Thoughts On Football

I would think the term “revenge is best when served cold” was either uttered or considered following Greer’s win at Greenville this past Friday night.

Whether Greenville coach Jim Sosbee meant anything more that just “seeking clarification” from the High School League in early August we’ll never know. But the manner in which the whole thing played out made it only fitting that the final chapter was a win by the team that was being called on the carpet for a mundane reason.

At the end of the day, I place the blame for any tension that was built leading into this past Friday’s match-up at the feet of SCHSL Executive Director Jerome Singleton, who grossly violated the privacy of Sosbee and should never have revealed that’s who alerted him about what was happening at the Greer practice.

I call South Carolina’s 10-point win over Wofford a moral loss for obvious reasons. Give credit to Wofford for playing USC tough for the second time in three years but teams like the Gamecocks are supposed to put those like the Terriers away early and then take advantage of the opportunity to get back-ups some much needed playing time.

That Steve Spurrier announced Monday he was conducting tryouts for starting jobs on his offense certainly isn’t what he or USC fans had in mind when he arrived four years ago. The he couldn’t do so within the Wofford game (due to it being a three-point game late) should be considered troubling.

At some point, the coach has to look within and determine if players (particularly quarterbacks) are being developed and placed in the offense’s rotation in the right way. Assuming Stephen Garcia gets the start at QB this Saturday against UAB it will mean South Carolina will have used its third starter at that position in just five games. Granted, there were some injury issues with Tommy Beecher but that kind of rotation likely won’t lend itself to decent continuity for an offense that clearly needs it. Injuries aside, I wonder if anyone else is on such a pace nationally.

The question you have to ask is: what if Garcia struggles? How short of a leash is he on and will Smelley have the credibility to then take things over? If standout wide receiver Kenny McKinley doesn’t return from a bad hamstring this weekend it will make things that much tougher for the offense to get in gear. And Garcia would guide an offense that will be without Mike Davis, who’s suspended for the game. Eric Baker and Brian Maddox have looked solid in recent weeks and may actually have more upside than Davis. But they may inspire a little more confidence had they gotten more snaps in the earlier games, especially Maddox, who didn’t see significant game action until this past Saturday.

Spurrier’s forgotten more about football than you and I will ever know. But it’s September 2008 in a much different situation than he was in September 1998. It’s a different time and different place and it’s confusing view from afar, indeed.