CAROLINA FOOTBALL NEWS – 10/21/08

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It’s an open date in Columbia this week, so not a lot of news trickling out of the Palmetto State.  But what news there is is pretty funny.

By now you’ve probably seen the hit that umpire (and former Kentucky linebacker) Wilbur Hackett Jr. put on Stephen Garcia during Saturday night’s LSU game.



Fans, sportstalk hosts and tv analysts have suggested the hit was intentional.  Steve Spurrier believes Hackett was trying to get out of the way.  Les Miles believes he was just trying to protect himself, although he did jokingly offer some tackling advice:

“We told him, ‘Listen, you’ve got to use your flipper.  You’ve got to use your forearm.  But then you have to wrap up.’  We were disappointed in his effort, to be honest with you.  We felt like he could knock them down a little bit.”

Carolina fans aren’t laughing about the play, but here at MrSEC, we’re gonna give Hackett the benefit of the doubt.  According to the SEC he was in the proper position on the play, and when someone is running at you (and you’re without padding) you’re probably going to throw your arm up in self-defense, too.

In other words, we don’t buy this conspiracy theory.  And neither does Joe Person of The State who reports that the SEC will take no action against Hackett.



All the umpire talk in the world can’t mask the really bad news in Columbia: Carolina has NO running game whatsoever.