A QUESTION FOR ALL WHO SAY THEY ARE TIRED OF EXCUSES MADE FOR OUR DEFENSE.

[snoopcockycock]

i thought that this might be a good question for the whole board. i have been accused of being a "sunshine pumper", among other things, but honestly would like to know what the members think. i know many of you don't want to hear excuses, so i have a question instead.

can any member name one team, either in the ncaa or the nfl, who could win a championship, after losing their starting "all conference" middle linebacker(with only an undersized olb, or a rookie to fill the position), a starting defensive end( with true freshmen to replace him, or robbing the lb position to fill in), a true freshman (who normally plays de) starting at olb (playing several games with a cast on his hand), losing both of your starting safeties (at one time or another both isaac and cook missed games, and played several other games hurt), your top three cornerbacks (stoney, carlos and capt all missed games due to injury)???

...add to that, the fact that we lost both of the linsay's ( who are proven playmakers), and at one time or another, started two true freshman (adjeboye and ellis) at dt! while a lot of these guys are very talented, they are extremely young and inexperienced. that means that they are going to make a lot of mistakes while trying to learn the system.

i'll be waiting on your answers, but in the mean time, i think some of you should try lightening up on the team. and please, back up your answers with some specific's and facts.

i HATE what happened to the end of our season, but you have to look at the facts, no matter how much they sound like excuses, they are facts! they did happen. and trying to overcome such unjuries not only hurt those positions, but they also hurt other positions that you have to rob from, in order to try to sure up those positions. when you have to put very young and inexperienced players on the field, there are going to be some growing pains. but when you have to put them in positions, that they have never played, or have very little experience with, then that can be frustrating and disasterous. as we saw.
so things that look like excuses on the surface, might actually have some merit.
i would truly like to know what ALL members think about this, if you care to weigh in.

[uscnoklahoma]

New England every year...they win with anyone and any assistants.

[cack]

New England every year...they win with anyone and any assistants.

New England has depth they win with ... if they lose proven players they have backups that can step in and fill that roll with no problem ... thanks for playing next contestant

[snoopcockycock]

well the fact that you had to use the best team in the nfl, proves my point.

however, can you name one year where the pats have lost as many key positions as was listed above, in the same season?
i agree that the pats are very good at plugging in new guys into their system, but they do this in the off-season, and have never had to replace that many players during any season of their championship runs. please be specific in your answers. it's easy to just shout out a team, but that doesn't qualify. tell me who they lost, and who they had to replace them with. that is the only way you can make a true comparison, and thus an intelligent argument.

try again! :thumbsup:

[JAYBEZ]

Its one thing to have injuries on defense...(everyone has them) its an ENTIRELY different thing to have teams RUSH for almost 600 yards on you. Or to have 1200 yards and over hundred points put on you in two games.

The defense is bad. And if you look beyond this year, you will see that we have not been able to stop the run since nix has been here. (Even with all our starters)

Stop calling the injury card. Every team has them!

Hell Florida's defense was just as beat up as ours and they did just fine.

[smoovecock]

No way to over come the rash of injuries we had this year....

[bgallup]

I think your dead on Snoopy, However, Id more people are upset with the last 3 years opposed to just this one. I firmly believe Nix has to make a stand next year or he might be left in the cold. However, I fully agree he deserves next year without ridicule!

[bgallup]

Florida replaced 10 starters this year.

[uscnoklahoma]

New England has depth they win with ... if they lose proven players they have backups that can step in and fill that roll with no problem ... thanks for playing next contestant
He asked...and I answered. Do you guys really want to go down this road...we will only end up looking pathetic in the eyes of others...excuse making that's what we do best.

Yes, injuries hurt us...every team has injuries...great teams deal with it. You adapt to what you have as backups...if that means more toss sweeps to a speedy backup rb then that's what you do...if it means running between the tackles with a brusier back up rb that's what you do. If you lose a great mlb well you adapt....you damn sure don't put more pressure on his back up by going to a 3-3-5 against a running team. But these are just my observations and I have been told I am the dumbest poster on the board. You guys have fun thinking of excuses. It's pathetic that we find excuses every single year. No wonder people laugh at us. Is that hard to say "Hey we sucked this year" and move on.

[Gamecockfanatic4]

Ellis is a redshirt freshman

Great post though

[snoopcockycock]

i totally agree that we have been weak against the run. and it pisses me off just as much as every one of you. believe me. i am NOT a huge nix supporter. and i would like to see some changes as well.
but we brought in some excellent quality on defense last year. and i think we would have been much better this season, had it not been for the injuries.

and jaybez, florida DID NOT have nearly the amount of injuries that we had this season on defense. and they did lose three games this season, which it terrible with the talent they have on that team.
and if you think playing the injury card is bs, then let me remind you of lou's first season, when we lost 18 linemen, and three qb's in that season. do you really think we would have lost all of those games with out those injuries? you might want to check what our record was the very next year, with out those kind of injuries.

[Gamecock Scott]

and if you think playing the injury card is bs, then let me remind you of lou's first season, when we lost 18 linemen, and three qb's in that season. do you really think we would have lost all of those games with out those injuries? you might want to check what our record was the very next year, with out those kind of injuries.

Actually, in 1999, we started 6 different players at quarterback.

[snoopcockycock]

He asked...and I answered. Do you guys really want to go down this road...we will only end up looking pathetic in the eyes of others...excuse making that's what we do best.

first, you did answer, but your answer was wrong! the pat's have never lost that many key players during a championship run! read the entire question!
second, i for one could not care less what others think of me. if you lead your life like that, then you are a slave to society. i try to lead my life as a good person, and the only person i have to answer to, in that end, is me.
third, we are not making excuses, we are just discussing the facts.
fourth, florida replaced those ten starters during the off-season. they did not have to replace all of those key starters during the season. and the last time i checked, florida didn't win the sec championship either.


Actually, in 1999, we started 6 different players at quarterback.
that's true gamecock scott! i stand corrected!

