Was told something tonight at dinner ...

We had our annual preseason dinner tonight at The Blue Marlin. Bunch of us old timers and old insiders and a few former players from back in the day. One former assistant coach and I always spend time talking about how far things have come.

He used to be a recruiting coordinator here.

No name dropping tonight ... but it was a good crowd.

So we're all sitting around jabbering and the old coach, he was our RC but also RC'd at a big time major program back in the 80s and was a head coach at a big school as well ... he says he was talking with one of our current coaches and was told that there are more four and five star players on our roster right now than at any time in the program's history since ratings became a thing. He says that by 2020 there will be fifty of our all-time highest rated (Top 200) players of all time on the roster. He said he was told that, right now, if you look at the Top 100 all-time players we'be ever signed, there are more on this roster than at any time in history and that this roster just surpassed the 2012 roster for that honor.

Ok, so I have no way to check that or from where the person who told Coach that got his info ... but I believe him. And it made me stop and think - that's really something if Boom and Staff have managed to do that in three classes.

Imagine what they might do in the next three.

Another one of our regulars, a former QB from before when most of y'all were probably born ... he made another damn interesting observation.

Back when Frank McGuire was winning big time here, he had a helluva staff. Donnie Powell, Bill Loving and Buck Freeman. Freeman was affectionately referred-to as Gramps sometimes. He was older than most assistant basketball coaches even back then. But his other nickname was The Professor. He was an absolute student of the game. He knew basketball but his specialty was guards and man oh man could he teach them how to do it all ... especially shoot. Those were the days when SC led the ACC in free throws ... 80% or better from the line. He did this thing where he put a piece of masking tape on a basketball and then filmed his best FT shooters shooting FTs in slow motion. He would count the number of revolutions the ball would rotate in what he considered the perfect arch as it traveled to the basket. Then he would teach all his players to shoot it so that they matched those results and, voila, we consistently led the ACC from the charity stripe and we won a lot of games because of that believe it or not.

So this former QB has been around the team some, watched them practice, listened to the coaches ... particularly Dan Werner.

So this former QB says tonight, "we've got us another Buck Freeman coaching QBs."

That's saying something. That's really saying something. Being compared to Buck Freeman is the ultimate comliment and, coming from this guy it really means something.

With that said, when Buck Freeman died our basketball fortunes died with him. He was that important to Frank McGuire.

Dan Werner must be doing some great things evidently. Let's hope so.

In the meantime not a lot really breaking out of camp so far that's new news. OLine is looking good so far. Rick Sandage is fat but really quick. LBs could be special. Best group of DBs, potentially, that we'be ever had but there are going to be some growing pains. DLine has a ways to go. WRs are incredible. Shi Smith is gonna be really good, no one can cover him. Deebo shows no signs of problems whatsoever. Edwards is a beast.

Coaches are really on them to finesse their game ... striving for a no penalties scrimmage. Offense moves so fast it's going to take some getting used-to because it does make for some issues they hope to get over in time for the opener. The talent is there, everyone just has to think quicker and the coaches are really turning the screws and applying pressure.

No practice tomorrow. Everyone is going to be sore after the Monday scrimmage, guaranteed. Coaches said they are going to be reviewing Saturday's and Monday's scrimmage film and they'll start really fine tuning this week.

Hard to tell about RBs. They all looked the same. Was told they all ran hard and all seem to be jockying for position but Dowdle is the starter and he evidently has gotten quicker and more shifty. But they all look good according to what was said.

Oh ... kickers. Damn, they all have big legs and are making field goals. But can they do it in a game when the pressure is on? Because damn, they all have big legs.

I hope to get to see a scrimmage soon. We may have another preseason Gamecock club thingy dinner up in club ... maybe. They're going to let us know. They haven't done it in a couple of years. Last one I attended I came away thinking, and reported here, that the Hurst walk-on kid was the real deal. I hope they invite us to another one because I love seeing two or three kids really stand out that we're not expecting.

I asked tonight, the couple of guys who watched the scrimmage today, who is the one catching everyone's eye right now and both of them answered it's Mukuamu instantly.

One last thing. Cook and Belk and their appeals. Who knows. Belk they're thinking they have a good shot to get the waiver. Cook ... they are making their appeal based on similar circumstances as Belk's. His paperwork got in a little bit later than Belk's. We're probably going to get the waiver for Belk. No one thinks we'll get two but who knows, there's a shot. He's not getting the work the others are getting though. So chances are no one is counting on him this year. Harvey though, he's another story. They are counting on him big time.

Just remembered something else. Jam Williams. Jam is the hardest worker in the secondary. Fearless, but clearly undersized compared to others. Everyone is really pulling for him because he's got the biggest heart on the team and is the most demanding on himself. Coaches love his effort. Fingers crossed for that kid. If he was six feet tall he'd be a first team All-American.