Lol

I'm seriously looking forward to it bro. 

Well at any rate...

It's good to have all these scrub team games over with so we can see some real football. Clemson and Gawga should be a good one.

Looks good...

I think the scoring scheme is going to work well now

I think that last change did it. What do y'all think?

Updated scores after the Scar UNC game

Week 1 

Actual scores

Scar 27 - UNC 10 

 

Brent

Scar 20 - UNC 17 +

Score: 36  

 

Rich

Scar 31 - UNC 16 +

Score: 40  

 

Vance

Scar 14 - UNC 13 +

Score: 34

 

Blake

Scar 28 - UNC 17 +

Score: 42

Rich and Brent

said boosting the points awarded to 50 points was good with them. This will make picking the right team to win extremely important. Making the change on the rules page now. I will also post an updated tally of everyone's scores after the Scar UNC game.

Yes, but we all want the importance of picking score predictions

to be incorporated into the game as well. Is boosting the points awarded to 50 for picking the right team to win ok with you?

Either way will be fine with me.

Right bro...

My only point is that picking that score is much less offensive than picking SC State to win. 

Yes, I think we all agree that the score predictions are a huge part of this game

and everyone likes the idea of that. After talking to Ryan and Brent about it and explaining it to them I think they really like it. It will influence us to make wiser choices when we attempt to predict the scores of the games. It will make me think twice before I make that Clem 38 - SC St 37 score prediction that I previously had in place for next week lol. No one said it was going to be easy to predict the scores bro. It's going to be pure luck for all of us. Then again, will predicting the wins and losses not be pure luck as well?

Subtracting points for a loss wasn't going to be smart. It was too brutal of a punishment. I think we are still going to have some negative scores but it won't be as bad as it would have been before. If anything we need to boost the points awarded to like 50 if you pick the correct team to win. I would be all for that. It would make the predicting the right team to win far more important. The person that chooses the wrong winner is going to come out far worse than the person that chooses the right one even if we leave it at 20 points rewarded for picking the right team to win. For example, with your scenario of Clem 40 - UGA 20:

Rich's prediction: UGA 41 - Clem 36
41 - 20 = 21 points deducted 
40- 36 = 4 points deducted
That's negative 25 points for Rich

Vance's prediction: UGA 43 - Clem 48
20 points awarded for picking the right team
43 - 20 = 23 points deducted
48 - 40 = 8 points deducted
That's negative 31 points + the 20 awarded which leaves Vance with negative 11 points

If we changed it to 50 points awarded for picking correct team Rich's score would remain the same at negative 25. Yours would be 50 - 31 = 19 points.

This may be the way to do it. Let me know if you like it and I will talk to Rich and Brent about it.

Also...

Ryan is the pretty obvious pick for a super small Clemson shirt. What the heck would we put on Brent, a real big shirt?

I keep using Ryan...

As an example because he picked UGA and I picked Clemson. It would also be easy to imagine a scenario where Clemson wins and he still gets less points taken away than me. Is the score really more important than getting the winner right for everyone? If it is, it's fine. 

Even with not subtracting...

For a loss, you will still need to subtract points for guessing the score if we go with that scenario. Otherwise if UGA scores 20 and Clemson score 40, I will get the win right but still lose more Points than Ryan who picked UGA. I'm sure you know that, but making sure.

My opinion is...

To stop subtracting points for the score and subtract point for losses. Give one person for each game points for getting closest to the correct score. Guessing the score is pure luck IMO. But I am fine with whatever the group wants.

I say lets change it then

If it's ok with Brent and Vance. Lets ditch the 20 point deduction if you make an incorrect prediction and just have the point deduction. We'll leave the 20 points awarded if you get a correct prediction but keep the point deduction in place there as well. That ok with y'all? 

I will make the change on the official rules page and of anyone disagrees I will change it back. Let me know. 

I knew it wouldn't be perfect lol. 

My Game Obsevations

First of all I think Carolina(SC) completely controlled the game from the very beginning and I feel like spurrier knew this. Once Scar got up 17-0, it was a very vanilla performance. We could have ran the ball and threw off of play action all night cause UNC had no answer for either. The offensive line looked really good in the running and somewhat shaky in pass coverages, but mostly just against blitz packages. They did seem to struggle in recognizing blitzes but you can def tell this is the most physical o line  since spurrier has been in Columbia I thought the backs looked good, and as bad as is this may sound, don't think there will a ton of a drop off without Latt. Receivers I thought as a group looked decent. Downfield blocking doesn't appear to be as good as in the past but they all seem to be open and very quick. Outside of the Roland drop in the endzone, pretty decent performance. Shaw looked a little gun shy at times, as I think he still has that "run first" mentality but he's a winner so ill take it. Still needs to learn to slide on scrambles. 

Defensively, I was impressed with the over all team speed. This Carolina team is by far the fastest I've ever seen in my lifetime. They're not the biggest but extremely athletic. As far as Clowney is concerned, I think he went "too hard" early in the game and burned him self out. He was chasing plays from behind on the other side of the field, not to mention taking on 2, sometimes 3 blockers. I don't care who it is, when you are constantly getting doubled and tripled its gonna take its toll. Of course he took plays off, he was exhausted. Also an article up on yahoo stating that he suffered from a stomach virus, take it for what it's worth. When clowney is rested you can see the freak that he is. Not worried about this defense at all. We only rushed 4 all night, Quarles didn't even play in the first half, and UNC only td drive should've never happened because of the phantom face mask. So overall I give the defense a B. 

One quick note here, ACC officials are absolute trash. Not gonna take the time to indulge into all the bad calls or no calls but it was an extremely poor officiated game. Thank God we are done with acc clowns the rest of the year. Sad part is, SEC officials prob won't be any better. 

The scoring flaw

Is what I was talking about the other day. Lol. Gonna be a ton of negative scores at the end of the year

I'm hearing Clowney...

Had a good game as well. They were saying before the game he was in the best shape of his life. I will watch some of the highlights and commentary from ESPN latter and see.

Oh well...

It's fine like it is or I am ok with changing it if everyone wants something else.

I already see a flaw in my scoring scheme

There is going to be a lot of negative scores at the end of the season probably lol. That may be ok with you guys and if it is that's ok with me.

If you guys do want to change it we could make it to where if you have an incorrect weekly prediction during the season there would be a minus 10 deduction of points or no deduction of points instead of minus 20. If we have minus 20 points for an incorrect weekly W/L prediction and add in the point deductions there will be a lot of negative scores. You may never make it back to positive points just because of one incorrect weekly prediction. It's ok with me to leave it like it is and it may need to be evaluated and changed for next season since we have already made it through the first game.

I'm just thinking the winner may have negative points at the end of the season. Like I said, the scoring probably wouldn't be perfect. I came up with it on the fly.

Let me know if we need to make this change.

Preview of the Allstar Championship

This is just after the Scar - UNC game. Just a little preview of the scores before the final tally which will come after the UGA - Clem game.

Week 1 

Actual score

Scar 27 - UNC 10

 

Brent

 

Scar 20 - UNC 17 +

Score: 6

 

Rich

Scar 31 - UNC 16 +

Score: 10

 

Vance

Scar 14 - UNC 13 +

Score: 4

 

Blake

Scar 28 - UNC 17 +

Score: 12

First thing I want to say is

Be glad Clem doesn't play UNC this season. They are a very dirty team. The block on Clowney wasn't nearly the worst one. There was a hit on Vic Hampton when he was on the ground that was helmet to helmet. He laid on the ground through the commercial break after the hit. I think he's going to be ok but really changed the feeling of the game for me. There was no flag and the kid that made the hit should be suspended for the next game. Plain and simple.

