A Couple More Years

 

"I've walked a couple more roads than you, baby, that's all.

And I'm tired of running while you're only learning to crawl."

- Waylon Jennings

 

"Nothing beside remains round the decay

of that collosal wreck, boundless and bare."

- Percy Shelley

 

 

Life has a curious habit of imitating the art it once inspired, more often for worse than for better.  The iteration of homo genus that spawned us first discovered fire over a million years ago, and, once they all stopped shitting themselves in sheer terror, they got down to the hilarious business of self-extermination.  We first made an appearance around 400,000 years ago, and so far we've taken that inclination to exhilarating new heights.  The more technologically advanced we become, the more rapidly these unintended travesties occur.  In the 15th century, Da Vinci put his futuristic visions of flying machines on paper.  Less than 500 years later the Wright Bros. successfully flew "a machine heavier than air."  61 years after that we flew to the moon.  That is an utterly, preposterously, astonishing achievement, but it hasn't all been flowers.  Our dream of leaving the ground has manifested itself into a commercial enterprise on which we now depend, often with disastrous consequences.  We scoff at our ancestors and their "primitive" fire, all the while ignoring our own folly (Air Korea? Get real).  In 1966 Bill Shatner blew our minds by talking to another person through his watch, and now you can't be at an airport without seeing a hundred bluetooth douchebags behaving like schizophrenics on crack.  Exactly 30 years ago we marveled at the sci-fi classic, The Terminator, but I reckon it won't be long now before someone flips the switch on real artificial intelligence.  If I was a betting man, and I am, I'd put our odds at surviving the next 48 hours after that at about 1,000,000:1.  If by now you're wondering what the hell I'm rambling about, simply put, we reap what we sow.

 

Shortly after being de-pantsed on National Television by a cheerleader and a one-legged quarterback, the Ol' Ball Coach showed the first outwardly visible sign that perhaps neither his head nor his heart still resided in Columbia.  That's speculation on my part, but it ain't exactly wild conjecture when a head coach tells the college football world he has probably 2-3 more years left in a 4 year player cycle.  His comment delighted fans of both Clemson and everyone not named The University of South Carolina, led to a delightfully devastating decommitment parade, and ultimately begat his deliriously delightful registration on Twitter©. Spurrier eventually reversed field on his early retirement decision, saying, "Yeah, I’m back on the 4-5 [year plan?]. You got to always stay on the 4-5 [year plan?],” but that came more slowly than a Gamecock safety reversing field to try and tackle Artavis (last name not necessary). The whole episode brought forth a slew of S. Carolina fans who wondered, "What the fuck?!," and "Why the fuck?!" Nearly as many Clemson fans began proclaiming, "CoL! The rotten, old son of a bitch is going to destroy everything he's spent the last 10 years building." I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments of the Gamecock fans, and I also agree with the Clemson fans...partly. Spurrier is a rotten, old son of a bitch, but he isn't destroying anything with his whimsy. He isn't destroying what he built, because he didn't build shit.

 

Gamecock fans, now is when you shut up and listen. Spurrier didn't build anything. Deal with it. Wear the sunglasses. He won a lot of football games during the last 5 years - hell, he win two Citrus Bowls and now we all know you can't spell Citrus without USC - but he didn't do it through program-building. He did it by capitalizing on an unprecedented surge of elite, in-state high school talent. Gilmore, Holloman, Jeffery, Cann, Hampton, Lattimore, Quarles, Clowney...all NFL players, all from in-state, all went to S. Carolina. This is a small state. That many blue chippers playing prep ball here, qualifying, and going to the same school at the same time- either Clemson or S. Carolina - is an amazing historical anomaly. To be fair, you have to credit Spurrier, the mean, old bitchy bastard, for getting them all. That's a big accomplishment; however, the problem is precisely that it IS an anomaly. If we accept that premise, and we do because there's a precedent, then we have to accept the conclusion that, in order to sustain such a high level of "success," he was going to have to replace all that elite talent with more elite talent, which is precisely what he didn't do. No sir, Spurrier was happier'n hell the last 2 years to remind everyone of all the unprecedented achievements his Gamecocks had enjoyed. He and his staff of indecent exposers chose smugness and arrogance at the exact time they should have chosen humility and recruiting. 

