SEC West Preview

Once again it's preview time, folks. Tonight I will feature the SEC West, a division that South Carolina has had even less success against than its own. Yes, it was necessary to say that. This division is one of the most intriguing in all of college football this year. How will LSU fare after losing so much offensive talent, including heir apparent Ryan Perrilouix(there's still time to win those 4 Heismans)? Will Auburn adapt to their new spread option offense? Will Sly Croom finally get Miss. St. back to respectibility? Will all of Alabama's players get arrested this year? Will Bobby Petrino still be Arkansas' coach in October? Why the f#*k did Ole Miss ever fire David Cutcliffe? The answers, in my estimation, are: well, yes, yes, yes, no, and good ol' fashioned SEC1013. I don't expect any of these teams to win a national title, or even a conference title for that matter. But I do think all 6 will make a run at a bowl bid. It is the deeper of the 2 divisions in the SEC, while the East is more loaded at the top.

Predicted Order of Finish:
1. LSU
2. Auburn
3. Mississippi State
4. Alabama
5. Ole Miss
6. Arkansas

LSU: You've all heard the phrase "defense wins championships." Well, that's a load of crap. But LSU is loaded for bear on that side of the ball this year. Les Miles has recruited extremely well during his short tenure in BR, and he has the horses to stop opponents from scoring a bunch. The real question is whether or not he has the ones needed to score a bunch. Forget the Perrilouix situation, LSU is better off without him. But nobody knows what to expect at quarterback now, so that could go any number of ways. With the other offensive weapons they have, it shouldn't take much more than a game manager under center, someone who keeps the mistakes to a minimum. I don't think LSU wins the division outright by any means, but with so many unknowns going into the year for everyone, it's hard to pick against them. Season Outlook: 10-2

Auburn: The other Tigers have just as much of an opportunity to play in the SECCG as those of the bengal persuasion. My concern with Auburn is that the spread offense may not take immediately. They did very well against Clemson in the Peach Bowl, all things considered. If they can carry that momentum over into this season, don't be surprised at all if Auburn wins the West. My main hope for them is that their OL stops intentionally hurting defensive tackles on opposing teams. As far as defense is concerned, they are much like VT, in that they are constantly loaded with fast, athletic, bone-crushers. It will be interesting to see how they handle losing Will Muschamp to Texas(Texas sucks). That guy was a human fireball, and he had to have been fun to play for. I think that's it on Auburn. Season Outlook: 9-3

Mississippi State: How great is it to see Coach Croom building a solid program out in Starkville? The answer, is very great. It's a good thing MSU stuck by him through the first couple of years. Lord knows most of their fans wanted to run him out on a rail, most likely because he was black. But, we're talking about Mississippi here, so what can you expect? Am I right or what? People in Mississippi are so damn stupid. I heard that most of the people from there have never even ridden in a car. I do know one girl from Mississippi though, and she seems pretty smart.....smart enough to leave. OH! Seriously though, I would never go to Mississippi. Season Outlook: 7-5

Alabama: Unlike most of the national media, I am not buying the Bama is back hype. In fact, I suspect they won't be any better than they were last season, and they might be worse. Clemson is going to wear their crimson asses out to start the season. Their quarterback sucks. Their running back wouldn't see the field for us. Their WRs all graduated. Julio Jones is a stud, but it won't show in his first game at the college level. They do have an awesome OL, anchored by 2 potential first round draft picks. On defense they are pretty thin along the DL. They've had 12 linebackers arrested since the end of last season. The secondary is good, but again, thin. This team lost to UL-Monroe last year.......at home. Coach Saban compared it to the bombing at Pearl Harbor. And that, well that's just funny. Bama is still 2 years away from making a serious run at the division title. Season Outlook: 6-6

Ole Miss: Cutcliffe was a good coach. Orgeron was a good recruiter. Now let's see if Houston Nutt can put it all together. I like Ole Miss to surprise some teams this year. I don't know if they'll win a whole bunch of games, but I think they will make opposing teams earn it on the field. I know they have a franchise tackle in Michael Oher, but that's about it. If they stay healthy and get a few balls to bounce their way, I could see this team finishing as high as third in the West, and I'm basing that on absolutely nothing. Season Outlook: 6-6

Arkansas: Can you imagine trying to keep a straight face if Bobby Petrino came into your house and tried to recruit your kid? What can he possibly say to convince kids to come play for him. I'm not joking when I say this. Don't be surprised if Petrino is coaching elsewhere, on his own accord, before January. In fact, expect it. They Hogs have lost a bunch of offensive firepower the last couple of years. Even so, they could probably rush for 700 yards against the gamecocks this year if they wanted to. Remember that? On defense, they have some big players, I think. And maybe a couple of guys that are fast. Season Outlook: 5-7

Now, the MOAGy goodness that keeps you coming back.

On team discipline:

- Bottom line - McDaniel simply would not be on our team...
It's as plain and simple as that.

editor's note: the gamecocks just spent 3 years trying to get a player admitted into school who was was accused of a similar crime(except his included kidnapping). The player was also kicked off his prep team for stealing money from teammates. He is expected to play for the gamecocks this year.