Besides that I'm happy with the win. I saw some things that made me very happy. Don't get me wrong, we had some sloppy things happen on offense and defense. The kind of stuff you expect in the season opener. Clowney didn't play full speed every play. Took plays off like he's done in the past. However, when he does go full speed you can see why he is so highly touted. Nearly every play he blows by the blockers but if the play isn't to his side you often see him standing and watching the play. I would have liked to see him run to the ball more. Either way, it will interesting to see what he does next week against UGA. May be he was held back? I sure hope so.

The biggest positive I took from the game was the RBs. Mike Davis is going to be really good this season. I was shocked at the speed he had on the 70 something yd run he had. I didn't expect that kind of gamebreaking speed. Not just that, he really pushes after first contact. More than once he pushed for 1, 2 or 3 more yds after getting hit. Brandon Wilds looked equally as impressive at times. Both RBs just push and push after getting hit to gain extra yds. Hope we will see the same against UGA next week.

I think the only pass Dylan Thompson attempted was TD to Kane Whitehurst in the first half. That made me pretty happy lol.

Overall I am happy. It's a win and I have seen many more season openers against less talented teams that we have done much worse against. I think we did ok.

By the way, Todd Ellis is an idiot lol.

Rules look good for me...

I did not get to see most of the game, but I saw Clowney limping out. You can't tell by the picture, but from what I was told this was a blatant cheap shot and not much doubt of the intent. I know he is a dumbass but Todd Ellis said it was very close to being a carreer ender. Is any of this true? How would you all rate Clowney and the Cockerdoodles performance so far? I know the game is not over yet.

Kane Whitehurst with his first collegiate TD

lulz

In other words...

It's on like Donkey Kong bitches!

lol

The Sportaholic News Allstar Challenge: Official Rules

Score Prediction Rules

• 50 points awarded if you make the right prediction
• No points awarded if you make the wrong prediction
• 10 points awarded if you make the correct score prediction for a team
• Subtract 1 point for every point you're off of the actual score for each team

Season Prediction Rules ***

• 20 points awarded if you guess a team's record perfectly
• 20 points subtracted if you are one game off
• 40 points subtracted if you are two games off
• 60 points subtracted if you are three games off
• 80 points subtracted if you are four games off
• 100 points subtracted if you are five or more games off
• 500 points subtracted if you fail to post your season predictions before kickoff of the first game of the season

Penalty for missing a weekly score prediction

• 60 points subtracted for each match-up if you fail to post your weekly score predictions

Winner and Loser at end of season

• Winner gets bragging rights
• Loser has to take a picture wearing a shirt that the three non-losers will vote on. The picture will be posted here on blog.

***Season predictions:

Rich: Scar - 12-0 ::: Clem - 8-4
Vance: Scar - 9-3 ::: Clem - 11-1
Brent: Scar - 9-3 ::: Clem - 10-2
Blake: Scar - 11-1 ::: Clem - 10-2

One more thing

The season predictions don't have to be reflected in your weekly score predictions. We could run into trouble if it did.

Take this scenario for example. Vance picked Scar to go 9-3. As it turns out as the season goes on Scar ends up being terribly overrated. Well by the time it gets around to the Scar/Clem game Vance has already used up his 3 losses for Scar. This would require him to pick Scar to win.

It really just wouldn't work that way. Therefore, the season predictions do not have to be reflected in the weekly score predictions. This may have went without saying, just wanted to make sure..

I also see what you're saying about Clem being harder to predict

because of the high scores that they will have. If they have a off week it could screw up everyone's scores for the week. That's the thing though, we all have to bet on the Clem games. If one of us suffers I expect we all will. Unless of course one of us is much better at picking scores than the rest of us. I can go ahead and tell you I won't be that guy. I'm just playing to not finish last lol.

I think having those weeks where everyone predicts poorly will be funny. That's the beauty of it really.

That's good with me

If we don't have any other objections by anyone else that will be the season predictions rule. I do think there should be a reward if someone gets the season prediction perfect for a team. Let's just do +20 points like you said. 

I'd say...

-20 point for each game wrong in terms of preseason picks. So if Scar goes 12-0 it would be -60 for me predicting 9-3. I would just call it even if they get it right, not losing any points would be big in itself or give them 20 extra points maybe?

Also....

the shirt was just a quick idea. I would be in agreement on whatever you all decided. That way it should relieve some tension for cute picks. Pick cute and somebody else will get the last laugh.

I will admit, I have no idea what the score will be this week and probably most other weeks. Thats why there is no reason for me to change my scores really.

I am fine with it.

I am fine with that point system. I read through it rather fast, but I am cool as long as you are the one tallying points for it. I thought about changing my score prediction, but I think I will be ok.

Sounds good bro...

no complaints from me. I am in full agreement with what you 3 agree on. Just with a high scoring team like Clemson (you would think) it could screw things up in a hurry, especially on an off week when they don't score much. For that matter a week where they score 65 as well.

I am just glad it sounds like fun, I am in full agreement with your scoring system if thats what everyone likes.

There was nothing wrong with your scoring scheme bro

When you posted something that involved a game with picks and points my mind started thinking about the possibilities of how much more we could make it than something simple. I pretty much came up with the scoring scheme I did on the fly while posted. It could very well be flawed. There is no huge equation to it. It's actually pretty simple. I just thought it was a way for everyone to put more thought into there score predictions every week. I wish I would have thought of something like this before and put more thought into it. That's why I'm asking for everyone's opinions. If there needs to be a change made I am all for it. Please let me know before I post the official rules tomorrow.

After I made the first post about the points, I texted Brent and Ryan and asked them to read it and tell me what they thought. Ryan instead posted here and gave his approval. Brent has to close tonight and wasn't able to post but said that he liked it as long as I was the one that kept up with it because he wouldn't have time to.

I then thought about the fact that everyone made their predictions before they realized the rules to the game and what the penalties would be. I thought it was only fair to allow everyone to go back and make changes if they wanted to. No one asked me to do it and I have no idea if anyone will change their predictions. I just wanted to give the option to be fair. No shame in changing your predictions if you were not completely serious the first time and now you actually have to think about it because it involves a game where you are trying to be as accurate as you can to gain points. We're all competitive and I think it will be fun.

The "being cute" part had nothing to do with everyone's original predictions and everything to do with what I had in store for my prediction for Clem in week 2. I was going to have SC State scoring 30+ on Clem just because I could lol. I will rethink that now that I will be held accountable for that with the scoring scheme we have. It has nothing to do with your or Brent's predictions or if anyone thought they were ridiculous.

It's not a conspiracy bro. It's just something that I want to do and Ryan and Brent jumped on board. The work will be on me and all everyone else has to do is make their picks. Like I said, I'm pretty excited about it. Nothing else to it but that.

Again, I am BEGGING all of you to give me any changes that need to be made to the scoring scheme. It could very well not be perfect and I will change it accordingly with everyone's approval. The thing is you have to make it quick because the season starts tomorrow and we may just have to go with what we have and point out the flaws during the season and make the changes during the next off-season. If you want changes voice them quickly.

I do want to stick by my vote as it being called "The Vance Bowl" lol.

So I was planning to...

stick by my picks also. But I guess some are not now? Supposedly mine and Brents preseason picks were rediculous (I would have thought you would have been delighted), I'm not changing mine. I just have no idea what the score will be each week. I wanted to make this simple, one point for a correct pick, -1 one for a wrong pick. Someone would get a point each week getting the closest to the correct score, that should keep everyone from being cute, or so I thought. So you would give away a point to be cute each week? Quite frankly though, I am willing to stand by my predictions and it sounds like someone is back peddaling on theirs.

Deveope whatever math you all want and I will go with that as long as everyone agrees. I think if someone wants to come forward now and say "I was being cute before, these are my real preseason picks" it would be acceptable as far as I'm concerned. I am going with what I have in place already.

