re: South Carolina

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If all those teams have been down at some point or another while Stevo has been @USC, shouldn't he have won a bit more? He should have been able to capitalize on this to the tune of more than 7-8 wins, imo. If you guys are happy with him, that's all that matters.

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Ive actually gone over that with a friend of mine.. that we always seem to get the SEC teams rotation at the worst time..

-'Bama: played in '05.. they get 10 wins.. smash our head in and go 6-7 the next season..7-6 the year after that(which of course we did not play them) but will play them next year at 'Bama after a likely Sugar Bowl win.

-Auburn: played in '05 and '06.. a stretch in which they are 20-5 and were ranked #2 when they came to Columbia beat us both times.. in the years since they are 14-11 and fired their head coach.(will not play them again for a couple of more years)

-UT: Play every year of course and are 2-2 vs UT since Spurrier has been here, both wins we did capitalize on during their 2 losing seasons. The other 2 they were during 20-8 seasons for UT.

-Arky: Another team we play every year and have gone 2-2 against since Spurrier has been here. Like UT been able to take advantage of their down years.. though also like UT have won a division since '05.

-UK: Spurrier is 4-0 against them so we have had no problems there.

-Vandy: 2-2... the only coach in SC history to lose to Vandy more than once.. that is the one team where Spurrier should have more wins against and should be at least 8-4 this season.

-Ole Miss: Though we have only played Ole Miss once since Spurrier has gotten here and did get the W. During '05-07 Ole Miss had a record of 10-25.. we get back to our rotation with Ole Miss and they get an 8-4 record and a Cotton Bowl invite. (play them next year in Columbia)

-MSU: Played in '06-08.. 1st year MSU was bad but the 2nd we happen to play MSU the same season they get to their 1st bowl since 2000.

Bold = Teams we rotate with and seem to play only when they are currently peaking.

*Only talking about games during the Spurrier era vs those 7 teams that have had a losing record since '05.

No doubt QB has been the main missing element. Spurrier's offense actually did quite well in 2006 with the Syvelle Newton/Blake Mitchell combo, but has been pretty awful otherwise.

The thing you have to realize is that Holtz really left the cupboard bare. Lou's recruiting looked good on paper, but the rankings were inflated with JUCO's, non-qualifiers and bad characters (D. Summers, etc.). There were so few linemen that Spurrier started two walk-ons even through 2007.

Spurrier's teams are consistently more talented than Lou's; probably as talented as USC has ever been. That being said, that still puts us well below Florida and LSU, and below UGA and 'Bama as well. We are probably on par with Tennessee talent wise.

The offense has been bad mostly because the offensive line has not gelled. Spurrier FINALLY fired o-line coach John Hunt -- a decision long overdue. Hopefully, the new coach (possibly Robbie Caldwell from Vandy) will turn it around quickly. We have not been able to run the ball and pass protection has sucked.

If you watch our offense carefully, you will see the receivers consistently getting open -- but the QB's cannot get them the ball. Smelley simply does not think quickly enough and makes poor decisions, forcing the ball into coverage and throwing multiple interceptions. Garcia can make the right decision and throws a beautiful ball -- but he is so inexperienced he goes back to high school mode under pressure and starts scrambling around. Smelley is not good, but he can be decent if he has excellent pass protection. Garcia can be really good -- with experience and with decent pass protection.

I'm not going to predict a breakout year just yet. I will say you cannot judge Spurrier's offense until the offensive line is good enough for Spurrier to run his offense. Sure, Spurrier deserves to be criticized for the offensive line's poor play and for hanging on to Hunt for 4 bad years. Don't write him off just yet. In spite of back-to-back indifferent years on the field, Spurrier is still recruiting extremely well. Rivals ranks Carolina 8th nationally and 3rd in the SEC (behind LSU and 'Bama). The ranking will probably drop a little as others close strongly, but it's still impressive all things considered.