[Gamecock History]

Losing Jasper had NOTHING to do with the fact that we played a 3 man front most of the season, that we tried a gimmick defense with Geathers at Nose Tackle since "he was tall" (according to the coaches) in hopes of disrupting Tebow from the throwing the ball, that Eric Norwood over-pursued more times than not putting him out of position, that none of our defensive ends or linebackers could stop the option, nor was it the reason that McFadden tied an SEC record for rushing yards against us.

Losing Peppers is nothing but an excuse. He had been switched from DT to DE when he got hurt, we had plenty of depth that should have been ready to play instead of having to move him. Peppers is a decent player but you are kidding yourself if you think he would have made a difference in our season.

Ajiboye and Ellis are our 2 best DT's period. They should have been the starters from the first game, not the last game. The fact that they are a freshman and RS freshman and are the best on the team speaks volumes about the other guys at that position.

To blame our collapse on injuries is a joke. The problem was the scheme we were running and the effort/desire being put forth by the players to make plays. Both of those things can be fixed and I think they will be.

[uscnoklahoma]

Losing Jasper had NOTHING to do with the fact that we played a 3 man front most of the season, that we tried a gimmick defense with Geathers at Nose Tackle since "he was tall" (according to the coaches) in hopes of disrupting Tebow from the throwing the ball, that Eric Norwood over-pursued more times than not putting him out of position, that none of our defensive ends or linebackers could stop the option, nor was it the reason that McFadden tied an SEC record for rushing yards against us.

Losing Peppers is nothing but an excuse. He had been switched from DT to DE when he got hurt, we had plenty of depth that should have been ready to play instead of having to move him. Peppers is a decent player but you are kidding yourself if you think he would have made a difference in our season.

Ajiboye and Ellis are our 2 best DT's period. They should have been the starters from the first game, not the last game. The fact that they are a freshman and RS freshman and are the best on the team speaks volumes about the other guys at that position.

To blame our collapse on injuries is a joke. The problem was the scheme we were running and the effort/desire being put forth by the players to make plays. Both of those things can be fixed and I think they will be.

:bow::bow::bow:

You my friend get it...sadly some never will.

[MEGA]

We had some serious injuries this year on defense, they were a big impact on our seasons ending, not saying that is something they could help, just saying IF they had been in the game the entire season, I believe our season would have had a much better ending !! This is college football and there are times when a player goes down , you don't have anybody that is ready to go into the game and do their best, unlike the pros if one goes down there are several others that can pick up where the other one left off and you don't see that much of a loss as you do when you are dealing with players on a college level !!

[cack]

I think your dead on Snoopy, However, Id more people are upset with the last 3 years opposed to just this one. I firmly believe Nix has to make a stand next year or he might be left in the cold. However, I fully agree he deserves next year without ridicule!

agree 100% ... although i may not agree with some of the skeems that were called ... every play has a 50/50 chance of working ... if Tebow throws the ball when we only rushed 2 on the outside ... it would have been a perfect call ... but he ran it up the middle and everyone was too deep by that time so it made Nix look like a goat ...with what we lost this year ... Nix was coaching with Freshmen and back ups ... however these guys have played before ... but going from HS to SEC (not just any conference but the SEC) is a HUGE jump

[Gamecock History]

More than anything it was bad schemes and playcalling. Case in point, the end of the Clemson game. A lot of people say that since Carlos Thomas got hurt and Addison Williams was having to play was the reason Clemson converted the 4th down throwing the slant. But come on, we all know that Carlos would have been 5 yards off of the guy playing him soft and it would have been the same result. The problem was the coverage and the coaching (even Spurrier said so). They should have been in his face bumping him at the line and had a linebacker over there to help cover him. Neither of those things happened and Clemson just hiked the ball and tossed the ball to Kelly as though no one else was even on the field. That play right there shows you how it is not the talent on the field but how they are being managed.

IMO, Spurrier needs to start paying more attention to the defense because he no longer has Bob Stoops on the sidelines with him.

[uscnoklahoma]

More than anything it was bad schemes and playcalling. Case in point, the end of the Clemson game. A lot of people say that since Carlos Thomas got hurt and Addison Williams was having to play was the reason Clemson converted the 4th down throwing the slant. But come on, we all know that Carlos would have been 5 yards off of the guy playing him soft and it would have been the same result. The problem was the coverage and the coaching (even Spurrier said so). They should have been in his face bumping him at the line and had a linebacker over there to help cover him. Neither of those things happened and Clemson just hiked the ball and tossed the ball to Kelly as though no one else was even on the field. That play right there shows you how it is not the talent on the field but how they are being managed.

IMO, Spurrier needs to start paying more attention to the defense because he no longer has Bob Stoops on the sidelines with him.

Man stop it...you're killing them with logic.:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

[Gamecock History]

People want to say it was due to injuries because then no blame has to placed on anyone and we can just keep on pretending that the world is a perfect place and all of our players and coaches are doing the best job they can. But that is not reality and both players and coaches need to be held responsible.

And I don't think it has anything to do with freshman having to play. Why wasn't Woodson (junior) covering Kelly on the play? Or why didn't they put Isaac (senior) in for that one play? All he had to do was cover for one play and even if he had to tackle someone and his shoulder popped out, who cares that one play would have won the game!

Why were the freshman playing instead of all the older players on the team? That is another question to ask. Hall, West, Brown, Sapp, Isaac, Hampton, etc.

[Stillwearingmyjoehat]

I hope in the off season Coach Tyrone Nix learns how to analyze game film. It's obvious he has real problems seeing what an opponent is going to do . . . repeatedly.

Anyone who was suprised Arkansas rushed the ball, Tebow would be a dual threat or Klempsun can complete a short pass really has a hard time justifying a six-figure salary. With the exception of Holliday's performance in Baton Rouge, there wasn't a single offense this year that came out and played some exceptional and unexpected patterns. Carolina's defense, though, was completely unprepared week after week to deal with what anyone who watches CBS or Jefferson Pilot knew was coming.

[McNasty]

i will say injuries killed us horribly. season and timely injuries...