Solutions for the season prediction points and the failure to submit penalty

I was thinking 200 points for each team that you predict the season record perfect for. 100 points if you are one game off for a team. 50 points if you are 2 games off. 0 points if you are 3 games off. Minus 50 if you are 4 games off. Minus 100 if you are 5 or more games off. If this is too many points or not enough give suggestions and we can change it.

I think the penalty for missing your predictions for a week should be minus 60 points. Again, if this is too many points or not enough let me know.

After everyone agrees to something and we hash it out I will make a final official rules post and post the link to it in the top left of the blog.

Please make sure to post any changes to your week one and season predictions before kick off tomorrow. I'm pretty excited about this lol. Should be fun.

We also need to find a name for this game. My vote is "The Vance Bowl" lol.

Brent agrees with my way as well

As long as he doesn't have to keep up with it lol. 

I think this way, like Ryan said, we can cut out some of the "cute" picks. I mean, it would be real cute for me to pick Clem to beat SC State 3 to 0. But why would I get points for making a retarded prediction like that? I shouldn't, and instead I should be penalized. This way of way of scoring will require less cuteness and more skill and honesty. All of us are going to be wrong with predictions and if one of us is better than the rest they should be not be penalized. 

So if Vance doesn't have a major objection I'm going to incorporate a way to add in points for the season predictions. Also if a player fails to submit their predictions for the week there needs to be a penalty. I will figure that out too. 

I also think it would only be fair to give everyone a chance to change their week one predictions as well as their season predictions since no one was aware of these rules when they made the predictions. I'm not changing mine for what it's worth.

I will post about the other scoring I talked about above later tonight. If no one has an objection we will go with it. 

Agreed with Blake.

I like Blake's idea. It will keep all of us from posting moronic scores. I'm in for that idea Blake. 

We could do a bonus

If you get the season record right I guess. I think that the way I chose to score it will keep people more honest about their score predictions. I mean if we are just going by the total season record then what's the point in the score predictions at all. 

I know it's a more confusing way to score it but I am certainly capable of doing it every week. 

That's very confusing...

The score prediction would be pure luck for me. Where does the pre season predictions come into play? My vote is not as much emphasis on predicting the score, but I will go with what everyone agrees on.

Here is how I propose to keep score

• 20 points awarded if you make the right prediction
• 20 points subtracted if you make the wrong prediction
• 10 points awarded if you make the correct score prediction for a team
• Subtract 1 point for every point you're off of the actual score for each team

Let's use Brent's predictions for this week for example. Let's say that the actual scores for the games end up being:

Clem 45 - UGA 35
Scar 31 - UNC 17

Brent's predictions were:

Clem 37 - UGA 31
Scar 20 - UNC 17

Brent would get 20 points for each game he guessed correctly. In this case he get's 40 points.

He was off by 7 points for Clem's score and off by 4 points for UGA's score. That's 40 - 11 = 29.

So after the Clem and UGA prediction Brent has 29 points. On to the Scar and UNC prediction.

He was off by 11 points for Scar's score and guessed UNC's score correctly which is plus 10 points. That's 29 - 11 = 18. Then 18 + 10 = 28. Brent's score for this week would be 28.

Sure it's a little more confusing method but it will keep us honest as far as what we really think about our score predictions. I would be more than happy to keep score every week and let everyone know their point totals and how I came up with them if their are any questions.

Let me know what you think.

Too late for Brent bro

He already has to wear a Gamecock shirt for the Scar/Clem game. A little bet he lost to me over a Tiger Woods match lol.

I'm in for it though. You just keep score.

Oh right then...

I say lets make this interesting. One point for each win you get right each week (weekly predictions) one point for the person with the closest score for each of the two games. Also subtract a point for each one you predict wrong, so if Scar losses this week and Clemson wins, I get no points for the week and if both win I get 2 points. Subtract a point for each win/loss you are off at the end of the year (regular season) also. I think I predicted scar goes 9-3, so if they go 12-0 like Ryan predicted that would be -3 for me. At the end of the season the loser has to wear a shirt that the other three vote on and take a picture and post it here. Thoughts?

Predictions

South Carolina 20
North Carolina 17

I predict a low score just because it is always a sloppy game by South Carolina to open the season.

Clemson 37
Georgia 31

Mark Richt said he is going to run the clock to keep Clemson off the field so this means it may not reach the 40's in points.


By the way, losing to South Carolina doesn't hurt nearly as much when your team is winning 10 or 11 games. Winning the ACC and beating LSU last year made it go away. And I HATE that corny 4 finger thing. Every toothless redneck I see is doing that shit with their ratty Kmart Carolina shirts.

Score predictions

Scar 31

Nc 16

ThUga 41

Clem 36

Yeah...

I'm sure none of us will be right, (not kidding).

UGA 43

Clemson 48

NC   13

SCAR 14

Cool story bro

Like I said though, everyone needs to post their score predictions. It's going to be funny to see how wrong we all are lol.

Oh...

You must have missed the part where he actually has won a championship. That's really all that's missing right now bro. Right or wrong? Just saying, I would re-emphasize it this year. Its just time, Spurrier eventually made it a priority again. He talks about it allot and has said he wants a good rivalry that everyone wants to see. It's a process, but he did lose to FSU allot at florida. He knew what was important. 

Let me get this strait

Initially you said:

" If I am Dabo I have the four players from scar with four fingers up posted everywhere. I mention Clowneys comments every day. He will never lose to Clemson and that they are scared. I think in the end he does and it works."

But now you're pretty much saying that the rivalry doesn't matter. Make up your mind bro lol. Why would you want Dabo to put that much emphasis on the last game of the season if it really doesn't matter? Scar beating Clem the past 4 years is not a sore spot for me, trust me bro lol. It's obvious that it's a sore spot for you. Any Clem fan that pretends that they don't care that Scar has beaten them in the past four match-ups is in denial. I think everyone that reads this blog can attest to that.

Anyway, where is everyone's score predictions? I know who you think will win this week but what's the scores??? I've given mine already.

I guess thats...

one way to look at it. But if that one loss is in the SEC Championship you won't go. Heck you can beat UGA and not even play for the SEC title, just depends on how it stacks up. But if you think you will go before an undefeated Notre Dame, Michigan, Southern Cal, Texas etc... Thats on you. I don't think you would, but maybe. If there are a whole bunch of one loss teams I can see the case for you getting the nod though.

I read your post, but Maryland was terrible last year. We had a bad night the last time we played them there, but we had a good time the next time we played them, simple as that. Everyone has a WTF game every year, even Bama etc... The better teams still find a way to win, which is what we did. That is really the big difference now, most of the time we find a way to win them now. In the past we always lost.

Essentially Dabo has done the same thing Spurrier did. The difference is that we were actually winning the rivalry and he wants to win championships. Same exact scenerio, take down all the crap, de-empahasize the rivalry and go for whats important. I don't care what anyone says, beating Auburn and LSU in a bowl was more important that winning the rivalry for you as well. Those are the games you should have won. Beating those teams convince players they can compete with anyone. I know many will say well Auburn was bad, but we finished a 3 game series with a winning record and thats never happened before. We came real close to winning all 3 games in fact.

This is not a flame bro, but I will say to you that it would have been much better for you to beat LSU and Auburn the past two years than Clemson, well better that you beat Auburn 3 years ago as well. Heck, I don't remember what it felt like for Whitehurst to hang 4 on Scar, because as you can see now it did not really mean much. I remember what it was like to lose to GaTech in the title game and win it also though. The worst loss I can remember was not losing to Scar, it was losing in the ACC Championship. You are always one year away from getting over the rivalry hump, but not a championship.

You could actually win it all this year, my point is that Brent and I made bold predicts (beating you). So did Ryan, saying what he thought, very possible in fact. Not sure why its such a sore spot for you, I really thought you believed they were going all the way.

Maryland

Just saw where Vance was asking about them. I gave my synopsis in my prediction post. Looks like Vance didn't take the time to read it. Here is a link..

http://thesportaholicnews.blogspot.com/2013/08/my-predictions.html

I now have predictions being made for me lol

I guess I should feel lucky.