From 2009-12, the Gamecocks signed 11 Rivals 100 recruits, 10 of whom were from South Carolina. Since then, they have signed 3 (1 in each class), and only 1 is from this state. Given this data, it's no secret why they were so terrible this year, and why they will continue to be terrible for the foreseeable future. Spurrier can't go outside the state and routinely land the elite talent it takes to win 11 games. He doesn't have Dabo's juice. It's is simple as that. For the last 3 years Spurrier has been too busy patting himself on the back to notice that Dabo has been out there hustlin & baucin in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and pretty much anywhere else he wants. During their unprecedented 5 game winning streak over me, the Gamecocks had the superior talent every year with the exception of 2009, but this year it was clear which team had more talent and SEC speed (hint: it wasn't the SEC team).

It seems likely at this point that Clemson will win at least 19 of the next 20 games in the series, because Dabo is building a program. Spurrier is building a retirement fund. A couple more years coach? It would take you a couple hundred more years to re-attain the level of success you enjoyed for...a couple years. And you have no one to blame but yourself, jerk.

High Time

I'm sorry, y'all; I got knocked offline...dang computer went ham on me.

 

I'm happy to say we're back up and running now, and the way things look it'll be business as usual around here for a long, long, long time.  I have a lot of fresh ideas that I think everyone will really enjoy, so be sure you check in every now and then.  In fact, I'll have a new piece up later this afternoon.

In Observance of Kenny McKinley

There will be no blog this week. If you know or love someone who you think might be suffering from depression, take a minute to tell them what they mean to you.

Quick Thought Before The Weekend

NCAA Letters of Inquiry aren't sent to notify schools that nothing is wrong. They are usually followed by lengthy probations and losses of scholarships. The last person I heard say, "I'm not worried about this LOI" was a Southern Cal fan. The time before that it was a Bama fan. As one astute Gamecock fan put it, "The NCAA is moving from our backyard to our kitchen." In the course of two months of informal investigations into one player (Saunders), the NCAA uncovered a massive free rent scandal involving The Whitney, a luxury hotel in downtown Columbia on Devine St. near Yo Burrito; "inaccurate" paperwork involving an insurance policy for Chris Culliver; and a couple of free meals provided to Marcus Lattimore by a booster. The NCAA stated in their letter that South Carolina was already aware of the issues being investigated, but that new issues could be discovered in the course of their investigation.....that they hope to have concluded by the end of the calendar year.

That's 1, 2, 3, 4 more months, at minimum, of formal investigation into an SEC football program. It's akin to the FBI telling Buffalo Bill they are planning to search his house, for 4 months, looking for skin vests. Oh, they'll find the vests, but odds are pretty good they'll find a whole lot more. At a school where systematic recruiting violations have been taking place for years, it will be like shooting fish in a barrel. This time I wouldn't count on getting a slap on the wrist either. Just think, Gamecock fans, we cheated our butts off in the 80s and we got a return on it. We won multiple conference championships and a national title. But back then cheating was acceptable, even encouraged. That's not the case anymore. Y'all have been cheating for (at least) 5 years under Spurrier and the best you have managed is a bowl win over Houston. I hope it was worth it. Better get busy hiding your skin vests, and don't even try to put them in the closet. Too many skeletons in there already.