Jasper out for season, lost defensive leader and arguably best player on the team
Captain in the Tennessee game, didn't have him on last drive. also, missed Clemson (and Florida i believe) and having him on Aaron Kelly on that last drive would have helped
Carlos in the Clemson game (same Aaron Kelly situtation)
Pep gone for year so we lost depth at DL, which we could have used
KMac in the Tennessee game
WEB's injury (i believe) cost him to false start a few times (including illegal snaps). he should've been benched because of his elbow to let him heal.

anyone i missed?

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT saying these necessarily cost us the season and made us lose. I am saying that these didn't exactly help us win, and it would have helped to have had these players healthy at the times needed.

[Gamecock History]

i will say injuries killed us horribly. season and timely injuries...

Jasper out for season, lost defensive leader and arguably best player on the team
Captain in the Tennessee game, didn't have him on last drive. also, missed Clemson (and Florida i believe) and having him on Aaron Kelly on that last drive would have helped
Carlos in the Clemson game (same Aaron Kelly situtation)
Pep gone for year so we lost depth at DL, which we could have used
KMac in the Tennessee game
WEB's injury (i believe) cost him to false start a few times (including illegal snaps). he should've been benched because of his elbow to let him heal.

anyone i missed?

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT saying these necessarily cost us the season and made us lose. I am saying that these didn't exactly help us win, and it would have helped to have had these players healthy at the times needed.

Go to any message board and fans from other teams can comprise a list of you just as long or longer for their team. It is football, injuries happen and the staff needs to be prepared to deal with them.

I find it funny that the injury bug is being thrown out there now as an excuse when EVERY week on his call in show Spurrier said that "we are very healthy for this time of year." He is not blaming our collapse on injuries, why should we?

[Spurticus]

i thought that this might be a good question for the whole board. i have been accused of being a "sunshine pumper", among other things, but honestly would like to know what the members think. i know many of you don't want to hear excuses, so i have a question instead.

can any member name one team, either in the ncaa or the nfl, who could win a championship, after losing their starting "all conference" middle linebacker(with only an undersized olb, or a rookie to fill the position), a starting defensive end( with true freshmen to replace him, or robbing the lb position to fill in), a true freshman (who normally plays de) starting at olb (playing several games with a cast on his hand), losing both of your starting safeties (at one time or another both isaac and cook missed games, and played several other games hurt), your top three cornerbacks (stoney, carlos and capt all missed games due to injury)???

...add to that, the fact that we lost both of the linsay's ( who are proven playmakers), and at one time or another, started two true freshman (adjeboye and ellis) at dt! while a lot of these guys are very talented, they are extremely young and inexperienced. that means that they are going to make a lot of mistakes while trying to learn the system.

i'll be waiting on your answers, but in the mean time, i think some of you should try lightening up on the team. and please, back up your answers with some specific's and facts.

i HATE what happened to the end of our season, but you have to look at the facts, no matter how much they sound like excuses, they are facts! they did happen. and trying to overcome such unjuries not only hurt those positions, but they also hurt other positions that you have to rob from, in order to try to sure up those positions. when you have to put very young and inexperienced players on the field, there are going to be some growing pains. but when you have to put them in positions, that they have never played, or have very little experience with, then that can be frustrating and disasterous. as we saw.
so things that look like excuses on the surface, might actually have some merit.
i would truly like to know what ALL members think about this, if you care to weigh in.

I (for one) was not expecting a Championship. Even when we had Jasper Brinkley and Nathan Pepper and the others in the lineup.
If you want to compare Apples to Apples here, Ask how many teams lost key personel and then went on a 5 game losing streak.

Jap and Pepper were not in the lineup when we played our best game of the season against Mississippi State, nor were they in the lineup when we beat sixth ranked Kentucky. If we can beat UK and Miss State with those players out of the lineup, I expect the to AT LEAST be able to win a game against Vanderbilt and a game against Clemson. We were better matched against both of those teams.
You're also going on the assumption that everyone blames soely our Defense for this disaster. This was not the case. The 5 games that we lost were not pinned on the defense, but ON THE ENTIRE TEAM. The offense got on track against UT but it wasn't enough to overcome turnovers and stupid penalties that got us into a 21 point hole. . . . Same thing against Arkansas, and Florida.

At the start of the season, I made the comment that I thought this team was capable of 9-3, and would NOT win the SEC East. I thought Florida would win it. . . . . The problem I had was that after seeing the way we overcame injuries to key people early in the year (Jap, Pepper, E.Cook, Isaac etc. . ) we still played good solid football and was actually progressing from game to game. That's when I said I thought this team was capable of winning 10 or 11 games this year.
We lost no key personel in the Kentucky game, or in the UNC game Or during the Vanderbilt game. . . .so there's no reason for playing that poorly against UNC in the second half of that game, and ABSOLUTELY no reason for the catastrophie against Vandy.
Even with the losses we had early in the season to Jap and Nathan, and later in the season (to Thomas, Isaac, and Munnerlyn . . . ) We should have won the game against Vandy and Clemson and (IMO) UT.

For whatever reason, this team left it's desire to play football in the locker room at halftime in Chapel Hill and have decided the remainder of the season was not worth the effort. . . . . "This team just doesn't give a Damn" ! ~ Coach Steve Spurrier

[FoghornLeghornCock]

Reality is the biggest difference between those teams at the top of the conference in the SEC and those in the middle or bottom is having quality depth. Injuries are going to happen and no doubt some injuries to a few players could hurt a team drastically. To me your thread just highlights the fact that those who looked at our team as being a true contender to win the SEC was just a pipe dream. You could also say LSU had some injuries yet managed to overcome them because of depth. All American DT Dorsey missed some games and played injured most of the season. Their starting QB Matt Jones missed some games and played injured most of the year. Their All-American WR Early Doucet missed most of the season and was never 100% yet they won the SEC. Expecting no injuries to occur is unrealistic in my view and when your backups are a huge difference in teams winning or losing says you probably are a middle to lower tier team who relies on luck to last 12 games with few injuries. Our devastating injury was Jasper Brinkley he was really the only player we had that you could say was a premium player. I think in some ways this is having it both ways our team is made of young inexperienced players who we expect to be better than other teams who were higher rated and experienced players. I think the problem is some over value potential and ignore experience and depth of the competition. We had some players miss a few games or play injured we had only a few miss the entire season and most of those players were average at best. I guess this to me points out how some get all excited about potential and ignore the success or failure of the previous season of your team and the opponents in picking the winner. At this point in time we have problems runnning the ball and stopping the run and just lost our best running back. Our record won't improve without fixing these problems.