So Blake thinks that Scar will win the natty? Sounds freudian to me bro. May be that’s what you really think? I know I have never said that. Ryan can tell you that I am the most doom and gloom Scar fan there is. I have never even been been bold enough to say that we will win the SEC. What we do have is a shot at is the SEC east. If we win the SEC east we will have a shot at the SEC championship. Lot of “ifs” but if we win the SEC we WILL be playing for the natty. Recent history tells us that the SEC champ plays for the natty, don’t you agree? Not saying that we will even play for the SEC but if we do and we fuck up and win it.. WE GOING TO THE SHIP!!

Thing is, Scar can make it to the natty with one loss. Especially an early loss. All you have to do is win the SEC and you are a shoe in. I know it’s sad for you but it’s true..

Clem on the other hand has a much narrower path to follow. If ANY ACC team loses one game well… you’re  out. No chance at the natty whatsoever. Lose to UGA, FSU, Maryland or Scar and you’re out automatically.  As Metallica would say “You know it’s sad but TRUE!”.

Your coaching strategy about beating Scar is a very interesting subject. Post a bunch of “Four Bombs” all over the locker room. Have Clowney’s comments blaring over the loud speaker during Fall practice. Hell, have a gif of Clowney’s sacks on Boyd as a screen saver on the Clem player’s iPads. These tactics may just help Clem beat Scar this season. Just go ahead and look over the rest of your schedule and focus on the last game of the season first. Very interesting indeed.

Spurrier took the opposite approach when he came to Scar. He took down all the “Beat Clem” bullshit and said focus on the next game. It took a while for it to take effect but I would say after 4 in a row it’s working now..

I was looking...

at Marylands recruiting etc... Why again are people thinking that will be a loss? Sure, they did well vs Clemson, but they also scored seven on William and Mary and won 4 games. Is it just a flame or is there something I am not seeing? What is it that Walt is saying? I am not flaming or whatever, I really would like to know.

Ryan, I appreciate the fact that you actually made your prediction without sand bagging. If you think that Scar will win the National Championship then just say it. Nothing wrong with that, its possible. I bet Blake has told you secretly that he thinks they are going to win it all too.

Predictions...

Well since there isn't any shame in going full retard, I figure what the hell.

Carolina, not Dabos but the the real one, will being playing in Atlanta this December. That's right, 12-0 baby. Schedule sets up for us finally to make out run. Obviously some people feel the SEC north is strong this year but I just can't see it. Ill give scores on a week to week basis. 

Clemson, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say 8-4 with losses to UGA, FSU, Maryland, Syracuse, and of course USC( South Carolina) for the dabo cult followers. 

For now just a poem

Just in case you didn't know
You should never really go Full

My predictions come later......

I don't know...

Who don't enjoy a good doo doo cola and a gay every now and again.

Looks like we got us some old predictions going on here. First off let me say that I think Blake thinks Scar is going to win the National Championship this year. Funny to hear you write off florida in favor of mizzou and UT. Florida may have lost starters, everyone does, but they have other players. I think UNC is absolutely a trap game, unpredictable coach with a high speed offense opening day. That coach would like nothing better than to upset a top 10 team and get UNC back on the map. You on the other hand have got to look ahead to UGA. I predict you split UGA and florida, lose to Clemson plus one other game. Why? Connor Shaw is not healthy and I think your offense takes a step back.

I guess we should start back asswards and talk about the last game first. I think Danny Fords philosophy was real good in terms of the rivalry. He said you go and beat scar and then don't talk about them anymore. That's not to be nice either, it's to not give them free publicity for one. But the biggest reason is to not give your rivalry extra emotion going into the game. I know that many believe scar is miles ahead of Clemson, I don't. Evidence of that is beating teams each year scar loses to. What has been the difference is Scar wants it more and they have talent. I think this is the year the trash talk catches up and gives Clemson the extra motivation that's been missing. If I am Dabo I have the four players from scar with four fingers up posted everywhere. I mention Clowneys comments every day. He will never lose to Clemson and that they are scared. I think in the end he does and it works.

UGA? Tough to predict a win with such a crappy secondary and on opening day. But I will, I predict we split the UGA and FSU games and finish the regular season with one loss.

 

My Predictions

I previously posted that I thought Scar would be 10-1 and Clem would be 11-0 when they matched up at the end of the year in Columbia. After reading Brent's predictions I realize that it will be ok to throw a bold prediction or two in there. It would be hard to have a worse set of predictions than him lol.

I still see Scar going 11-1. Mainly because of our schedule. Our schedule sets up similarly to the way UGA's has the past 2 seasons. We only play Arky from the west this season. I also still believe that we will beat Clem yet again. If it was at Clem it may be different. Our recent success at home just doesn't allow be to pick against us in a home game (25-3 over the past 4 years). It just wouldn't be a very educated prediction for me to say that Clem would beat us at home especially after we have won the previous 4. Not saying it can't happen just saying that there is nothing that would make me think we would lose that game. The UF game is the same way, I just don't see them beating us at home. Not to mention UF only returns 4 defensive starters, they lost 5 to the NFL, 2 of which went in the first round. I would find it harder to argue against us losing to UT or Mizzou. I still think we beat both of those teams but they scare me more than the UF game.

UGA is a whole different story. UGA is ultra-talented on offense this season. One of the best offenses in the nation, if not THE best. They are going to be good. We have to go to Athens early in the season with a LB corps that literally has no experience and face the Gurshall combo. It may be a long day for the Gamecocks. UGA is due to beat us, and with us going on the road I think this is the year they will. You know UGA has this game marked on their schedule as a must win. Its crazy to think that if we did beat UGA this year they would have players leaving that never beat Scar. Those guys know that and they are gonna be hyped up.

On to Clem, I gotta throw that monkey wrench in there lol. I got Clem going 10-2 with losses to South Carolina and Maryland. Deptula talked me into the Maryland loss lol. I think I've explained enough why I think Scar beats them.

Everyone knows the QB trouble Maryland had last season. By the time they played Clem they had a LB playing at QB. They had one of the top WRs in the nation with no one to get the ball to him. They finished with a defense that ranked right outside the top 20 at the end of the season. They would have had a much better team if CJ Brown would have never got hurt. He returns this season. Clem fans should remember him from their last trip to College Park. He racked up 162 yds rushing to go with his 3 passing TDs against Clem's D. Another game for Clem to watch out for is Syracuse. That's a long road trip in a very unfamiliar environment. That game could get hairy for the Tigs.

I don't care what the FSU fans are saying about their freshman QB. He's still a freshman and Clem will win that one. I may be missing something with GT? Maybe it is Brent's way of extending the olive branch to Vance in light of their GAY WARS.

I'll break the ice on the score predictions:

Scar 28 - UNC 17 - Scar has won 13 strait season openers. Spurrier is 22-1 in season openers (only loss given by the Gamecocks while he was at Duke). I think Fedora is a good coach and the type of dink and dunk offense he runs will provide a challenge. In the end they won't be able to get it in the endzone enough and Scar will easily outscore them unless their dreadful defense has improved considerably.

Clem 41 - UGA - 37 - This will be the battle of the offenses. Both have great offensive attacks and huge questions on defense. It will come down to who can score the most and I think that team will be Clem. Gameday at Clem plus Danny Ford ROH induction along with (hopefully) ALL PURPLE JERSEYS will have the Clem crowd hyped for this one!

You will be seeing a lot of this:

And less of this: 



I'm under the same impression

that no one is getting mad. I think we all get a good laugh out of each others posts (Brent's predictions for example).

I don't mind the doodoo ice FWIW. As long as you get a dark colored drink you won't know the difference. It adds a extra twang. It's even more special now that we have a player named Doodoo..