On next year:

- after this season more mainstream folks will be predicting 12-1 for 2009.

On recruiting:

- Our coaches don't care how many stars a player has, they are recruiting players that will contribute in the system.

- every kid that has committed has been to our camp or worked out for our coaches. I'd say you have to trust their ability to assess talent.

- You really don't seem to understand how things work. These 'Stars' are given right now based on sophmore and junior seasons. In the meantime these kids have camped right before our cxoaches eyes, giving them firsthand judgement of their their quality.

- the whole star system is flawed to say the least. Not all kids get evaluated, and some kids get evaluated favorably due to connections, schools, coaches, handlers etc. Besides all that, I trust our coaches to evaluate talent more than some 25 year old "kid" with a clipboard working for rivals.com.

- If stars mean talent, what happened to many of our so called high star recruits over the years? Right now, I cannot recall any high star recruits currently playing in the NFL from our past teams. I am sure there may be a couple, but I cannot recall them at this time. Sorry, but I will take our players over your 4 and 5 star recruits anyday.

On Jim Rome's blistering commentary of South Carolina today. If you missed it, he basically said what everyone already thinks about them, that they should sit down and shut up until they do something worthwhile on athletics:

- He talked about Southern Cal being the real USC and us being South Carolina University...SCU. Told South Carolina fans to get over it. Also said that until we win 11 national championships and 7 heisman trophies no one will refer to us at all. Never liked Jim Rome!

- He can kiss our A**!!!! Spur'em

- Now I remember why I hate this guy so much! F'N Moron! South Carolina University. Please A$$hole

- Someone tell Jim Rome that Jim Everett says that South Carolina is THE USC and dares Romey to say otherwise.Effin' punk.

- Rome has trashed our state before (due to the NAACP and NCAA boycotts) - which are insulting, demenaing, disrespectful and ignorant !!!so screw him !!! One man running his mouth who thinks educated people care what the heck he thinks.Time to start buying and showing off ALL our SC stuff every chance we get on National TV !!Too bad rome did not burn when rome did !

- jim rome is a west coast fagget. everett proved that when he whipped his ass

- I just listened to that piece of s*** go on a 90 second tirade about how we don't deserve to be referred to as usc. he went on to say that the rest of the country recognizes the abbreviation as that of southern california and not "southern" carolina. he also went on to go over the obligatory championship difference but failed to mention that last time we squared off we whooped that ass. i think that maybe if the rest of the country thought of him as a legitimate journalist his time slot would be better that 4 in the afternoon where espn thought that they couldn't stand to put one more nba inside edition and had to fill the half an hour with thirty minutes of his garbage. no wonder jim evert whopped his ass all those years ago

- Jim Rome has issues......dating back to the day when Jim Everett pounded his sorry a#%! into a table on his show!! The guy is a total loser who I swear has a Manny Ramirez dildo in his nightstand. He goes on about Man "O" Ram more than Stuart Scott does about Michael Jordan. He is a waste.

- Should make t-shirts for the August 28th game....."West coast Romer" with "The real USC" right underneath, and wear the SC hat. Unless you can think of something better. Maybe a little childish, but I think it would be funny.

On 2008 Season Predictions:

- 9-3, with losses to UGA, LSU, and Florida. I must emphasize that this offense seriously worries me. I think the talent and athleticism on our defense will allow it to take care of business. But with an unproven line, running back, wide receivers (with the exception of Mckinley), and quarterback we really have our work cut out for us. If that crew can get it going the sky is the limit for us but I am just not convinced. I want to know what you guys think of this.

- 10-2 We finish 2nd in SEC, UGA 1st. UGA lost to LSU in regular season, but beats AU in the SECCG. UF finishes 3rd with losses to LSU, UGA, and UT. UT finishes 4th with losses to us, UGA, AU, and Vandy. UK finishes 5th with losses to UGA, us, UF, UT, and M. State. Vandy last, going 5-7 and upsetting UT. We get an at-large bid to the Sugar Bowl, where we beat OU 27-21. Beecher has a passing TD to McKinley, and Davis gets 2 rushing TDs. Succop hits FGs of 39 and 46 yards.We end the season ranked #4.

- I don't see 7-8 wins...has to be more...9, 10 or 11 wins. This is about Steve Spurrier...this is his year!

- I have a hard time seeing less than 9 wins.

- We will begin to have CU's number beginning in 2008.

- I vote "10 or more".Why as a Gamecock, would you say anything less? There is not a team on our schedule we can't beat.

- I have been feeling for several weeks that this season has a 1984/2000 feel to it since we are coming off of a disappointing end to the previous season and the media is justifiably not showing us much respect, but barring injuries, I think a lot of us believe we are better than the experts think.

- There isn't a better coaching staff than what we have, and yes were are flying under the radar.



Here are the results of an online poll conducted amongst USCe fans, on how many wins they will have this season:


422 Votes
6 or fewer 1.90%
7 5.45%
8 30.09%
9 43.36%
10 or more19.19%