[McNasty]

Go to any message board and fans from other teams can comprise a list of you just as long or longer for their team. It is football, injuries happen and the staff needs to be prepared to deal with them.

I find it funny that the injury bug is being thrown out there now as an excuse when EVERY week on his call in show Spurrier said that "we are very healthy for this time of year." He is not blaming our collapse on injuries, why should we?

yeah, i know that. did you not read what i said at the end of my post? i said that i'm not saying this is why we lost. it would have helped, but didn't cost us losses. the only one i would say that for is Carlos' injury at the end of the Clemson game. we had a true freshman on Aaron Kelly.

other than that, no, it's not an excuse. read the whole post and understand it before you imply i'm making excuses.

[ertman420]

He asked...and I answered. Do you guys really want to go down this road...we will only end up looking pathetic in the eyes of others...excuse making that's what we do best.

Yes, injuries hurt us...every team has injuries...great teams deal with it. You adapt to what you have as backups...if that means more toss sweeps to a speedy backup rb then that's what you do...if it means running between the tackles with a brusier back up rb that's what you do. If you lose a great mlb well you adapt....you damn sure don't put more pressure on his back up by going to a 3-3-5 against a running team. But these are just my observations and I have been told I am the dumbest poster on the board. You guys have fun thinking of excuses. It's pathetic that we find excuses every single year. No wonder people laugh at us. Is that hard to say "Hey we sucked this year" and move on.

The whole problem with our entire team this year was not motivation, it was not injuries, it wasn't even the fact that we were very young. The problem is that we DON'T adapt. We go in with a defined gameplan and we stick to it. Did any of y'all see the Giants play the Eagles earlier this year? The Eagles' starting left tackle was injured, and a rookie came in (Winston Justice from USC-West) and Osi Umenyora (sp???) just blew by him over and over and over. The Giants ended up with 12 sacks beacuse the Eagles' coaches did absolutely nothing to get Justice some help on the left side. He was getting completely dominated the entire game, yet the coaches refused to make any adjustments despite the fact that he was getting pancaked on virtually every play. This is exactly what I see from our coaching staff recently... we did a great job as far as coming up with a gameplan to win each and every game before it started. What we did poorly at was making adjustments DURING the game to address what our opponents were doing.

So many people have questioned the effort (including myself on one occasion) the talent, or the experience of our defensive players this year. I refuse to believe that we can't hold a team to LESS than 500+ rushing yards in a single game with the talent we have on D. That crap kept happening over and over because we didn't make any defensive adjustments whatsoever. Ditto for the Florida game, they ran the same play over and over and over and we did nothing to adapt. We kept running the same defense and we kept getting burned.

I truly believe that Nix is an extremely talented coach, and I don't think I need to say anything about Spurrier, who is obviously one of the best coaches in the game. I'm not calling for any coach's head, and I'm not saying that any individual player could have tried harder or anything like that. All I'm saying is that if you want to know why we gave up 1200 yards and 100 points in two games, look no further than the complete absence of in-game adjustments on defense. We've got depth and talent at virtually every defenisve position (I do hate that we didn't have anyone other than little 5'9" Addison Williams to guard kelly late in the Clemson game). Overall, we have an excellent staff, and a lot of very talented young players. I honestly can't say that I have a quick fix for our defense. I have faith in our coaches and in our players that we will do better next year, I just think we have to put more emphasis on in-game adjustments instead of sticking to a predetermined gameplan so much.

:woo:

[snoopcockycock]

no one here is blaming everything on the injuries. we are simply saying that the injuries played a big part.
also, when peppers was moved to de, we seemed to be playing a much more solid defense. so you can say what you want, bujt having that kind of size out there worked!
so history, since you claim to know more than nix about running a defense in the sec, with all of many different facets that go into that, why aren't you our defensive coordinator? sounds like you are more qualified! we should have hired you!!!!! damn!!!! what is it that you do for a living? oh, you're not a defensive coordinator, getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, to do it? oh sorry, i mistook you for an expert...
i also do not think that all of schemes were the right ones, but you or i neither one know all of the facts surrounding why they did what they did. we only know what they allow the media to report. there could have been a thousand reasons why they did what they did. also, you might want to remember that not only was carlos out at the end of that game, but so was capt!!!!! if you can't understand that that affected the outcome, then i can't help you.

i asked a simple question to start this thread, and no one has given a correct answer, yet. that speaks volumes! i do not believe that the injuries were the sole reason for our total meltdown, but they definitely were a large part of the equation. when young players are having to play out of position, and they continue to make mistakes, that not only allows the other team to take advantage of it, but it frustrates the young players into losing their ultimate will to compete. which, in my opinion, is why they looked like they didn't care at times. there is not a team in the nation who could have lost that many KEY players, and still have won a championship. my point was to defend sos's statement that we were ready to "CHALLENGE\COMPETE" for the sec east title. i'm not saying that we would have won it, but with out those injuries, our challenge for the sec east was legit, and so was sos's statement!

[Gamecock History]

no one here is blaming everything on the injuries. we are simply saying that the injuries played a big part.
also, when peppers was moved to de, we seemed to be playing a much more solid defense. so you can say what you want, bujt having that kind of size out there worked!
so history, since you claim to know more than nix about running a defense in the sec, with all of many different facets that go into that, why aren't you our defensive coordinator? sounds like you are more qualified! we should have hired you!!!!! damn!!!! what is it that you do for a living? oh, you're not a defensive coordinator, getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, to do it? oh sorry, i mistook you for an expert...
i also do not think that all of schemes were the right ones, but you or i neither one know all of the facts surrounding why they did what they did. we only know what they allow the media to report. there could have been a thousand reasons why they did what they did. also, you might want to remember that not only was carlos out at the end of that game, but so was capt!!!!! if you can't understand that that affected the outcome, then i can't help you.