Prediction

I will go ahead and put my season predictions out there. Clemson 10-2 and South Carolina 9-3. Clemson will lose to Florida State and Georgia Tech while South Carolina will lose to Georgia, Florida, and Clemson. Look out for North Carolina as well. Honestly though, I don't really have a win/loss prediction this year. I want to take it game by game. I know that Georgia Tech will be good and I think the ACC will be a stronger league than it has been in years. I mean they won't be NFC South material like the SEC but much improved I think. I am actually looking for North Carolina to give South Carolina a lot of trouble and have my score prediction ready.

Enough with the gay bashing or sympathizing. We all know that Hollywood is the most perverted place in the world. Everyone, including child stars, sleeps with anyone, male or female. Except for Emma Watson. She is a saint.

I know that everything said in any form of a derogatory manner

On this board is a joke. I don't take any thing to heart. Doodoo ice will live in gamecock lore for years to come. 

Disclaimer....

Recently The Sportaholic News made some comments about gays. These comments were found to be offensive by some of our viewers which was not our intention. We try to make a very gay friendly atmosphere here at The Sportaholic News. Please accept our apologies.

We all got our traditions Ryan...

Clemson wears purple, rubs a rock. Yours is ice that tastes like shit. 

Are you taking this seriously? I'm laughing because its a joke for me, just trying to make everyone laugh. I never know across the Internet if people are really mad, its not my intention if so.

Says the guy that pulls for a team that wears purple and rubs a rock

Only back breaking on a mountain(hill) that I've ever witnessed was Clowney breaking Vagi Boyd's back the last two years.  

Ryan...

If they come out with a Brokeback Mountain 2, will you watch it with Brent if he ask you to? Tell us what you thought about the first movie after watching it? 

We already have Brent's house bugged

He cusses at his TV a lot. 

As for the playoffs, it needs to go to 8 teams before it will be perfect. Four teams is a step in the right direction though. 

Predictions by Tuesday should give everyone enough time to think about it. I'll go ahead and tell you that I think Scar will beat UNC and Clem will beat UGA. Need a little more time for the score predictions. 

Brent...

I am going to have to take your word on the BBM performance. I am sure it was some awesome performances by all, all who happened to be gay cowboys, gay cowboys that evidently went to the top of the mountain to be, well gay. Then to make matters worse the mountain was called Brokeback. 

I don't really care if you play video games, I just said you fingers were probably strong. I'm sure the movie was good. Hell, maybe if I got paid millions like him maybe I would star in it. As long as nothing goes in my mouth or ass who cares really? Even if I starred in it I probably would not watch it though.

We have not really talked about the playoffs yet, brings up a good point. Did anyone notice the Rambo TV show possibly with Stallone? Lets get Ryan to bug Brent's house Blake.

Who the hell is Ambrsia?

Rich girl anyone?

What happened to ole Sparky?

Tomorrow is Saturday

We get it almost every night

Now to spend a little time on my favs

Here is his better song. I have to agree..

Settle down brent i'm going to post it

Brent says that this song developed an even greater one.

Rich got off of his pole

and he wants to recover from his Level 42 request. He said he got lost in the moment. He wanted this one posted while he bugs the next site.

Who has the power?

Vance was asking and this should answer his question.

Those are ok guys but I like Stevie for motivation

Brent asked for this one

Says he plays his dynasty while listening to this song on repeat. Whatever gets you motivated I guess?

Rich asked me to post this video

Said he was stuck up a pole and was afraid to let go long enough to post it. Said something about "Drawn into the stream of undefined illusion". Anyway, here you go Rich. Favor granted..


Level 42 - Something About You (Official Music... by fort55

Vance lit a fire under Brent lol

Vance I didn't know you wanted a part in BBM?

Really Vance?

Yeah I like to play my video games the same as you guys like to be on your computers a lot. Its my way of relaxing after work. Sometimes I get home and just want to relax and play football or shoot people. I read all the sports articles I can during the day and there are a lot of days where the topics on the blog are covered so well that I don't feel like I am adding anything by posting.

Vance.....not so fast my friend. Heath Ledger gave one of the greatest villainous performances ever and was virtually unrecognizable in The Dark Knight. I can't help you are still fuming because you didn't get the role of playing Jake Gyllenhal's boyfriend in that movie. Seriously, that was a homophobic statement.....about a damn good movie. Yes, I have seen it and Heath Ledger was an amazing actor....gay sex or no.

Ben Affleck will do well in that role. All of the fanboys are going ape shit. I don't get it. He had that rough patch between 2000 and 2004 but bounced back and makes great movies. One hell of a director as well.

I guess we all need to rollout out predictions starting Monday. I have been reading a lot lately trying to keep up with everything. I am worried about tight ends and the secondary. I also know that Georgia will be a tough out. Can't wait until next week! And yes I will be blogging next week. I will probably blog throughout the weekend.

Meaningless Games

I was reading the comments of an article the other day and saw where someone commented about Alabama losing to Texas A&M last year as a meaningless game because they won the national championship. It got me to thinking about meaningless games in college football and what constitutes that. Looking at the whole picture, I don't think there are meaningless games because there is no playoff system. There are 125 teams across several leagues and only one of those can win the national championship. The discrepancy between those teams make it that way as well. At least in the NFL, all teams are equal when it comes to rules and player acquisition. So, no there are no meaningless games. Bowl games are not meaningless. They are a way to reward teams. Discussing how many is another topic. Think about if our teams didn't get to go to a bowl last year with those great seasons. The only teams that got to do anything were the top two teams for the national championship. A championship they were voted into, subjective to the whims of those voters. Suspense is over.

That was a good video

Clowney is still coming for him lol. 

Ryan works for a private investigator. He has the job of bugging houses. 

Here is a video...

http://vimeo.com/71784837

ESPN didn't do it, he's not trashing other players, but I still like this video better. My money is on this guy's future if I were a betting man.

Can you imagine...

How strong Brent's fingers must be? I bet he could learn how to kill someone easily using just one finger.

I didn't really...

Get past Brokeback Mountain. That's what I think about when I see things like this, gay stuff.

I can't really picture Ryan climbing a telephone pole or crawling under a house. What in the world do you have him doing?

21 Reasons You Should Give Ben Affleck A Chance

Brent will like this:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/you-should-give-ben-affleck-a-shot-at-batman

Brent claims

that he doesn't have time to do anything because his and Jenelle's baby is due in a couple of weeks. Last night he was talking about the football dynasty he is playing in lol. I told him I was surprised that he had time for that and he said that the video game came before the blog. Guess you're right bro. At least the grease will help with the friction and the blisters won't flare up too bad lol.

Can we just...

Give batman up already? It's enough already, lol. 

Big ole bag...

Of rubber dicks.

I bet Brent has blisters on his fingers from playing video games.

New Clowney ESPN Promo

It's not a fake. I had to research it just to make sure it wasn't lol. Pretty funny.

Wait til you get a load of this!!!

Oh my!

Link: Who will the next Batman be????

In my defense

I've worked my freaking ass off the last week an a half. Unfortunately I don't have a job that I get to sit at a computer. Mine consist of climbing telephone poles and crawling up under houses. 

Posts from the Powells and Richeys are scarce

As expected less than a week from kickoff. Those two are more worthless than a bag full of peckers lol.

I thought you knew about the last season of EB&D?

I wasn't sure about the exact release date. Gotta make sure I've got HBO before then.

How about this?

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/21/rambo-tv-series-announced-sylvester-stallone-could-be-involved

Boy do I have....

A surprise for you, I had no idea this was happening:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/21/eastbound-down-exclusive-new-season-4-teaser-posters

The suspense from Brent's...

Meaningless Games post is intense. It must be a real good one because he is taking several days to write it. It looks as if he stopped in mid-sentence, did he get kidnapped maybe? Someone better check on him.

