But there was nothing that showed me that he was going to pick the Gamecocks over Clemson or especially UGA until today.. He's had UGA on top for months now.That Spurrier quote sold him I believe. "Coach Spurrier told me that they were one defensive end from winning that game (against Auburn)." Not being scared of competing for the starting job.
Cliff Matthews isn't the kind of player that would be afraid of competition. If he was, he wouldn't have wanted to compete with the Carolina true freshman DE Eric Norwood. Norwood is tied for 3rd in the SEC in sacks, and God only knows how many QB hurries he's had. He also had a decent games against UGA and Auburn and Cliff was in attendance for both.
Cliff has not seen stats like that from Ricky Sapp.. Cliff may not even know who the kid is, some players don't even keep up with recruiting. If someone doesn't keep up with recruiting, they haven't heard much about Ricky Sapp, because he has barely seen the field.
Ricky Sapp may be good, don't get me wrong, but nothing he has did on the field in a real game (not practice) has shown it, because he hasn't had much playing time, and that isn't saying he's not a good player just that no one has seen it yet.. including Cliff. Anyway, what if Ricky gets hurt, and even if he didn't you have to have 2 good players at every position to be a good team. Thats what Carolina and Clemson are working towards, and Carolina made a huge step in doing that at the DE position today.
Don't think that the reason that Carolina got Matthews is because of Sapp though.. give our coaches some credit. Carolina just one this battle in recruiting.. over 2 good teams.
Who knows, like you've always said about good players attracting other good players (J. Davis and Spiller).. maybe Cliff saw how well Norwood played in the Auburn game.
Don't worry about Notre or Michigan.. they didn't offer him.. Clemson, UGA, Bama, Auburn, VT, GT, Florida, Tenn. did, but don't worry, this kid is absolutely nothing like Gray. Decommiting won't happen, but hey if it did.. we still have Eric Norwood and Casper Brinkley!