Hmmm, well I am glad that you took time away from your job at ESPN as a football analyst to inform us that injuries played a big part in our losses.
It works both ways my friend. If you can tell me that injuries was the key, I can rebut that and tell you that schemes and effort were the reasons. Neither of us are coaches or analysts so I don't get your point about me not being a coach.

Yes, having Peppers at DE with some size did help. So why in the hell didn't the coaches put the following lineup on the field:
DE: Marque Hall
DT: Ajiboye
DT: Ellis
DE: Jonathan Williams
OLB: Norwood
MLB: Casper Brinkley
OLB: E. Cook
CB: Thomas/Woodson
CB: Munnerlyn
FS: Stewart/Woodson/Isaac
SS: Cody Wells/Hampton/Woodson

We absolutely were playing better with 4 down linemen with some size. So why did we switch to a 3 man front with Norwood playing from a linebacker position? Why did we play a 3 man front against Florida with Geathers at DT? It was not due to injuries, we had players, the coaches didn't adjust their game plans properly and Spurrier has admitted that!

[Gamecock History]

my point was to defend sos's statement that we were ready to "CHALLENGE\COMPETE" for the sec east title. i'm not saying that we would have won it, but with out those injuries, our challenge for the sec east was legit, and so was sos's statement!

Straight from the horses mouth:

Spurrier acknowledged Sunday during his final teleconference of the season that his decision to platoon Chris Smelley and Blake Mitchell in the Vanderbilt game was a poor one. The strategy to work both QB's into the lineup backfired, as USC suffered through its worst offensive performance of the season against the Commodores. Spurrier now wishes he had stuck with Smelley.

"We've learned some humility around here, I've learned some," Spurrier said. "I think the whole team has learned some. We won our last three (games) last year. We lost our last five this year. In the last game, we were a better call offensively, a better call defensively and some better execution from being 7-5, the same record we had last year. But we didn't do it." Where does he mention injuries?

"We think we still have a bright future ahead here," Spurrier said. "But we have a lot of things we have to get better at if we're going to be a challenging team in the SEC. We're not that far off. We have to become a stronger team next year."

"Our attitude stinks right now. Our attitude is pretty sorry," Spurrier said. "I've mentioned that. As a team, we don't perform at a real high intense level. We make changes all the time around here. But so far we really don't know how to compete at a really high level. It's my responsibility as a head coach. We're still trying to train our players to do that."

"We weren't strong enough this year," Spurrier said. "We thought maybe we were when the ball was bouncing our way and we beat Georgia and had some good wins over Kentucky and Mississippi State. We haven't performed very well since then. So, I never said we were going to win. I just said if we were in position, hopefully we'll have a goal to win it. But, obviously, we're not close to being ready this year to compete for the SEC."

[snoopcockycock]

:lol:i like the espn analyst comment!!!! nice reply.


but, the reason i brought up the coaching comment wasn't to defend the points you made against me, it was meant to apply to your bashing of nix!
still, it all good.

and i want to remind you, that i didn't say, at any time, that the injuries were the sole reason why we had the collapse. i started by just asking some one to show me where a team won a championship with that many key injuries, not that those injuries were the only key to the meltdown. and as i stated earlier, i did it in defense to the attacks of sos saying we could challenge for the sec championship.

i totally agree with your questions of why nix switched to the three man front, when the bigger four man front started to work. those are legit questions, and one's that i asked myself, during the season.
but, the injuries also played a part in his doing that as well. you have to admit, that if we didn't have those key injuries, he would not have been screwing around with the scheme, in the first place.
finally, i think that most of you who think the injuries are just an excuse, are forgetting about the amount of progress that would have been made, if we had all of these guys healthy throughout the season. our team has made huge improvements as the season went by, each of the last two years, prior to this season. with that many key injuries, and all of the young guys playing out of position, it was inevitable that it would all fall apart.

[USCfanlivingnKY]

Its one thing to have injuries on defense...(everyone has them) its an ENTIRELY different thing to have teams RUSH for almost 600 yards on you. Or to have 1200 yards and over hundred points put on you in two games.

The defense is bad. And if you look beyond this year, you will see that we have not been able to stop the run since nix has been here. (Even with all our starters)

Stop calling the injury card. Every team has them!

Hell Florida's defense was just as beat up as ours and they did just fine.

EXACTAMUNDO!!!! Our defense stunk before Jasper went down. We have the players. Just not the coaching. Same can be said for O-Line. Good players -- poor coaching.

[TalkingHead]

IMO, Spurrier needs to start paying more attention to the defense because he no longer has Bob Stoops on the sidelines with him.

The most important statement in this whole thread.

[Lamont Cranston]

For all the Nix boosters, he is absolutely the bee's knees and it does not matter if we give up 100 or 600 yards rushing a game... we just need our offense to average about 60 points a game and look out:football:

[JAYBEZ]

:lol:i like the espn analyst comment!!!! nice reply.


but, the reason i brought up the coaching comment wasn't to defend the points you made against me, it was meant to apply to your bashing of nix!
still, it all good.

and i want to remind you, that i didn't say, at any time, that the injuries were the sole reason why we had the collapse. i started by just asking some one to show me where a team won a championship with that many key injuries, not that those injuries were the only key to the meltdown. and as i stated earlier, i did it in defense to the attacks of sos saying we could challenge for the sec championship.

i totally agree with your questions of why nix switched to the three man front, when the bigger four man front started to work. those are legit questions, and one's that i asked myself, during the season.
but, the injuries also played a part in his doing that as well. you have to admit, that if we didn't have those key injuries, he would not have been screwing around with the scheme, in the first place.
finally, i think that most of you who think the injuries are just an excuse, are forgetting about the amount of progress that would have been made, if we had all of these guys healthy throughout the season. our team has made huge improvements as the season went by, each of the last two years, prior to this season. with that many key injuries, and all of the young guys playing out of position, it was inevitable that it would all fall apart.