BREAKING: NCAA Announces Formal Investigation Into South Carolina Football Program

Hats Off To You, Larry Fedora

Steve Spurrier is a queen. I'm not talking about queens in the traditional bigoted sense of the word, but rather the modern hipster version. If this latest NCAA flap has taught us anything, it's that Spurrier's legacy of being a pull no punches, smarmy S.O.B. was built entirely on being nothing more than a drama queen. Back in the day everyone ooh'd when the Ol' Ball Coach talked about Free Shoes University, and ahh'd when he said you can't spell citrus without UT. Spurrier told anyone who would listen, as much as they would listen, that he didn't suffer lightly teams, coaches and players who violated NCAA rules. "Oh, my!" how times have changed. It's easy to be an ass when you're the young, moderately attractive head coach at the University of Florida. It takes considerably more diplomatic acumen to pull it off when you're trapped in college football purgatory, waiting for the ghost of Bear Bryant to come spirit you away to Florida retirement, where, when you say the words "we" and "national champions" in the same sentence, nobody will think you are going senile. Nobody really thinks that (yet), but after last week's hypocritical display, people are starting to question what, if anything, is left of the pre-Gamecock Spurrier.

In the hours leading up to kick-off against mid-major superpower, Southern Miss, it looked as if the Gamecocks were going to be missing up to 10 key players because of NCAA violations committed in relation to the illegal free rooms they had received at The Whitney, a luxury hotel in downtown Columbia on Devine Street near Yo Burrito. Somehow, at the 11th hour, the NCAA issued a reprieve, clearing all but 3 of the players involved in the scandal. Apparently, being cleared by the NCAA was good enough for Spurrier, the man who publicly whined for 10 years in Gainesville any time a player at another school received so much as a ride home from practice with a graduate assistant. Never mind the fact that all the players involved had been receiving illegal benefits. This season is too important for Spurrier's legacy to let something like character interfere with his decision-making process. Everyone knows it's 2010 or bust for Spurrier in Craptown, SC, but it's just sad to see a man who pretended to stand for so much, for so many years, reduced to a pathetic scavenger, all for the glorification of his massive ego (Seinfeld, Sn. 4, Episode 72). These guys all broke rules. He knows they all broke rules. But apparently having that magical, 9 win season that Gamecock fans dream about was more important than doing the right thing. Contrast that with USM's Larry Fedora, who refused to play his best player - the only player who gave them even a fighting chance at a win - because he didn't like the effort the guy was giving. That right there is something to applaud, but I doubt you'll see Spurrier quipping to the press about that.

At least one positive thing came out of South Carolina's surprisingly good performance last Thursday night. Expectations in Columbia might be at an all-time high, which, as we say in the blog industry, is good for business. Take a look:

On the Georgia game

- We know it'll be a tough game and it always is, but we'll typically win in the end.

- Their trash talk won't stop if we win, it'll just turn into excuses of how they lost to themselves.

- I'm not so sure they're better anywhere other than o-line and kicker.

- Make no mistake about it this is (Besides beating Clemson 3 straight) the most important game in Steve's stay here and when we win we will be playing with the houses's money. It is a two-game swing any way you look at it and UGA has a very favorable schedule compared to us. Arkansas will be their toughest opponent after us and Fla. LSU appears not very good, at least until they rotate back on our schedule.I believe we are more ready than we have ever been with weapons galore and a stellar defense. Most of these kids come from a winning program and a NCAA title trumps a stupid curse if you believe in that sort of thing and I don't. I do believe in prayer and pray the Lord will be with all our young men, keep them safe from injury and help us to do and give our best and to him be the honor and glory. Amen GO COCKS1

- Most like to think uga and us are close to equal on talent but there is still a sizeable gap after the top 22. But our coaching for now more than makes up for it. I think I saw where one of their defensive ends squatted 795 lbs.

- I would love to see Stephon on AJ. He would shut him down I am sure.

- Those people have convinced themselves that Georgia is the '85 Bears and we're the '76 Bucs. Bunch of arrogant, bombastic pricks, all of 'em. Nobody deserves to lose and lose and lose as much as the UGA fanbase.


On Clemson

- I can tell you for a fact Clemson football players get preferential treatment. When a party is busted and underage football players are there drinking, the cops just tell them to leave. I've seen it with my own eyes and my bro in law who is a HUGE clemson fan said when he went there, it was the same exact way. The local cops are almost all Clemson fans. They're not gonna arrest one of their own players and risk harming their season...

