, some of the other problems crop up. An exhausted defense can't put forth the effort they need to (7). You don't think well when you are tired leading to blown assignments especially when you are new to the system (1). It's also hard to talk it up and keep everyone fired up when you are tired(5). Tired people tend to get injured more often b/c you aren't going full speed (6).

If USC had had more depth on defense, you wouldn't have fallen apart......your statements are very true...but by the 3rd qrt of the clemson game we were down to 4 starters......not many teams in the country if any can fill that many holes...maybe half not all...

[crowcutta]

let's detail how the depth was depleted over the year. 3 of the 4 guys in the secondary who started the georgia game werent there at the end of the clemson game. 2 out of the 3 linebackers from that game werent there the end of the year. 2 out of the 4 starters on the d-line werent there. thats a lot of change to endure.

we lost justin lindsey before the season started, had to move nathan pepper from dt to de to shore up that position after the first game since ryan brown was the only upperclassman left at de, lost nathan pepper, had to move casper to de so youre losing casper at lb at the same time.
everybody in the secondary missed at least a game or two except for darian stewart.
some point out that we arent the only team with injuries or youth. iono if anybody can match the devastation of the injuries we suffered but i'll tackle the youth thing. florida is one team that gets brought up. first off their defense wasnt that good this year, their defense didnt have to carry their offense for the 1st half of the year, in fact they had a great offense to take pressure off them, they still had a lot more depth than us, they were never in the position where they had to shuffle as many guys as us, where their guys started the year is pretty much where they ended up and they never lost their best defensive player.
can anyone point out a team that had an injury situation as severe, just as youthful, didnt have much help offensively? just one

[TalkingHead]

Coach Spurrier is probably going to answer this question for us in the next month.

[big cock fan]

I think we will have a very very solid defense next year. With a rotation of ellis, ladi, and hall at dt will be very good by next year.

But the best will be our linebacking core, i really believe we will start jap, paulk, and melvin. I expect really big things from melvin next year. I thought he played very well and very very physical out there it just seemed like at time he was a little hesitant or confused. But he is probably the most physical player we have on our team and he is a freshmen.

With carlos, stoney, captain, and addy all coming back next year we shold have quality depth at that spot. They might not be the best in the nation but they should do the job if our dline can finally get some pressure on the qb.

And then at safety we have what i believe as the best tandem in the sec coming back next year. I think E Cook should of been first team with his play this year.

People forget that even when jap played this year he was already hurt with a high ankle sprain, and i dont know if any of you have ever had a high ankle sprain but man does it hurt and take away soo much of your agility. With him healthy we should be good to go.

Not to put down a player but i said this earlier and got blasted for it but norwood is overated. Take away his two fumbles that fell in his lap and the only thing i remember him doing all year was blocking one punt. we need to find two real DE's for next year. hopefully travian can step it up and take a spot and hopefully pepper will come back healthy.

clifton geathers is someone that i think will be a star next year. somewhere on the dline he is going to cause havoc.

Anyways im just thinking out loud here, you guys have a good day.

..BCF

[Zee]

Unfortunately, that is the case for us. For other teams like Florida and LSU, they have the depth to overcome those kind of injuries on their football team. Depth is a major factor that has held us back for so long and has led to so many late season collapses and close losses in our history. Spurrier knows this, and I have no doubt he is striving his hardest to solve that problem. The optimistic outlook on it is that if he DOES end up building that solid foundation of players that we need, we have one of the best offensive minds in football on our side.

I understand the depth thing but Florida and LSU or most any other team for that matter don't have the type of depth to where they could replace a Jasper Brinkley with another Jasper Brinkley. Losing the best player on your team is bad no matter how you look at it.

[Wazir]

All of the above Period!

[Goofyboy]

1. Couldn't handle misdirection. Too much biting and missing assignments.
2. Getting "sucker blocked." Front 4 took inside or outside routes given them by the other OL, which made it easy to open holes.
3. 2 and 3 rush schemes against good quarterbacks, giving them plenty of time to find receivers, even with 7 in coverage.
4. Nobody in passing lanes with against slant routes.
5. Key injuries (one in particular).
6. Offensive and special teams miscues giving up red zone or points.

[willy]

1,2,6, 8 a&b.


2,6,7.

[poboy]

1, 6, 8,A&B

[gamecock ray]

Most of all injuries killed us. From there we had to shuffle guys around. Also when I saw Kendrick Ellis performance at the end of the year I realized that we may be overlooking some of our most talented guys. We defenitely need more leadership on this team. I just wish that we had a guy who fired everybody up when we started slipping.

[Ga_Gamecock]

1 - We were a young football team on Defense. We return all starters but Casper.

5 - See above.

6 - We lost our best LB, CB, and DL. Our backups were young, so this ties in with 1.


Over, the ultimate factor is #1. If we are lacking heavily in any other areas in 2-8, it will become increasingly evident next year as the youth excuse won't hold as much weight.


couldnt have said it better ... 6 srs on this team. thats very young.

and my biggest concern with 08 was losing jap - now it looks like he coming back. hes an outstanding player and its apparent when hes out of the game. our interior D plays so much better with him in the mix.

having him back - assuming hes at 100% - will be huge next year. couple that with improved strength and conditioning, and

[Spurticus]

It can be debated to death as to what happened and we all know the old saying about Opinions.
But looking at it from all angles, there's no way you can excuse away what this TEAM did this season. Blame it on coaches, Blame it on Players, Blame it on the Chicken Curse if you want to, but we were not a 6-6 football team and should have finished no less than 8-4 !
Reason's can be as little as one thing, or a matter of a whole lot of small things but I personally think our players gave up on the season at mid point and as coach Spurrier said. . . They didn't give a damn.

Youth is a poor excuse when you look at other "young" teams that are going to bowl games this season. We have used the "Young Team" excuse for three years now and we were worse overall this season than in our previous two seasons. There was enough upperclass leadership to support our young guys and that did not lead to a 5 game losing streak at the end of the season.
Pepper went down in the USCS game, and Jap went out against LSU and we played our best defensive game all season against Miss State. A team that ended up with 7 wins and are bowling.
Getting tired is not an excuse for it either. Steve Spurrier made a lot of Spring and fall comments about how this team was hitting the weights and running and personal observation back that up. We were physically stronger and better conditioned than in any of our previous three seasons.

I said this before the season ended and I was ganged up on for it, but this team (especially the defense) showed no heart or effort in any of their games following the first half of the UNC game. We were beaten by a poor Tarheel team in the second half of that game, and were not the same team the remainder of they year.

There's no excuse for losing to Vandy at home or Clemson at home this season if this team has ANY heart in them at all. The UT game was there for the taking but we kept finding ways to give them the game. Same thing with Clemson.
Call it lack of Effort, lack of Heart, Lack of Desire or just Lack of Pride. Whatever it is you call not caring if you win or lose and that I think is what was wrong with this team.

[Championshipcock]

I would have to add number nine and say poor tackling and number 10 would be that we couldn't shed a block to save our lives.

[Flameout12]

Call it lack of Effort, lack of Heart, Lack of Desire or just Lack of Pride. Whatever it is you call not caring if you win or lose and that I think is what was wrong with this team.
I see it as well, but not sure I really noticed it until you brought it to light some after the UK game. The UNC game was the obvious eye-opener.

I equate lack of effort with apathy and I might be wrong, but my suspicion is there's been some internal divisions that has caused this. And I suspect some of our players have lost confidence in some of our coaches.
These are coaching problems that have to be worked out or coaches need to find other jobs.

This was at least an 8-4 team and maybe 9-4 with a bowl win. What's really sad is I'm convinced we had better players than UT and they went to the SEC-C game.

[snoopcockycock]

We were physically stronger and better conditioned than in any of our previous three seasons.
WRONG!!!!! this team may have been better conditioned than the previous teams, but they were not stronger!!!! in fact, i believe that they spent too much time on cardio conditioning, and not nearly enough of pure power lifting. every team that we played, with the exception of msu, pushed us around like we were rag dolls!!! rb's and even qb's ran out of our grasp's. we had great conditioning, but we were not strong. even the little teams pushed us around like we were nothing. we couldn't move a defensive line, all year. our defense got blown off the ball all year long. sorry spurt, but you are wrong about that one.

now, i do think you are on to something, when you mention the heart of that defense, after mid season. but i think that the reason they lost heart, is because of all of the injuries, which kept switching players to different positions, which frustrated them even more, and led to their poor efforts.
when the major injuries were mentioned earlier in this thread, they forgot that we lost e cook for part of several games, and he played hurt for several more games. we also lost stoney, carlos and capt for games as well. put those kind of injuries together with the loss of both linsay boys, jasper and pepper, and you have a recipe for disaster.
we had depth, but the problem was that our depth was even younger than our starters. so it's one thing to have young starters here and there, but a very different thing to have that plus young inexperienced depth as well. you just can't replace that many players.
even lsu's defense looked very pedestrian by the end of the year, compared to the beginning of the season. they also had some key people banged up. you will see the early lsu defense, in the national championship game. they will be healthy for the first time in a long while, and will devour osu, just like they did miami and notre shame.

[Flameout12]

WRONG!!!!! this team may have been better conditioned than the previous teams, but they were not stronger!!!! in fact, i believe that they spent too much time on cardio conditioning, and not nearly enough of pure power lifting. every team that we played, with the exception of msu, pushed us around like we were rag dolls!!! rb's and even qb's ran out of our grasp's. we had great conditioning, but we were not strong. even the little teams pushed us around like we were nothing. we couldn't move a defensive line, all year. our defense got blown off the ball all year long. sorry spurt, but you are wrong about that one.

now, i do think you are on to something, when you mention the heart of that defense, after mid season. but i think that the reason they lost heart, is because of all of the injuries, which kept switching players to different positions, which frustrated them even more, and led to their poor efforts.
when the major injuries were mentioned earlier in this thread, they forgot that we lost e cook for part of several games, and he played hurt for several more games. we also lost stoney, carlos and capt for games as well. put those kind of injuries together with the loss of both linsay boys, jasper and pepper, and you have a recipe for disaster.
we had depth, but the problem was that our depth was even younger than our starters. so it's one thing to have young starters here and there, but a very different thing to have that plus young inexperienced depth as well. you just can't replace that many players.
even lsu's defense looked very pedestrian by the end of the year, compared to the beginning of the season. they also had some key people banged up. you will see the early lsu defense, in the national championship game. they will be healthy for the first time in a long while, and will devour osu, just like they did miami and notre shame.
As usual, I find myself disagreeing with about 95% of what you've posted.
You my friend get my vote as "Sunshine Pumper of the Year". :clap:

[uscnoklahoma]

Well the way I see it.....it's really hard on those 2 defensive lineman to go up against all those Offensive lineman...maybe 5 on 5 would have worked better. :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

[snoopcockycock]

As usual, I find myself disagreeing with about 95% of what you've posted.
You my friend get my vote as "Sunshine Pumper of the Year". :clap:

well trust me flameout, i don't even give your post's the .05% you are giving mine. i've yet to see a rational thought in any of your post's, that i can agree or disagree with. so as usual, i not only find no credible information in your post, but once again it is vague and meaningless. however, i do thank you for the compliment. i will always live with POSITIVE outlooks, rather than running around like "CHICKEN LITTLE"! ya get it?

now, as far as supporting my last post, here is a quote from gogamecocks.com, directly about what coach spurrier said.

" WHERE DO THE GAMECOCKS NEED THE MOST IMPROVEMENT?

That’s an easy one — running the ball and stopping the run. USC was last in the SEC in both categories in 2007, a fact that prompted Spurrier to question the Gamecocks’ strength and toughness along both interior lines."

http://www.gogamecocks.com/index.php/site/daily_article/five_football_
questions_next_in_line

so if you have a problem with my being a "glass half full kind of person", so be it. i liken that to smokers who have problems with nonsmokers, who live healthy happy lives. but when the head coach is saying the same thing, maybe you will be able to agree with him.

finally, i am absolutely fine with you disagreeing with what i say, because that is what makes good debate on the board. but if i can make a request of you for future post's, could you please point out specifically what you disagree with, so I can specifically agree or disagree with your point of view? thanks.