Have you ever thought about being a DB? With all those Backpeddling skills you could really be a good cover corner.

Just saying.

[jstrom]

New England has depth they win with ... if they lose proven players they have backups that can step in and fill that roll with no problem ... thanks for playing next contestant

Moss goes down they have at least 2 losses so far...this past week and vs Philly. Give the Pats EVERYBODY on their team at their best, let Brady go down and you'd be (game over.)

[snoopcockycock]

Have you ever thought about being a DB? With all those Backpeddling skills you could really be a good cover corner.

Just saying.
show me one sentence where i back peddled, FROM MY ORIGINAL STATEMENTS. i haven't back peddled at all. i still believe that all of the key injuries that we had on defense are a major factor in the poor second half of our season. i said that from the beginning. I NEVER SAID THAT IT WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT, OR THE ONLY REASON. but it did play a big part.

i was just as pissed about some of the scheme's, as anyone else here. but that wasn't what this thread was all about. i asked a simple question and nobody was able to give a correct answer to it. because there is no correct answer to it. injuries do matter!!!!! they aren't excuses, they are facts! so get your facts straight before you post!

[willy]

NM.

[Spur]

Have you ever thought about being a DB? With all those Backpeddling skills you could really be a good cover corner.

Just saying.
:rotfl:

[roosterrizk1]

The difference between injuries is who was actually injured. We had KEY PLAYERS with season ending injuries, not just a roll player who starts. Brinkley and Peppers were KEY PLAYERS, that is the difference. I mean Paulk is a starter but a season ending injury to him would not have hurt as bad as losing Brinkley. A man can survive without a arm or leg but take his heart out and he is dead. The injuries to us were to players that COULD NOT be replaced by backups. I think Peppers was the last DT we needed out. Our impact players on Defense were the ones that we lost, were not talking about roll players here. Not trying to make excuses they still could have played better but these weren't just average Joe's we lost - not on our Team anyhow.

[Flameout12]

show me one sentence where i back peddled, FROM MY ORIGINAL STATEMENTS. i haven't back peddled at all. i still believe that all of the key injuries that we had on defense are a major factor in the poor second half of our season. i said that from the beginning. I NEVER SAID THAT IT WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT, OR THE ONLY REASON. but it did play a big part.

i was just as pissed about some of the scheme's, as anyone else here. but that wasn't what this thread was all about. i asked a simple question and nobody was able to give a correct answer to it. because there is no correct answer to it. injuries do matter!!!!! they aren't excuses, they are facts! so get your facts straight before you post!
http://www.sunshinepump.net/logo/sp_logo_text_faded.jpg

[crowcutta]

The 5 games that we lost were not pinned on the defense, but ON THE ENTIRE TEAM. the problem is a whole bunch here seem to take out most of their posting time to blame the defense. yes guys we should have been able to beat vandy, tennessee, and clemson without jasper and pepper. and for the guys making that statement as one more reason to bash the defense, try and remember those losses werent the defense's fault.

we switched to a 3-4 because i think tyrone was trying to put norwood and cook in the best position to make plays. plus take into account that in our 3-4 we've got two guys at olb who would be playing de in our old 4-3. running a 4-3 vs lsu and getting ran over didnt make much difference in the run defense.


Yes, having Peppers at DE with some size did help. So why in the hell didn't the coaches put the following lineup on the field:
DE: Marque Hall
DT: Ajiboye
DT: Ellis
DE: Jonathan Williams
OLB: Norwood
MLB: Casper Brinkley
OLB: E. Cook
CB: Thomas/Woodson
CB: Munnerlyn
FS: Stewart/Woodson/Isaac
SS: Cody Wells/Hampton/Woodson

youve mentioned these moves before, but during the middle of the season?

[roosterrizk1]

Very true !!! Florida and Arky made allot of D's look bad. I remember Mac Daddy from Arky shredding through a LSU Defense like swiss cheese.

[CockynTN]

i thought that this might be a good question for the whole board. i have been accused of being a "sunshine pumper", among other things, but honestly would like to know what the members think. i know many of you don't want to hear excuses, so i have a question instead.

can any member name one team, either in the ncaa or the nfl, who could win a championship, after losing their starting "all conference" middle linebacker(with only an undersized olb, or a rookie to fill the position), a starting defensive end( with true freshmen to replace him, or robbing the lb position to fill in), a true freshman (who normally plays de) starting at olb (playing several games with a cast on his hand), losing both of your starting safeties (at one time or another both isaac and cook missed games, and played several other games hurt), your top three cornerbacks (stoney, carlos and capt all missed games due to injury)???

...add to that, the fact that we lost both of the linsay's ( who are proven playmakers), and at one time or another, started two true freshman (adjeboye and ellis) at dt! while a lot of these guys are very talented, they are extremely young and inexperienced. that means that they are going to make a lot of mistakes while trying to learn the system.

i'll be waiting on your answers, but in the mean time, i think some of you should try lightening up on the team. and please, back up your answers with some specific's and facts.

i HATE what happened to the end of our season, but you have to look at the facts, no matter how much they sound like excuses, they are facts! they did happen. and trying to overcome such unjuries not only hurt those positions, but they also hurt other positions that you have to rob from, in order to try to sure up those positions. when you have to put very young and inexperienced players on the field, there are going to be some growing pains. but when you have to put them in positions, that they have never played, or have very little experience with, then that can be frustrating and disasterous. as we saw.
so things that look like excuses on the surface, might actually have some merit.
i would truly like to know what ALL members think about this, if you care to weigh in.
Be that as it may, giving up over 1,000 total yards in two games is inexcusable. Losing 5 in a row is inexcusable. Losing to Vanderbilt at home is inexcusable.

[Spurticus]

the problem is a whole bunch here seem to take out most of their posting time to blame the defense. yes guys we should have been able to beat vandy, tennessee, and clemson without jasper and pepper. and for the guys making that statement as one more reason to bash the defense, try and remember those losses werent the defense's fault.

