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Chick-fil-A Bowl: Florida St. Seminoles vs. South Carolina Gamecocks

FSU Record: 9-4

The Seminoles lost games to Oklahoma, NC State, North Carolina, and to VA Tech in the ACC Championship Game. Their best wins were convincing victories over good-but-not-great Miami, Maryland, and Florida squads. Common opponents between FSU and USC are Clemson and Florida. The Noles beat Clemson 16-13 off a 50+ yard FG as time expired and blew out Florida 31-7.

FSU Key National Rankings

Rushing Offense: 42nd

Passing Offense: 61st

Total Offense: 55th

I know Christian Ponder is good, but these offensive numbers shouldn’t strike fear in our hearts.

Rushing Defense: 25th

Passing Defense: 67th

Total Defense: 41st

Scoring Defense: 25th

Sacks: 2nd

This number worries me a bit. The Auburn game reminded me of why I used to worry about Stephen Garcia when he’s facing a good rush. Our line will need to play better than it did against Auburn.

USC-FSU Series Record: 3-15

The Gamecocks and Seminoles used to square off fairly regularly from the late 1960s to early 1990s. The Noles, as the series record indicates, dominated the series, particularly in the 80s, when FSU rose to become a national powerhouse. The Gamecocks notched a notable victory over FSU in 1984 en route to a 10-2 season.

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Per ESPN, “Marvin Bass, a former head football coach at South Carolina who posted three wins against in-state rival Clemson in five seasons, has died. He was 91.”  Coach Bass led the Gamecocks from 1961-1965.  He passed away on Friday, December 3rd. 

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In only his third game this season after undergoing hip surgery, former South Carolina Gamecocks WR Sidney Rice, of the Minnesota Vikings, caught five passes for 105 yards and two touchdowns yesterday versus the Buffalo Bills.  Both touchdown passes were thrown by Tarvaris Jackson, who replaced Brett Favre after Favre was knocked out of the game with a shoulder injury.  Rice, who made the Pro Bowl last year, now has eight receptions for 181 yards and two touchdowns since returning to action.   

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It’s finals week so The Daily Feed is severely abbreviated. I think we’ve covered the eye torture that was the SEC Championship game enough in-house, but there were a couple links that I wanted to share with the Daily Feeders out there.

FOOTBALL

Gamecocks fans: Vote for Garrett Chisolm for the Rudy Award | Spur of the Moment
If you do one nice thing today, let it be voting for Garrett.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Gamecocks Hold Off Clemson for 64-60 Victory | Gamecocks Online
I would just like to point out that 2010 has been a very good year for the Gamecocks in our rivalry with Clemson. In this calendar year we have beaten Clemson in Baseball, Football, Men’s Basketball, Women’s Basketball, Men’s Soccer, Women’s Soccer, and Swimming & Diving. To my knowledge the only sport we have lost to them in is Volleyball. I’ll take it.

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FTC disclosure: The 2010 GABA College Football Pick ‘Em Pool is sponsored by Gameday Depot. Garnet and Black Attack is an affiliate.

Well, Alex and The Feathered Warrior tied for first this week in the GABA College Football Pick ‘Em Pool. We’ll be taking steps to prevent ties in the future, but Gameday Depot has agreed this week to send both guys a 12″ Gamecocks car magnet. Be on the lookout for a confirmation email with instructions on how to claim your prize.

As we’ve been saying for the past several weeks, we’ll be kicking off a GABA College Football Bowl Pick ‘Em contest soon. The prize for that again is a Carolina Gamecocks Automatic Pullover Fleece Hoodie and a $30 gift certificate.

Full Week 14 standings of the GABA College Football Pick ‘Em Pool are below the jump.

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Gamecocks To Face Seminoles In Chick-Fil-A Bowl

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South Carolina just put the finishing touches on a hard-fought, 64-60 victory over the Clemson Tigers in Colonial Life Arena. The victory snapped Clemson’s six-game winning streak in the series. Bruce Ellington led Carolina with 14 points, including a key trey to put Carolina up by six in the final minute. Sam Muldrow, Brian Richardson, and Malik Cooke also scored in double figures in an evenly distributed offensive effort.

Carolina did some good and bad things in this game. First, the bad:

• When you’re a team that emphasizes the press and offensive rebounding as much as us, you hate to see a -3 deficit in FGA. The culprit appears to be, like last year, poor rebounding. Clemson dominated us on the boards and had way too many put-backs. That’s what kept them in a game where they otherwise looked outclassed. It goes to show you, though, how important rebounding is.
• We continue to have trouble from the line. We’ve had some games where we’ve shot FTs OK, but in most we’re looking like we have the past few years, which is mediocre to bad. Some of the misses occurred late in the game, which contributed to what could have been a relatively comfortable win being a pretty close one.

Now, the good:

• This freshman class has some shooters! Ellington and Richardson both knocked down some nice shots. If Ramon Galloway could get his touch back, we could end up being one of the SEC’s better three-point shooting teams.
• Other than on the boards, we’re playing defense well. Muldrow continues to be a presence as a shot blocker, and we’re forcing teams to take bad shots. Clemson shot less than 40%. I’ll take that kind of performance from our defense any day of the week.

All in all, this was a good performance. Not great, but good and promising. I’m beginning to think that this team may be capable of putting together a halfway decent season. There’s probably too much youth and too little inside presence to expect an NCAA berth, but I’m beginning to see the NIT as a possibility.

And oh yeah: Clemson, you got owned in 2010.

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I’m not going to individually bash amateur players on a forum such as this one, but the entire secondary consistently displays horrific cover skills, and our guys have been more out of place on many pass plays than a vegetarian at a meat eater’s convention.  The Gamecocks are fortunate to have a fine defensive front or I believe we’d have more losses to show for the unbelievable terror that our secondary is to the football team.  Lorenzo Ward’s job should be on the line for what was exhibited all year long in the defensive backfield.  There’s no excuse for the piss poor coverage we’re getting out of what are supposed to be talented athletes.  I sit in the stands or in front of a television screen with my mouth agape at the spacing wide receivers are able to achieve against our secondary.  It’s inexcusable and unacceptable.  When you compare this year’s secondary to last, you really see only one difference – no Darian Stewart.  Was he the catalyst, the brains, that got our boys into the position they needed to be in?  Was he the answer man for the youthful questions that Gilmore, Holloman, and Whitlock surely had?  Something’s up.  Perhaps I’m wrong to assume Stewart is the difference, but if not, what the hell happened? 

Some may disagree with this thought pattern, as I’ve had people look at me crazily when I say what I’m about to say, but it’s a philosophy I believe in and I contend that the most intense competitors do also.  When you’re getting defeated the way we were yesterday, you don’t kick field goals down 49-14.  You try to score touchdowns.  You go for it on fourth down in all but the most ridiculous circumstances, and you might go for it then, too.  You don’t play games to make the score look better.  You play to win.  And, if you’re getting beat up and down the field, you don’t quit.  You don’t stop a relentless effort for victory until the clock stops, no matter how futile.  Sure, in all likelihood we were going to experience defeat last night, but by God you do not concede that defeat until it is forced upon you.  You throw, throw, throw.  If you score a touchdown, boot an onside kick.  Do it again.  Then do it again.  Do it til they stop you.  Do it til the clock hits zeros.  It’s Jimmy V week on ESPN, and Steve Spurrier should have paid attention to the central message:  “Don’t give up.  Don’t ever give up.”  Kicking field goals and playing second teamers is for quitters.  Utilizing my philosophy last night may have resulted in a 63-14 loss, or worse, but, damnit, I’d have woke up this morning knowing I didn’t stop trying until it was time to leave the field.