re: Rank the SEC for 2009

BigScCocksBy7 - i saw this post on another message board about usc 2009. Is USC really losing this many players? If so, how can you have them tied for 2nd?


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quozzel Posted on 1/10/2009
Wow...Gamecock team is getting GUTTED this offseason

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I didn't realize just how bad this Gamecock team was getting hammered this offseason...it's bad. Real bad. I started counting and it looks like the Gamecocks are losing a whopping seventeen guys - repeat (17)! - off their 2-deep...including twelve starters.

Check out this list:

1. QB Chris Smelley (starter, transferring to play baseball)
2. QB Tommy Beecher (backup, transferring)
3. RB Mike Davis (starter, graduating)
4. WR Kenny McKinley (starter, graduating)
5. TE Jared Cook (starter, early entry to NFL)
6. OT Justin Sorensen (starter, graduating)
7. OG Jamon Meredith (starter, graduating)
8. DT Jonathon Williams (backup, graduating)
9. DE Jordin Lindsey (starter, graduating)
10. LB Jasper Brinkley (starter, graduating)
11. LB Dustin Lindsey (backup, graduating)
12. LB Marvin Sapp (backup, graduating)
13. S Emanuel Cook (starter, early entry to NFL)
14. CB Captain Munnerlyn (starter, early entry to NFL)
15. CB Stoney Woodson (starter, graduating)
16. CB Carlos Thomas (backup, graduating)
17. K/P Ryan Succop (starter, graduating)

On top of this, they're also cutting several non-starting upperclassmen like Freddie Brown.

What's interesting is that the Gamecocks are losing their top two QB's, their top RB, and their only consistent WR...which is amazing considering how many WR's (or guys he's convinced are WR's) that Spurrier has recruited. They're also losing virtually their entire back seven on defense, and their absolute-money placekicker/punter, Ryan Succop.

Frankly, I'm shocked. If anybody had told me this was going to be Spurrier's roster - no QB's, no WR's, and no RB's of note, and an offense that's as dismal as any in the SEC, heading into Year 5 of his regime, I'd have told them they were insane. This is as bad, perhaps worse, than the team he inherited from Lou Holtz.

For some reason there's this rumor going around that Aramis Hillary is somehow going to be the QB savior Spurrier is looking for...so I nosed around. Gamecock insiders are actually saying quite the opposite, that Hillary in fact is probably headed for WR, leaving just Stephen Garcia and redshirting freshmen Reid McCollum (who enrolled early, started disasterously, and then returned home his first semester at USC.) I also personally watched McCollum play a year ago in the Shrine Bowl...he wasn't just bad, he was awful. Which means, basically, it's Garcia or nobody for Spurrier.

Wow.

If this team goes 6-6 in the regular season, Spurrier probably deserves National Coach of the Year honors. He's got an absolute cataclysm brewing over there.