My Point Exactly. . . . .And the source of my threads and my frustration during the season !

This was a Team Collapse. I would disagree (somewhat) that the Tennessee game could not be blamed on the Defense. I agree that it was some early game offensive mistakes and turnovers that dug us a hole, but when the offense got cranked up, had the defense been able to make one stop, or recovered the fumble they had surrounded. . . . We would have won that one. But overall it's a picture of our downhill slide.

Main thing is that early in the season, our Defense (shakey, but good enough) kept us in games that our offense couldn't seem to put away.
Since the Vandy game, our offense was doing what needed to be done to win the games, but our Special Teams and Defense did NOTHING to help them.
The Clemson game was a mixture of all facets of the team doing the wrong thing at the most critical moments in the game to combine for the loss. Thus my statements during the season that we simply found ways to give games to our opponents.

[superstar90]

In regards to injuries and overcoming them. DEPTH!!!!!!! That's the only answer you need there. Injuries, lack of depth, and yes, coaching was the downfall to this past season. A little combo of them all ended up getting to us. It would have gotten to most teams when you finish w/ ut, ark, uf, and cu.

[Gamecock History]

youve mentioned these moves before, but during the middle of the season?

We moved Peppers from DT to DE during the season. We moved Norwood to a hybrid DE/LB position in a 3 man front during the season. We put E. Cook in a hybrid S/LB spot during the season. We put Geathers at DT for one game during the season. We made a ton of adjustments during the season but most of them were not the obvious ones that we all wanted. We NEEDED more beef on the D-Line, not less. Why go to a 3 man front, why not slide some of the big guys over to DE for a powerful 4 man front and allow E. Cook, Norwood, and Casper Brinkely the ability to make some plays from the linebacker positions?

[AtlGAMECOCK]

look at what happened to all the teams that lost one guy we lost several.Ou, wv,sc.just a couple of the top of my head that lost one guy for one game and lost that game .

[crowcutta]

My Point Exactly. . . . .And the source of my threads and my frustration during the season !

This was a Team Collapse. I would disagree (somewhat) that the Tennessee game could not be blamed on the Defense. I agree that it was some early game offensive mistakes and turnovers that dug us a hole, but when the offense got cranked up, had the defense been able to make one stop, or recovered the fumble they had surrounded. . . . We would have won that one. But overall it's a picture of our downhill slide.

we played great on defense in the tennesse game, their 317 total yards was their lowest output of the season. our vaunted run defense held them to 101 yards on 28 carries. and remember they started that drive to send it to overtime at the 50. the fumble we didnt recover, the missed fg by them saved by a false start, the dropped snap in overtime, succop missing what should be a chipshot by his standards. bad luck or indicative of a team finding ways to lose.

our defense playing well enough to win, we come out in the first half and play horrible on offense and special teams. our offense plays well enough to win our, defense plays horrible. you can also look at it as not making mistakes and making plays. during our 6-1 start we largely avoided making mistakes and we made the big plays to win games and overcome our inconsistent or imperfect play. our run d not being so good at times, our offense disappearing at times were made up for by us forcing two fumbles against kentucky and getting two td's off of them. norwood making a huge sack on 4th down against georgia. after the 6-1 start our inconsistencies remained but we no longer made plays or took care of the football.

arkansas game we didnt have any turnovers we just got whooped on defense but even in that game, there were plays to be made that we didnt make that led to td's, the mcfadden fumble we didnt recover turned into a felix jones td run to break the game open. the trick play where our safety let's the wr run past him free. carlos not making a play on the mcfadden hb pass td.
14 turnovers in the other 4 games of the 5 game losing streak. 7 turnovers forced during the game 5 game losing streak. you switch those numbers around and we probably win at least 3 of those 5 games, but you combine that with our inconsistent play that you brought up after the kentucky game and you have our final result to the season.

[Flameout12]

Straight from the horses mouth:

Spurrier acknowledged Sunday during his final teleconference of the season that his decision to platoon Chris Smelley and Blake Mitchell in the Vanderbilt game was a poor one. The strategy to work both QB's into the lineup backfired, as USC suffered through its worst offensive performance of the season against the Commodores. Spurrier now wishes he had stuck with Smelley.

"We've learned some humility around here, I've learned some," Spurrier said. "I think the whole team has learned some. We won our last three (games) last year. We lost our last five this year. In the last game, we were a better call offensively, a better call defensively and some better execution from being 7-5, the same record we had last year. But we didn't do it." Where does he mention injuries?

"We think we still have a bright future ahead here," Spurrier said. "But we have a lot of things we have to get better at if we're going to be a challenging team in the SEC. We're not that far off. We have to become a stronger team next year."

"Our attitude stinks right now. Our attitude is pretty sorry," Spurrier said. "I've mentioned that. As a team, we don't perform at a real high intense level. We make changes all the time around here. But so far we really don't know how to compete at a really high level. It's my responsibility as a head coach. We're still trying to train our players to do that."

"We weren't strong enough this year," Spurrier said. "We thought maybe we were when the ball was bouncing our way and we beat Georgia and had some good wins over Kentucky and Mississippi State. We haven't performed very well since then. So, I never said we were going to win. I just said if we were in position, hopefully we'll have a goal to win it. But, obviously, we're not close to being ready this year to compete for the SEC."
Interesting...here you have posted a capsule of why Carolina just went 6-6 straight from the HBC including no BS, no spin & no excuses.
If there ever was a set of statements that could bring closure to any debate about this current topic of discussion, this is it.

I wonder if some of our fellow posters even read what you posted? Seems if God the Almighty himself told some people something that they didn't agree with, they'd still continue to disagree and agrue about it.
:roll:

[Sharky]

If the Patriots don't count, then we may as well not answer.

I do agree that you can't win a championship with as many injuries as we had, but injuries are not an excuse for the pathetic performances against Arkansas and Florida. I didn't expect to win those games, but that was just plain embarrassing. So our 2nd and 3rd teamers are not better than a small school that gets those numbers put up on them by SEC schools? I agree we have youth and injuries, but we should NEVER give up those kind of yards!