Clowney is tough...

to replace, but no where near as tough as Johnny Football. Your DL will probably still be very serviceable but breaking in a new QB is tough, much less a Heisman winner. Good timing for you guys on that one IMO.

Cannot see your camera post at work, I will check it out when I get home.

South Carolina hosts Texas A&M to open 2014 season

Another Thursday night opening at Willy B. Glad Johnny Football will be gone. Of course so will Clowney. Should be a good even game. Both teams will return a bunch of JR and SR starters (Carolina - 11 SRs and 9 JRs) (A&M - 9 SRs and 8 JRs).

Should be a good one to open the season.

17 Gigapixel Camera Photo

Pretty cool stuff

Holy Cow???

he is going to let us borrow Clowney???

I would suppose that is a good thing to review, not necessarily to talk about it though.

Looks like Carolina is helping Clem prepare for UGA

Spurrier said to tell Dabo he's welcome.

Article:
Clem using Carolina tutorial: "How to Spank UGA"

Thats logical...

but reality is that they needed work and now almost every one of them are injured. If they come back in time for the season it will be with little preparation. Its just not looking too good honestly. All this and the fact that they were bad last year.

The same can be said about Clem's

secondary going up against Boyd and Clem's experienced WRs. They may not be as bad as you think. What would you think if the secondary was locking down Clem's passing game?

It's really not fair to judge the positions of your team that are going up against the strongest parts of your team in preseason scrimmages. 

I don't think...

anyone would question that they are the best starting DL in football or most OL being overmatched with Clowney.

Something real quick cause I'm at work and in call but...

The reports I read from the scrimmage said that the line did a good job opening running lanes and Robinson more than held his own if,IF, he got pads on Clowney. The problem was clowney was blowin past him before he could get his hands in him. I'm not real concerned with cause JC is the best defensive lineman in college football and its not a stretch to say one of the best in probably the last 10-15 years. Getting beat by him is nothing to be ashamed of. But it's really a catch 22 because if the defense would've struggled all we would've heard is "Carolina's defense is down this year or clowney hasn't put in the work or isn't going hard". Since offense struggled its just the reverse. "Oh the o line has major questions, can't pass block, etc". And this really goes for every team in the country. Hard to get a gauge based off an inter squad scrimmage because we don't know who played. That's just my take. Ill be the first to say that it excite me that Clowney was pretty much unblockable and the flip to that is it excites me that the o-line opened some running lanes for the backs. I can promise you one thing, at this point in the preseason these guys are ready to hit someone other than their teammates and you can bet your sweet ass I am myself. 10 days, 3 hours, and 10 minutes as I type this. Game on!!!!!

My take on it?

Oh I was thrilled that the OL got abused in the scrimmage lol. No but really, it was only one scrimmage. Reports before the scrimmage on the OL have been good for the most part. May be they just had a bad day, that's the hope.

May be they are terrible, we won't know until they face someone other than our DL.

Not saying...

Their bad either, just asking for you guys take as it was noteworthy.

Dye is also injured at RB.

Like I said before bro

It's virtually the same starters we had last year on the OL. Maybe they all got worse instead of better. Or maybe, just maybe the DL got better? We won't truly know until we see them on the field in live game action. I will like to see how well Robinson does when he's trying to block someone other than Clowney. I wonder how much they double-teamed Clowney in the scrimmage and how much opposing defenses will this season? They didn't bring up that point to my knowledge. These are the questions that will be answered soon.

As far as the Clem secondary goes, if they have the great pass rush that the Clem faithful think they will have this season the secondary may not be that bad. A good DL can create bad decisions by a QB and the secondary can profit from it. Here's to hoping Vic Beasley (aka Vonn Miller) will have that special season that the Clem fans are banking on.

This was somewhat...

of a strange, 2nd scrimmage for both teams really. Generally you have your first scrimmage with allot of mistakes and then by the 2nd scrimmage things are hunky dory. It truly appears that both teams actually fell a little bit from the first to the second scrimmage. Clemson did not get great reports. I know that they went at the players hard just like the preparation for LSU. Observers say it was the most brutal August they have ever seen. We paid the price in terms of injuries as well. It will be interesting to see how this plays out now. Could be a catastrophe or it could be the toughness that we need to just get over the top. I cannot see right now though how the secondary will be serviceable.

Alright....

lets get back to some football talk. Clemson's secondary continues to show signs of being the worst in college football. I think that Laken could probably complete a pass on them if it stays like this.

I will copy and paste this from GC Central and let you guys give us your take on it (please remember these are not my words):

The defensive line didn't miss a beat without Sutton. While the 6-foot-5, 265-pound senior was sidelined with a sprained foot, the defensive line had perhaps its finest outing of the fall, marauding the backfield for what had to be an astronomical number of sacks (honestly, I lost count). The Jadeveon Clowney vs. Corey Robinson matchup became one of the most lopsided affairs imaginable, and the rest of the line had its way with the offense as well. If they can be that disruptive against opposing offensive lines, they'll relieve some of the pressure on the young linebackers.

The offensive line was horrendous. I'm struggling to remember a time I've ever seen that group so overmatched. Junior tackle Corey Robinson had no answer for Clowney, and the rest of the line resembled a wet paper bag - so much so that Shaw's hand injury was attributed to one of the linemen getting pushed back into the quarterback's throwing motion.

There was more, such as the QB play. But I don't want to steal your thunder.

Good points...

I absolutely think its likely someone from Clemson would get ejected, probably due to inexperience. We also do get bad calls, everyone does. The bottom line is that the rules are changing, we cannot control that. Maybe it is a good point there will be more injuries? No idea.

Defense oriented coaches want more rules to slow down offenses. I am sure that offense oriented teams are happy with the changes for the most part. High profile coaches have been in the news lately with concern for players well being and injuries, lol. So Nick Saban himself along with other high profile coaches has said the game it too rough/fast for players. I know this is not what they envisioned because they were just really concerned with winning football games and stopping these offenses. For once, things just really did not go their way. I would not worry too much though, I'm sure it eventually will, it always does. As far as I know their rants could have been as a result of this rule change they knew was coming, which would be understandable.

My take on the new rules

A perfect example of what these new rules of going low are going to lead too, happened last night in the Texans/Dolphins game. Swearinger went low on a completed pass to Dustin Keller and absolutely destroyed his knee. When these players are forced to go low, the number of knee injuries are going to skyrocket. When a person starts playing football, they know the risk. They know there is the possibility of a sever injury or the possibility of getting the hell knocked out of them. They know when they start playing that football is a contact sport and if a person doesn't wanna get hit, don't play, it's just that simple. 

And for the people out there that say, "oh he hit him to hard or that was a dirty hit", every time someone get the hell knocked out them, I would suggest they find another sport to watch such as bowling or golf where contact isn't allowed. 

Blake,

Won't be any questionable calls on Clemson players, they would have to hit somebody for that to happen. 

As we all know

Even after review the refs make bad calls.  Your tune will change if there is a questionable call on Clem this season and it causes a player to get ejected.

I agree bro...

Also first this is what I would do:

3. If its a helmet to helmet hit eject the player from the game that does it, no excuses or questions asked.

Simple I know, but effective. I would also require that it be reviewed before ejection so there would be no question.

Weight Disadvantages

You bring up a good point with this bro. It is unfair for a lot of these little guys. It is simply not safe for a 175lb kid to be on the field with these big 270+ lb defensive linemen. Safety rules need to come into effect here. I propose one of two solutions:

1.       Don’t let a kid play college football until he has gained the necessary weight. I think you brought up 175 lbs so we will set the bar at 180 lbs to add in overhead, just to be “safe”.

2.       Let’s have the players that are under 180 lbs wear a pink belt so that players will know not to hit them so hard. May be then the defensive linemen can slow down a little bit before they hit the little guys.