- Bottom line is it takes money and a lot of other benefits to make them hang around that place for an extra year or in some cases to go there at all.

- Pickens county has highest rate of incest as well as other crimes than anywhere else in the State of SC. Clemson is smack dab in the middle of that.

- My Nephew the Tater student taught up there. The way he tells it people with money are a rarity up their and their biggest source of income is from the Goverment.

The Price of Greatness

"Paranoia strikes deep, into your life it will creep."

It's been said that paranoia can be good in small doses. Problem is, paranoia, like meth, can be habit forming and bad for your mental piece. Famed educational philosopher, Robert M. Hutchins, put it more succinctly, saying of paranoia, "You know you've got it when you can't think of anything that's your fault." So here we stand on August 25, just 8 days away from the start of the 2010 college football season, a season that once appeared to hold so much promise for Steve Spurrier's University of South Carolina Gamecocks. The Gamecocks were coming off a record-tying 2nd consecutive bowl appearance in 2009, they had signed a really good running back on National Signing Day, and Stephen Garcia had gone at least 365 days without getting arrested for the first time since joining the program in 2007. There was even chatter of challenging Florida for SEC East supremacy. Then the bottom fell out.

In July, starting tight end Weslye Saunders became embroiled in an NCAA investigation into the legalities of an agent-sponsored party in South Beach last Spring, thrown for potential high-round picks in the 2011 NFL Draft. Though the school and the NCAA have been tight-lipped about the issue, MOAG has learned that officials are concerned with two things at this point. Who paid for Saunders to go on the trip, and what the hell was he doing at a party for 1st day draft picks? Despite this setback, the team still had reasons for optimism. After all, according to ardent Gamecock supporters, Saunders was officially listed as 2nd on the team depth chart behind noted hustler Patrick DiMarco. And though that was solely a product of his week-long suspension during the Spring, it was still a reassuring thing for fans to tell themselves. Besides, if they could get through the next few weeks without further trouble, the Gamecocks still had plenty of reasons to believe their magical season, the season they have waited on since (insert the year you were born here), was on the horizon. But so was something else...

"It starts when you're always afraid. You step out of line, the man come and take you away."

In early August, NCAA officials returned to Columbia. They even reportedly stopped practice and ordered Saunders to come with them for another round of You $#%@ed Up, Kid. Most South Carolina fans had believed that the issue had been put to rest. And why shouldn't they have, given the NCAA's history of starting and concluding major investigations in a matter of weeks? Despite their well-reasoned belief that it was over, the investigation was still active. Saunders' eligibility was now officially in question. To make matters worse, another investigation was underway. Various media were reporting that 3 players had been living all summer at The Whitney, an upscale hotel on Devine Street near Yo Burrito. Whitneygate, America's first gate scandal since Watergate to involve an actual hotel, was dismissed by fans as a non-issue. After all, coach new about it and compliance signed off on the lease. Yet it was still proving to be a distraction for a team that, at one point, appeared poised to do great things. Assistant Head Coach for Defense Ellis Johnson even admitted such.

Over the past two weeks, it has come to light that as few as 7, and as many as 10, players were living at the hotel. The NCAA is concerned that the players might have been staying at the hotel rent-free, or possibly at a reduced rate not offered to the general public. If their investigation bears that out, it could be deemed a violation. For a team that showed so much promise, these investigations so close to the start of the season could prove costly. Assistant Head Coach for Defense Ellis Johnson said yesterday that he didn't know exactly what the penalty - or penalties - would be, but that the staff has been given a range of potential punishments depending on what the NCAA finds. As a precautionary measure, the school told all the players to move out immediately and settle up on their bills. As a precautionary measure. In Saunders' case, being at the heart of two investigations could sideline him for some or all of the season. Coach Spurrier has said he expects the NCAA to let him know something before the start of the season next Thursday. But Saunders, apparently not content with just having his eligibility at risk, has decided to up the ante this week. On Monday, Spurrier announced that Saunders has been suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules. He'd missed several team meetings and was late to a scrimmage last Saturday morning. When questioned by coaches about his tardiness, Saunders realized he had two options. He could tell the coaches the truth, whatever it was, and accept his punishment, or he could lie. In a stunner, Saunders chose option 2.