Also, why is it that other bigtime schools can plug in young players and have success, yet our guys look inexperienced and confused?

Why is it that we also dismiss the LA Laf game? We had our starters for that one. Last time I checked, that one counted. What was the excuse for that one?

I'm not trying to be critical, but this argument is one sided. You are omitting parts of the argument. As far as the GA game, we got them early, Stafford was still a bit shaky and they didn't discover Moreno until the 2nd half. That guy lit us up when he was in the game.

[Sharky]

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: Have you ever thought about being a DB? With all those Backpeddling skills you could really be a good cover corner.

Just saying.

[crowcutta]

Why is it that we also dismiss the LA Laf game? We had our starters for that one. Last time I checked, that one counted. What was the excuse for that one?

I'm not trying to be critical, but this argument is one sided. You are omitting parts of the argument. As far as the GA game, we got them early, Stafford was still a bit shaky and they didn't discover Moreno until the 2nd half. That guy lit us up when he was in the game.
i dismiss the ul laf game because it was the opener, we were without emmanuel cook, and we made changes the next week and looked a lot better. yes we got georgia early, stafford wasnt shaky against oklahoma st the week earlier. moreno got one big run on us to open up the 2nd half, sure he only got 14 carries against us but half of his yardage came on one run. he wasnt gashing us

[cockman97]

i thought that this might be a good question for the whole board. i have been accused of being a "sunshine pumper", among other things, but honestly would like to know what the members think. i know many of you don't want to hear excuses, so i have a question instead.

can any member name one team, either in the ncaa or the nfl, who could win a championship, after losing their starting "all conference" middle linebacker(with only an undersized olb, or a rookie to fill the position), a starting defensive end( with true freshmen to replace him, or robbing the lb position to fill in), a true freshman (who normally plays de) starting at olb (playing several games with a cast on his hand), losing both of your starting safeties (at one time or another both isaac and cook missed games, and played several other games hurt), your top three cornerbacks (stoney, carlos and capt all missed games due to injury)???

...add to that, the fact that we lost both of the linsay's ( who are proven playmakers), and at one time or another, started two true freshman (adjeboye and ellis) at dt! while a lot of these guys are very talented, they are extremely young and inexperienced. that means that they are going to make a lot of mistakes while trying to learn the system.

i'll be waiting on your answers, but in the mean time, i think some of you should try lightening up on the team. and please, back up your answers with some specific's and facts.

i HATE what happened to the end of our season, but you have to look at the facts, no matter how much they sound like excuses, they are facts! they did happen. and trying to overcome such unjuries not only hurt those positions, but they also hurt other positions that you have to rob from, in order to try to sure up those positions. when you have to put very young and inexperienced players on the field, there are going to be some growing pains. but when you have to put them in positions, that they have never played, or have very little experience with, then that can be frustrating and disasterous. as we saw.
so things that look like excuses on the surface, might actually have some merit.
i would truly like to know what ALL members think about this, if you care to weigh in.

Snoop I hear what your sayin, La La La injuries. But I wasnt lookin for a championship. I was lookin for 1 win so we could go bowlin. We dont have the depth, I understand that. But we didnt have the heart in alot of very winnable games. Bash me if you like.

[Sharky]

i dismiss the ul laf game because it was the opener, we were without emmanuel cook, and we made changes the next week and looked a lot better. yes we got georgia early, stafford wasnt shaky against oklahoma st the week earlier. moreno got one big run on us to open up the 2nd half, sure he only got 14 carries against us but half of his yardage came on one run. he wasnt gashing us

Moreno had 1o4 yards on 14 carries! He didn't come in until later into the game. Stafford threw the ball 45 times. Imagine if Richt had not been so bent on passing and kept running. We couldn't stop Moreno and if we played them healthy right now, he'd be a heisman candidate.

It's been stated before, why pass when you can run over us? Georgia played us early and didn't realize this one. Even still, they got their yards. I'm sure they'd love to have that game back.

[crowcutta]

Moreno had 1o4 yards on 14 carries! He didn't come in until later into the game. Stafford threw the ball 45 times. Imagine if Richt had not been so bent on passing and kept running. We couldn't stop Moreno and if we played them healthy right now, he'd be a heisman candidate.

It's been stated before, why pass when you can run over us? Georgia played us early and didn't realize this one. Even still, they got their yards. I'm sure they'd love to have that game back.
i know what his stats were, read what i said once again, he got nearly half his yards against us on one run. another thing you guys are failing to realize about that game is georgia was behind the whole game. im sure if we let them block a punt or commit a dumb turnover in our own territory so theyre up 14-0 that they would have ran every play and not threw a single pass.

georgia ran the ball 8 times in the first quarter, one run gained over 3 yards. that included 3 runs by moreno none of which gained over 3 yards. another thing in that game we kept them in bad field position

[Count Cockula]

New England every year...they win with anyone and any assistants. Patsies win by video-taping other teams calls all year

[Will4144]

No one can do it. Even the deepest team in all of college football (Southern Cal) struggles with a few defensive pieces injured this year.

[CockynTN]

No one can do it. Even the deepest team in all of college football (Southern Cal) struggles with a few defensive pieces injured this year.
LSU did it without a healthy Glenn Dorsey down the stretch, Early Doucet for a majority of the year, and Glenn Dorsey for the entire SEC Championship Game, as well as Trindon Holliday, Keiland Williams, and Early Doucet in the 4th Quarter.

[cockpit7]

Yes we had our injuries but so did a lot of other teams. Something happened in the second half of the north carolina game that started our downward spiral, what that was only the players know. But as far as I am concerned our coaching has to be way better if we are to compete for the SEC. Thats ALL the coaches. :swingcoc::kill:

[willy]

Yes we had our injuries but so did a lot of other teams. Something happened in the second half of the north carolina game that started our downward spiral, what that was only the players know. But as far as I am concerned our coaching has to be way better if we are to compete for the SEC. Thats ALL the coaches. :swingcoc::kill:



I totally agree cockpit7, but we will probably both get banned for stating our opinion.

:clap: :clap: :clap: