quote:
One player does not make a team great.

He is a great player don't get me wrong. USCe will not have the best defense in the SEC because of one player.

No Gamecock fans (I highly question if the OP is a legit Gamecock fan) thinks USC will have the top SEC D in 2013, Clowney or no Clowney. USC was 4th, 3rd, 7th (our poor pass D in 2010 brought us down), 3rd, and 4th in total D beginning with 2008. We certainly have had some of the better defenses in the SEC in those years, and that should be good enough.

I expect a slight drop in team defense for 2013 unless our LB position of young, inexperienced players steps up and solidifies early in the season. Perhaps out of the top 5 like we did in '10 - that was the last time we were also thin at the LB position, and IMO it played the biggest role in our poor pass coverage because our safeties were having to cover the hole behind the DL too much, and it over-burdened our CBs into over-committing often on big plays.

We should be solid at both the DL and DB for '13. If our LBs can pleasantly surprise, we could wind up with another top-4 total defense again. It's the offense that I'm hopeful will take a step forward: we had the best offensive production ever under Spurrier last season, and I'm expecting to surpass that for '13....