"Stop, hey, what's that sound, everybody looks what's goin down."

Many coaches will tell you they would sooner coach scrubs than liars. Coaches need to be able to trust their players on and off the field. At the beginning of the initial agent investigation, Spurrier went to bat for Saunders, saying, "Weslye told us he didn't do anything wrong, and we believe him." And it was the right thing to do, because players need to know their coach has their back. A lack of reciprocal trust can destroy team chemistry, but every now and then such truisms need to be put to the test. Sensing that now was one of those times, Saunders decided to conduct an experiment to see if he could somehow find the perfect blend of selfish behavior, public humiliation, and total lack of respect for the school and coach who gave him a free ride to college. Not only did Saunders lie to the coaches about where he had been, the lie itself was that he had been - get ready for it - meeting with NCAA investigators about his case(s). A quick check with the compliance office uncovered that no such meeting had taken place. So not only did he lie, he actually used the investigation, that he created, as his lie. If there were ever three words that Spurrier wishes he could unsay, "we believe him" would have to be them. Now Spurrier not only has every reason not to believe a word that comes out of his mouth, but he also has a reason to believe that Saunders would lie to anyone, including the NCAA, to save his own skin. For his part, Saunders has skillfully played the victim card from jump street, accusing others of misunderstanding him and trying to bring him down, which brings us back to the paranoia issue.

For a long time it was just the crazy, crazy South Carolina fans who felt that the world was out to get them, but this summer has turned even the players into true believers. Even so, our focus here at Mind of a Gamecock is the crazy, crazy fans and the funny things they say. We don't yet know how these investigations and suspension(s) will affect the promising 2010 season, but we do know this - that 9 win, 2nd in the East dream season might be on hold until further notice. What I can give you right now is this:

- "Riddle me this.....a player at Clemson can be allowed to live in a house on Lake Hartwell (owned by a CU supporter) along with his girlfriend and their baby for 3-4 years and the NCAA doesn't find fault. A player at Carolina has a legitimate contract with a local hotel for an extended stay and the NCAA finds fauult? At what point will the playing field be level? Clemson has multiple players staying 'off campus' in 'put up' situations on or near the lake. Always have and always will. It's time USC stands up to the NCAA, The State, and any other group that is creating this constant harrassment."

- "This is a media created this whole story, before the season starts their looking for anything to talk about."

- "Just like the NCAA to do away with athletic dorms and then look into housing. What is up with these hostesses at Cheating Clemson Tech and Kiffin's kittens? Why doesn't ESPN run with that? That's what continuously gripes my tail. Spiller and his girlfriend living on the lake driving a Tahoe. Heck I can't even afford the gas for a Tahoe, how does he?"

- "I'M SURE JOE PERSON IS BEHIND ALL THIS!!!!!"

- "Joe Person and The State rag need their media credentials pulled!!"

- "Joe Person has worked feverishly to report anything negatively on our program true or not. Joe's been busting our balls over this hotel situation almost every day and would like nothing more than to see it be true and NCAA sanctions befall our program. The state rag as been that way for as long as I can remember and I'm 60!"

- "Reading papers across the country over the years, I have never seen any local paper covers the local sports team with more negativity than The State. Plain and simple.

- "I really think it bothered the snake that our baseball team won NationaL championship this summer!"

- "If it were Clemmers players, you wouldn't read a damn thing about it in the snake."

- "This has been going on at the State for over a half a decade and it's time it STOPS!"

- "Why is it The State will turn a blind eye to a politician they like, but go after Carolina at the drop of a hat? If the hometown paper can't support the hometown team, what use are they?"

- "Last minute bad luck always seems to stab us in the back, and we have more than a chance to win the SECEast and the title."

- "This is no curse, this is a conspiracy."