Something needs to be incorporated so that a big hit like Clowney had in the bowl game never happens again. It’s really not fair when a defensive player like Clowney makes it into the backfield untouched. There needs to be a rule where the defensive player has to slow down after he gets into the backfield so that he doesn’t have a big hit. May be he has to count to “one one-thousand” before he makes the tackle. This would change the game for the better.

I mean, we shouldn’t see these super talented players like Clowney making plays in the backfield. Causing fumbles and “getting up and acting like they did something” Nobody wants to see that. Instead we want to see these big guy guys limited and timid so that we can see the less talented 175lb guys slip past them and pick up a 40 something yard run then “getting up and acting like they did something” . That’s what the people really want to see. No one likes to see people getting HIT in a game like football. If they wanted to see hitting they would watch baseball.

I don’t know why every sports channel keeps playing Clowney’s hit in the bowl game about 20 times a day. Why do the websites keep talking about it? No one wants to see that kind of hit in football. Brent asked me today “How does it feel for Carolina to have an ESPN ‘player’”. I responded with “I wish it would stop, it’s really bad publicity for Carolina”. I mean it has to be hurting recruiting. Every time you turn on the TV you see “Big Bad Clowney” whipping up on all these small players. Recruits have to be disgusted with his style of play. We’re lucky that we have the excuse that we can only take 16 players this year in recruiting. It would be hard to fill a 25 recruit class when you have this Clowney FILTH on ESPN 24/7.

You know what? May be track and field would be a better sport for us to keep up with. Think about it, it’s like football but without the defense. We could just watch guys run the 100 meters and keep our own score. Let me know what you guys think. Keep in mind that there would be a ton of tied games but at least we wouldn’t have to watch the gruesome hitting in the barbarian game called football anymore..

That Powell Boy

Dude I don’t think that anyone is ragging on Clem’s offense. If they are they are crazy and it certainly isn’t anyone that posts here. Clem’s offense is great and I have not said otherwise. Sure they haven’t played well against Carolina’s defense the past few season’s but there are only a handful of teams that have.

I think Boyd is a great QB and he caught me off guard in the 2011 season by throwing some of the best passes I have seen a college QB throw. I have even more respect for him after watching him in the bowl game against LSU. His OL played very poorly and he got destroyed many times in that game yet he got up and made play after play. Major props to that guy.

The Curious Case of Tennessee

If you are going by recruiting rankings UT has outrecruited South Carolina every year excluding last year. So I wouldn’t say that they haven’t had good players unless you think that Carolina has even worse players than them. The point is that we have still beaten them regardless of their recruiting rankings - As we have with many of the teams that we have played that have outrecruited us.

If you look at UT’s recruiting class outside of the #1 spot it really isn’t unbelievably impressive. They have a lot of players committed early just like Kentucky does.

The truth about UT will come when we see what this new HC has when he coaches the games. UT fans pumped up Dooley until his last day as their HC. They will do the same with this guy. I don’t think UT will be down forever but I also wouldn’t be quick to say that this guy will get them back to being relevant.

I Find It All Offensive

I love Clemson's offense for the most part. It makes the game exciting. Clemson has proven that you can win with it. I think that Clemson is more successful against the SEC with it because they are all but an SEC team, talent wise. Sure, Gamecock fans are going to say you're stupid. Clemson can't score on real SEC teams or look how good Chad Morris is against us. All of it is fan speak and tinted glasses. In 2011 the Tigers were essentially a bunch of TALENTED but INEXPERIENCED freshmen and sophomores on offense that overachieved. Last year was the evolution of that. Clemson didn't lose to SC because of their offense but because their secondary was depleted and just not talented enough to get off the field on third down.

I love great defenses but I don't agree with Nick Saban's philosophy completely. I am somewhere in the middle on a lot of the rule changing happening to the defensive players. I don't think Clowney's hit was illegal. I don't know where the line should be drawn. I don't think no huddle offenses should be stripped of what makes them so dynamic. I don't think defenses should be weighed down by rules that take away from their instincts and big play ability. I do know that change is coming in major waves to football. These guys have gotten so big and fast that they are basically killing each other. Am I sympathetic? Not too much, but the rest of the world will have something to say. This game will be a different product in five to ten years. Hell, it already is.

I think Gus Malzahn is a damn good offensive coordinator, but it will be several years before he can break through. I don't think they will win an SEC under him, but I could be wrong.

I will have to watch this movie:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1866251/

I know your first thought is what? Check out the name of the bad guy (who is also a pretty cool old school actor).

I agree bro...

But it's really just can he get good players? So far he is doing ok, but the verdict is still out. Dooley never could at Tennessee, probably because he was following the rules, but that's just a guess. Not the case now at Tennessee, everyone better catch them now because its gonna be rough in a couple of years if this keeps up. You just never know, I thought that was a boring hire and he's burning it up.

Brent...

Looks like Saban's plan is starting to back fire. He is concern about injuries, reality is that tired defensive guys do not hit as hard and hurry up offenses solve that. There won't be anymore defensive ends coming through in busted coverage plastering some 175lb offensive guy and acting as if they did something special. Being a guy with an offensive team I like the new rules. Nobody wants to a crappy defensive game anyways, either come with a good offense or don't come at all I say. How about you?

Well there are two reasons

that Aubz won the national title it 2010. The first and the biggest reason is because of Cam Newton. The second is because of Malzahn's offense. Malzahn could have easily been the HC instead of Chiz that year and won the NC with Cam at QB. I don't think they will get another Cam so winning another title is probably not likely. I do think they will get much better than the last two seasons. Hell, they couldn't get worse than last season. Malzahn is a upgrade from Chiz certainly. 

I agree bro...

Heisman voters will think its funny too.

I've seen both of those movies, good ones. Waited for the Evil Dead for a while, there is supposed to be a sequel to the original with Bruce Campbell coming.

Never really considered Auburn's offense, how do you all think Malzhaun will do at Auburn? Actually, I think he will do well. He has put a very good staff together.

Also a movie named Mud

Pretty damn good

Just watched the new Evil Dead

Craziness

How does anyone not love this guy?

http://cdn.sportstalksc.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/steve-spurrier3.mp3

Yea Saban is full of crap

Everyone knows it. Auburn runs the hunh offense and that the only reason he is against it. 

I always pull against Bama in the conference games. Generally I pull for all the SEC teams in the OOC games. If the SEC teams start losing a bunch of OOC games we start losing our leverage as being the best conference. I will admit that I'm gonna find it tough to pull against VT against Bama. They don't have a snowballs chance in hell of winning that game but I will still likely pull for them. 

I don't like Bama's stronghold on the college football world either but if they are going to be knocked off of the throne I would certainly hope it is another SEC team that takes over. 

I disagree with you Brent that Bama can't be beaten. See the past two seasons for reference. Especially note last year with Texas A&M. Would you have predicted bama to lose that game before the season started last year?

I don't think

a couple of little harmless digs at rival QBs will hurt Clowney's chances at the Heisman at all. He was trying to be funny and everyone thought it was funny (outside of Clem and UGA). No one is really even bringing it up now besides Clem and UGA fans. I also don't see where Clowney has talked any trash since then. It's really not a big deal, no bigger or worse than Dabo's rant. It's not worse than Sammy's comment either ( I didn't see an issue with Sammy's either, it was harmless).

Clowney and Manziel are considered as the best players in college football. One thing about all this crap going on with Johnny is that he is being compared to Clowney a lot. The comparison is pretty much making Clowney look like a choir boy. That's the image the media is painting of Clowney. I don't think anyone looks at him in a bad light because of a couple of little playful jabs at opposing rival teams. I really don't. 

What will hurt Clowney's chances is these new safety rules. With the new rules in effect "The Hit" would have likely got Clowney ejected this year. Shit is gonna hit the fan when the first major player gets ejected and a team loses a ball game because of it. You should never give a ref the ability to make a game changing decision like that during the game. After the game is over you can review it and make the decision on whether the player should be suspended from the next game but a live game decision like that is ludicrous. 

Saban

I agree Vance. Saban wants high tempo teams to slow down knowing thats the only way some programs can win and more iimportant, draw crowds. If it turns bqck to a grind it out game i t only favors about 5schools...the ones that can recruit anyone and drop the ones that aren't wanted. I want someone to knock off Alabama but it wont happen this year.

Could Clemson sneak...

In the National Championship game? Not very likely, but possible. They are not beating Bama if they do though. Ohio State would be a good guess but they won't beat them either. Enjoying what Bama is doing for college football yet? They sign the top players in the country and basically fire the ones that don't produce and add more. They are going to be the pick every year and they have won 3 of the last 4. Not sure why that excites anyone other than Bama fans or why anyone thinks they will not win this year. Especially considering the QB is returning? An off year will be when they break in a new QB. This year he will be coming back more experienced, experience winning multiple champions at every level he has played in so far.

Saban is busy trying to change the rules to favor teams that stockpile talent.

If any defensive player...

Can do it, it would be him. It would help if he kept his mouth shut off the field because it will be done by voting. Funny you show Lattimore, he would have been a model guy for that. Humble and just a good person.

Wow, it's getting very strange. Everyone assumed the kid broke the rock because he was mad at the dad. I think it's easy to see now that the Taliban is involved. His dad owns a business, bet that's going to take a hit.

Two more arrests made in the Howard's Rock case

The dad of the first kid arrested and Obama's son were also involved. Crazy stuff..

http://www.wistv.com/story/23156782/clemson-2-more-arrests-made-in-howards-rock-case?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer5a0a7&utm_medium=facebook

Pretty good Under Armour commercial featuring Latt

Good to see he's getting paid by UA.

lol

Yea bro, that's my prediction. Just like I'm sure you're predictiong Clem to win it.

But seriously, I don't think but one defensive player has ever won the Heisman. It would be a great feat if Clowney could pull it off.

Be very surprising...

If he wins, defensive players don't often win. If you win the national championship he has a great shot. Does not have to be the case but it would help a defensive players case. You are predicting Scar wins the Natty though right?

Clowney tops the ESPN Heisman watch list

Not surprising but worth noting anyway.

http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/80778/clowney-tops-first-heisman-watch

For what it's worth I disagree wholeheartedly with where they have Tajh Boyd. Barring injury I believe both Clowney and Boyd will at least get an invite if they both have the seasons that they are expected to. Here's the complete list:

http://espn.go.com/college-football/heisman/

And The Most Colorful Color Commentator Award Goes To.....

Bernie Kosar

Meanwhile in South Bend

Brian "Tranny" Kelly is getting his boys ready..

Feels great to be one of them

lol

Yeah...

He is predicting 4 teams in college football can beat Alabama, lol. 

Mandel is alright most of the time

I'm liking Andy Staples at SI more at the moment lol..

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20130813/case-for-south-carolina-alabama/

Greasy finger Brent...

Unfortunately whether you like Mandel or not it would be hard to argue with that prediction. I cannot stand Ohio State or their fans but, they are going to be a force to contend with. Why would anyone not be picking Bama to go back? Are they having a rebuilding year? lol

Ryan...

I have no reason not to agree with your assessment of Scar's DL. Sounds reasonable to me and I would not suspect there to be much of a drop off until Clowney leaves.

Brent...

In terms of Morris I think he would tell you that he is going to put the gas pedal to the floor and live or die by it. His theory is to stay wide open all the time and even letting the offense slack or slow down for one drive could be contagious. It is certainly not going to always work and I know I keep going back to it but maybe now that he is getting the type of RB he prefers it might help? I certainly believe that more of a push at the line would help as well. Hard to have a consistently long drive when you do not have the push that you need at the line and a scat back.

He is also inexperienced, I'm quite sure he is still watching film in the off season and trying to find ways to do things better.

SC d line

I'm gonna throw my 2 cents in about our d-line

DE- Clowney, no need to say anything else about him. His back up is Darius English who the coaches have had a lot of praise for. He will struggle against the run but barring injury he won't be asked to be a run stopper this year. Hopefully he will add some weight before next season. He will probably see a lot of the in the "rabbit package". Explosive first step and very good pass rusher. Defensive player of the year in Georgia his senior season in 5a ball

DT- Surrat, more than formidable. I've actually seen Tony Morrell say that he felt as though Suratt had a chance to be as good or better than Quarles. I don't think we see much drop off between him and Jerideau. Back up is Duke who is unproven. Really had a great off season in the weight room as he is actually the strongest person on the team pound for pound and that's pretty good considering he's a little over 300. Gotta translate to the field though. 

DT- Quarles, proven player that should have another great season because of the attention teams will pay towards Clowney. His back up will be Dixon jr. Whole I really don't know a lot about him cause he only played. sparingly last year, I do think he will be a decent to good defensive tackle. Good size and strong. 

DE- Sutton, this is the guy I look to have a high year. He actually played better than D Taylor last year in my opinion from a pure pass rush perspective. I don't think there will be any drop off between the two as I personally think sutton as more upside than Taylor. His back will be the other Dixon. He is a complete unknown but his high school film is impressive  (don't believe me? Go watch any of clowneys high school highlight tape). He is the guy on the other side of the field making a ton of plays. He has good size at 6'3 260 range and should be able to hold his own against the run when called upon. 

Are any of the back ups super stars, no, of course not. But the difference with the current Carolina team vs Carolina teams of the past is that these guys haven't had to play immediately because of the great depth that Carolina had been able to build up. They haven't been required to have to step up early in their careers. That's no to say that any of these guys aren't good but when you have all conference type players and upperclassman playing ahead of you, you're obviously not gonna see the field and therefore be an unknown. This is the same with our linebacking corp. they don't have much experience but its not because they suck and couldn't get on the field, the guys ahead of them were seniors and pretty damn good ball players. I guess my point is this isn't ya daddy's Carolina teams. Freshman aren't required to come Into the program and expected to produce and the reason for that is good, solid, quality depth. It doesn't mean they're not talented, it just means there wasn't much difference with the guys ahead of them except for experience and if your starters are talented and experienced, the back ups aren't gonna play even I they're just as talented.
 

Mandel's Mailbag

I know you guys don't put much stock into Stewart Mandel, but I read his mailbag every week, if for nothing else than to see what other football fans have on their mind.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20130814/ohio-state-notre-dame-alabama-mailbag/?sct=hp_t1t_a3&eref=sihp

My Posts Don't Count

No controversy at quarterback. In this situation it will probably benefit SC. Connor Shaw is always banged up so maybe it is a good thing having Dylan Thompson able to go right in there. With that being said, I don't see that Shaw is ahead of Thompson in too many things....maybe running. Spurrier is just going to yank them as he sees fit like he has always done.

Why all of this bickering over the lines? I don't see the defensive line being a weakness for either team. I haven't dug into depth too much, but having solid line depth is a lot about development and healthy bodies right? I will give Carolina the edge on the offensive line because of their sheer size. I do not think Clemson's offensive line will be bad at all and are probably one of the best in the conference.

Vance, you bring up a good point about comparing these two teams. It cant really be done, except maybe on a pure talent level. I think that as long as Clemson runs a no huddle offense their defense will have to concede yards and points, just from a play numbers standpoint. I want to see plays add up like Morris does so well, but I also want them to have those long drives when they need it as well. I remember last year when Clemson's beleaguered defense made a great turnover against BC last year after they had been driving and Morris trying some trickery to give the ball right back to them. I felt the confidence factor was lost because they had to run right back out there when Clemson turned it right back over. Sometimes I think Morris likes to gun it a little too heavily. Sometimes...the big play isn't needed. That is a bit of a ramble but that series of events stuck with me for that entire game.